Cygnet Weekly Update

All,

It was a lovely if breezy day for Twickenham Regatta, few more picturesque places to race and spectate. Well done to Cris, Vasil, Niall and Bjarne for beating a much bigger Twickenham crew in their heat, after racing side by side for the first two thirds of the course pulled clear in the home stretch to win by a couple of length showing that superior technique and fitness beats brawn. They put in a very creditable row in the semi but eventually losing out to a strong AK crew who went on the win the final. It was Bjarne and Niall's first regatta and just shows how much they have developed as a result of the time spent on the water in the past months.

Cris, Robin and I all had a crack in our singles but came up against stronger opposition on the day. Robin had the most adventurous race, with a collision 10 strokes or so into the race after Robin had got a flying start and taken back the stagger from his Upper Thames oppo. The race has to be restarted the umpire very generously not penalising the Upper Thames rower for taking Robin out. No clash on the re-run but no win either for Robin. Novice 1x is soooo tough when you come against big senior rowers turning their hand to sculling.

Next up is Barnes and Mortlake "International" Regatta on the 10th June, the last of our local Tideway regattas. We've entered two Novice 4+ crews - provisionally Cris, Vasil, Niall, Bjarne and Robin, Ian S, Scott and Sam. If anyone wants to double up in another event or anyone else wants to race in another category please let me know so I can get the entries in this week. The more water time these two lineups get between now and race day the better. Both crews are clearly competitive and there is a great opportunity to de-novice one of them on the 10th.

The Learn to Row course ended on Sunday with their final outing followed by a BBQ organised by Cris. They have been a really enthusiastic and positive group who've got plenty of water time to get to grips with the basics. We've asked them all to join the club as full members and it would be great to see them join to become our new novice squad and continue their development. There is no reason why they can't aim at a regatta later in the summer to cut their racing teeth. We plan to continue the outings for this group on Thursday evenings and Saturdays, but we do ask that you sign up as members and complete the membership form as the next step. I will add you names to the month by month availability pages along with the rest of the squad for you to fill in your availability for the Thursday and Saturday sessions. This is a simple but important piece of admin to be done weekly so we can plan outings and put crews together so everyone gets out on the water. We are looking forward to having you as part of the club and seeing you race in Cygnet colours.

So, this week....

Tuesday 7pm Weights session (unsupervised)

Wednesday Outings for Barnes and Mortlake crews. Can you liaise amongst yourselves about availability. I am happy to cox one on the crews, let me know if you need me.

Thursday 7pm Squad Ergo 750m + 500m at 2k pace, 5 min rest

Thursday 7pm Ex LTR Outing - please complete your availability here by Wednesday 6 pm.

Saturday Main squad meet at 7:05, OTW by 7:30

Focus on preparation for Barnes and Mortlake Regatta so please make sure your availability is up to date and race crews maximise their water time!!!!

Novice squad, meet at 9:00, OTW at 9:30

Sunday Main squad meet at 7:05, OTW by 7:30

Sculling ladder and race preparation.

That's all for now, see you at the club soon,

Jez