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Cygnet Rowing Club
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  • Len Hoskins

    Author: Neil Pickford |

    31st August 2024

    Len Hoskins 1931 – 2024

    It is with sadness that we report the death of Len Hoskins on the 28th July.

    Born on 18th November 1931, Len was a post office engineer when he joined Cygnet RC on 13th September 1953, the same day as Peter Roche. Both Len and Peter had previous rowing experience and they were part of a significant influx of new members. Indeed, the club would enter four crews for that year’s HoRR. 

    In retrospect, 1953 would prove to be a turning point in Cygnet’s post-war fortunes on the water and Len Hoskins would be an important part of that story. Len rowed at seven in a Junior/Junior Senior Vlll that made its debut in 1954 winning at Richmond & Twickenham, Horseferry, Willesden and Kingston regattas. By all accounts, they were a very fast crew, putting in times comparable to some Thames Cup crews that had competed at Henley Regatta a few weeks previously, a fact that did not go unnoticed by the Daily Telegraph’s rowing correspondent. Hoskins was to enjoy one more Vllls win at Maidenhead in 1955. Thereafter, his name disappears from the regatta roll call. Nonetheless, he was one of a number of highly proficient oarsmen who put Cygnet back on the map in the post-war era.

    An amusing tale is told of the crew’s win at Richmond and Twickenham in 1954. As winners, the club took possession of the Twickenham Cup, a magnificent piece of silverware housed in a wooden crate of some dimensions. During the course of the evening’s celebrations, John Bull, the coach of the successful crew, thought it prudent to remove the cup to a member’s house overnight for safekeeping. Another members’ ancient Riley was called into service and three of them staggered up several flights of stairs to a flat in Fulham with the crate, blissfully unaware that the pot was still doing the rounds at closing time in a pub at Richmond.

    It was at Cygnet that Len also met his wife-to-be, Eve Bailey, who was then a member of St Georges Ladies RC. They recalled very happy memories of their time rowing to their children, who remember accompanying their parents to Henley regatta. Eve passed away in 2021


    Len's family have requested that, rather than flowers, donations should be made to Cygnet Rowing Club in his memory. Donations can be made online here or please contact the Treasurer for details of donations by cheque or Bank Transfer.

    LenHoskins1

    Len: top row, third from left

    LenHoskins2

    Len: front row, far right

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  • Ann Southey

    Author: Neil Pickford |

    24th June 2024

    We are very sad to report that Ann Southey died peacefully on 19th June after a short battle with cancer. 

    A larger than life character who had a distinctive turn of phrase, Ann Southey was a trailblazer in more ways than one. Professionally, she was one of the first female metallurgists, working for Wilkinson Sword, in a predominantly men’s world. During her leisure hours, she poured heart and soul into rowing, preserving the name of her beloved St George’s Ladies Rowing Club, coaching and officiating and playing a key role in the foundation of Henley Women’s Regatta, the success of which speaks to her unwavering dedication. She will be greatly missed by all those who knew her.

    From the British Rowing website:
    Ann was a stalwart of St George’s Ladies RC, which later became part of Twickenham RC, and then – for a great many years – of Civil Service Ladies RC (now Barnes Bridge Ladies RC), as well as of many major competitions.

    As a rower, a career highlight was winning the Women’s Coxed Fours with St George’s Ladies RC at the inaugural National Championships in 1972. Her crew, which also contained Beryl Mitchell (later Beryl Crockford) and was coxed by future British Rowing Chairman Di Ellis, went on to be selected to represent England at the Home Countries International Regatta, which they also won.

    In 1988, she was one of the group who founded Henley Women’s Regatta, and was the committee member responsible for compiling the Regatta programme for 15 years until 2002. She will be deeply missed this weekend in the Chairman’s Enclosure where in recent times her many friends in rowing have enjoyed her friendship, lively conversation and insight.

    Ann was a very deserving recipient of the Amateur Rowing Association Medal of Honour in 2008. This recognised her enormous record of volunteer work as a member of the ARA Council as a divisional representative, member of the Women’s Rowing Commission, member of the Competition Committee, organiser of the Women’s Head of the River Race, co-founder and long term member of the Henley Women’s Regatta Committee, member of the Pairs’ Head Committee and National Championships Committee, coach and umpire.


    Ann's funeral will be at 11.00 on Tuesday 30th July 2024, at West Berkshire crematorium. For anyone not able to attend in person, there will be an on-line link which will be live at 10:00 UTC (please contact us for login details).

    All are encouraged to attend a celebration of Ann's life after the service, to reminisce in a way that Ann would have enjoyed. This will be at John and Ann's house, in Whitchurch on Thames. Please let John know if you are able to attend, so he can plan catering (please contact us for more details and John's email address). Rowing blazers or similar are encouraged, both for the service and the celebration.

    No flowers please, but donations to Cancer Research in Ann's memory would be much appreciated. This link allows you to include Ann's name.

    Ann Southey

    Ann (right) with friends Jackie Darling and Penny Haslam-Palfrey in 2010

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  • Phil Brown

    Author: Neil Pickford |

    10th September 2023

    Philip Brown

    1946 – 2023

    Not everybody who rows at Cygnet seeks copious silverware at high profile regattas; some are quite happy to beaver away quietly in the background, contributing to the greater good. One such member was Philip (‘Phil’) Brown, a club vice president, who passed away quite unexpectedly in his sleep on Monday, 30th August. He was 77.

    Phil joined Cygnet in the mid-1970s. He had rowed at his Cambridge college and was keen to continue wielding a blade on a recreational basis. Cygnet amply fulfilled this aspiration. The club boasted a large pool of casual oarsmen in the 1970s and 80s, ably organised by Chris Gates who welcomed Phil as a co-convenor of this sometimes disparate squad. From there, it was but a short step to assisting (and ultimately organising) the London Business Houses Head, a head race for up to thirty likeminded business houses rowing clubs.

    Phil was one of life’s boffins. Fresh out of university, he quickly found his niche in the Ministry of Defence. Richard Kemball-Cook, a contemporary rower and MoD employee recalls: “he (Phil) was more front line than me: in the late 1970s I remember him going on about these little toy planes that were to be the future of warfare. How right he was!

    Shaping the future of warfare may have been his day job, but attending to the minutiae of club business consumed much of his leisure hours. He rowed in various gentlemen’s Vllls (see below at bow in a Business Houses Head race), sat on various committees, served as club secretary and bungalow secretary, often appeared at regattas as a supporter (with his faithful caravan in tow) and cajoled family members into producing endless felt pennants for Tideway events. Chris Gates had trained Phil well and they would both become staunch supporters of St Neots regatta, always a firm Cygnet favourite.

    A great believer in the ethos of civil service rowing, Phil and his long-term companion Rubina Curtis, president of BBLRC, regularly attended annual conferences of the Civil Service Sports Council. Many a time, unsuspecting CSSC officials were caught off guard by searching questions from the floor as Phil and Rubina grilled them on policy towards rowing, rarely missing an opportunity to remind them of the proud history of the Civil Service Rowing Association.

    Earlier this year, he accepted an invitation to attend a regional AGM of the CSSC. As he reported back, it was clearly a disappointing experience: “Most of the attendees could be described as ‘mature’ and few looked ‘athletic’. It was a meeting of friends who made no attempt to welcome me, or even talk to me”. Never one to mince his words, he concluded “if this is typical of CSSC operations around the country, the interest in team sports is minimal”.

    Still, lest anybody thought Phil was a blinkered bureaucrat, he was a great steam train enthusiast, regularly volunteering with one of the local heritage lines. Gadgets fascinated Phil and he often arrived at regattas with the latest cameras, not to mention smart cars. An IT whizz, Phil kept everything on his computer and had built up a large digital library of civil service crews, a valuable supplement to both club’s archives.

    For many of us, our last encounter with Phil will have been at Old Blades on the Friday of Henley Royal Regatta, when he and Rubina could be seen ‘working the room (or perhaps the garden on this occasion)’. A steadfast companion of Rubina’s, he never failed to enquire about members’ health and wellbeing and always had the club’s best interests at heart.

    Phil’s funeral will be held on19th October at 12.30pm at St Peter's Church, Church Lane, Wrestlingworth, Sandy SG19 2EU, a few miles east of his beloved Biggleswade on the B1042. 

    Paul Rawkins, September 2023

    Phil_Brown


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  • Ken O'Brien

    Author: Neil Pickford |

    17th August 2023

    Kenneth O’Brien 

    1947 – 2023

    It is with great sadness that we record the death of Ken O’Brien on Thursday, 3 August, at the age of 76, after a lengthy hospital confinement.

    A loquacious individual, which earned him the nickname Kenny O’Burble, Ken was a member of Cygnet for a relatively short space of time (1981–84), yet no one could deny that he left his mark.

    Ken initially joined the club as a social member and swiftly set about running the 300 Club (with Phil Beckett, an unlikely combination) and organising social fixtures from afternoon teas to stag nights at the White Hart. A people person at heart, he had a knack of lubricating the wheels of social intercourse, often keeping us late into the night at the club bar or the Sun Inn, one of our favourite haunts at the time.

    Always up for a party, Dave Jillings recalls “Kenny throwing petrol on the bonfire at a CRC/CSLRC Guy Fawkes night with predictable consequences. When he arrived at A&E they said he was the first casualty of many they were expecting that evening”. Singed eyebrows notwithstanding, it was “his irrepressible optimism and bounciness that made him so likeable, and I hope that is the main thing he will be remembered for”.

    In 1982 Ken surprised everybody by announcing that he had decided to join the ranks of the active rowing squad. Not the most obvious physical build for the sport, he nevertheless defied the naysayers, thundering around the Chiswick gym on Tuesdays, weightlifting on Wednesdays and jogging round the five-mile run on Thursdays. Few could doubt his sheer determination; stones of weight were shed, and he made his debut competitive appearance in the 1983 Head of the River Race, rowing at bow.

    However, his greatest achievement afloat was winning Novice Vllls at Hammersmith Regatta a few weeks later. Coxed by Colin Dominy, the crew was a sight to behold ranging between tall and short, large and small, young and old. Nonetheless, once in motion it proved to be an unstoppable force, cruising to an easy win in its maiden regatta. Further regatta appearances followed, culminating in the Rhine Marathon, all 42kms of it, a true feat of endurance as fellow crew member Charles Pepino recalls, “but we lived to tell the tale and sink one or two Altbiers afterwards”.

    Professionally, Ken was an insurance broker, which played to his people skills. However, he was never at one with the paperwork and saw his true calling in life as proprietor of a local wine bar, plying the upwardly mobile of Barnes with vodka cocktails in the then defunct Waterman’s Arms, opposite the boat club. Market research followed with flurries of questionnaires handed out at Barnes Station. Sadly, his bankers were less convinced and it remained a pipe dream but, such was his indomitable spirit, he clung to the scheme for years afterwards. One wonders what he would have had to say about the Waterman’s latest incarnation as a cocktail bar and fancy restaurant.

    Ken had given up active rowing by the mid-1980s, but he remained a fixture on the social scene and never more so than at semi-annual gatherings with our companion club Benrath in Germany. The accompanying photograph was taken following the 1983 Rhine Marathon with Ken characteristically centre stage. Benrath found Ken something of an enigma leading one of them to ask “What is the function of Kenny in your club”. The answer must surely be “all of the above”; he was fun to be around and just carried on regardless.

    Ken’s funeral will be held at 2.20pm on 11 September at Kingston Crematorium, Bonner Hill Road, Kingston KT1 3EZ. All welcome.

    Paul Rawkins, August 2023

    KenOB2


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  • Tim Senior

    Author: Neil Pickford |

    27th February 2023

    Timothy James Senior

    1971 – 2023

    It is with great sadness that we record the untimely death of Tim Senior at the age of 51. Tim collapsed and died while competing in the Henley Fours and Eights Head on 11 February 2023. A highly accomplished individual both on and off the water, for many of us our most recent memory of Tim will have been at the University Boat Race in 2022, when he was much in evidence as the new Chairman of the Boat Race Company.

    Tim enjoyed an illustrious career as an oarsman on the Cam, the Isis and the Tideway and was rarely far from a boat throughout his lifetime. Here at Cygnet, we like to think we played a small but decisive part in his rowing achievements. Tim rowed in some of the most successful crews at Cygnet during the 1990s, not least an entry for the Henley Wyfold lVs in 1996 which won several heats, greatly raising the club’s profile at that time. For me, there was the added satisfaction of watching the crew power its way down the Henley course in a boat bearing my name.

    Memories of that era are best told by some of the crew mates he rowed with at that time, notably Mark Davies, who was club captain, and Guy du Parc Braham. Guy was the first to break the news, which reached us on the eve of the club’s 133rd birthday, thus enabling us to take a moment to remember Tim.

    Guy wrote: “I have just heard that Tim Senior, Chairman of the Boat Race Company and ex-Cygnet member, died tragically today while racing at Henley 4s and 8s. Some of you will remember Tim rowed with us in the mid-90s. I was in crews with him that raced at HRR as well as in various Heads. I think Paul (Club Historian) has previously described this period as our most successful for the club. My strongest memory of rowing with Tim was not Henley Royal but the best Cygnet race I ever had, which was the Business Houses Head of 1996. It was a perfect piece of rowing from start to finish. We won the whole event by more than 40 seconds”.

    Mark Davies has since penned a more fulsome account of his memories of Tim which is reproduced in full here:

    My memories of Tim are of a highly confident and motivated individual who joined Cygnet in the mid-1990s as a civil servant fresh from Uni and with no rowing points but with plenty of ambition and rowing experience gained at Cambridge University.

    His rowing status meant he was eligible to row any level including Novice and Senior 3 crews which my predecessor as Captain, Chris Shea, selected him in (as would any canny captain juggling points to construct competitive crews) but then left it to others, like me, to break the news to him knowing that the reaction would be less than ecstatic. The best way to avoid selection in those crews was to win many races, which Tim subsequently did at such Cygnet regatta favourites as St Neots.

    He was always destined for better things and a few years later in 1996 with the maximum twelve rowing points accumulated Tim was in the VIII that won the Business Houses Head Race by nearly a minute, one of the finest VIIIs rows I’ve had.

    He was also in the Elite 4– crew that had many successes that year and beat two crews at Henley Royal Regatta to reach the Friday, traditionally club day for Cygnet.

    Shortly after that Tim moved on to London RC and latterly UTRC.

    In the Cygnet elite 4- crew he was easily the most dedicated to training, achieving phenomenal ergo scores. In the run up to Henley following a relatively disappointing Metropolitan Regatta, Tim proposed an ‘alcohol ban’ as part of a ramping up of our efforts; this was initially met with incomprehension and the proposal was negotiated down to (I believe) something close to one alcohol unit/day. However, he was less than pleased when at a subsequent training outing one of the crew announced he’d already had his monthly quota the night before.

    Another thing that was anathema to Tim was quiet reflection: after warming up for the HRR qualifiers we had an hour or so before going afloat so the crew decision was to leave the busy boating area, sit quietly in the car and focus, gathering thoughts conserving energy etc. Not Tim: after less than a couple of minutes he exploded with nervous energy, burst out of the car and had to pace up and down for the remaining time.

    I like to think that differences of approach within a crew are part of what makes a successful crew - a bit of antagonism but pulling together when it counts. Tim helped to provide that focus for us.”

    Tim’s father, Eddie, recalls with great pride “the privilege of following the Umpire’s launch several times at Henley”. The Senior family would be very pleased to hear from anybody at Cygnet who rowed with Tim. Please share your thoughts and memories in he comments below. If you would like to email Tim's father, Edward, please contact the webmaster who will forward on details

    Tim is survived by his wife, Sarah, a daughter and two sons, both of whom have turned into very able oarsmen (courtesy of Radley College), as has a niece, Alice, who has taken to coxing like a duck to water. – the legacy lives on! Tim's family have also donated a trophy to Cygnet to be presented to the most promising novice.

    A private funeral for close family will be held in Kent; a service and celebration of Tim’s life will be held in Henley at a later date (to be advised by the family).

    Paul Rawkins, February 2023

    Tim Senior


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  • Ronnie Lambe

    Author: Neil Pickford |

    14th September 2022

    Ronald Edwin Lambe

    1925 – 2022

    ‘Ronnie’ Lambe, who died at the age of 97 on 30th August 2022, had been a member of Cygnet Rowing Club for 75 years. Almost certainly the longest standing member of the club to date, he was also the last surviving link with ‘Wally’ Wheldal, the most memorable of the club’s founding fathers, whom he recalled meeting in person in the late 1940s.

    Ronald Edwin Lambe was born into a large family on 7th May 1925. The family was originally from the East End but had upped sticks and moved to Walthamstow by the time Ronnie appeared on the scene. These were harsh times: the country was still coming to terms with the aftermath of the Great War and some of his earliest memories were of his father and uncles relating tales of their battle-weary times in France. “They lived most of their lives in mud and shit, but their recollections were not unhappy ones”.

    His father was a successful insurance agent and the family moved around a lot, eventually settling in Putney where Ronnie went to Elliott Central School, a seat of learning that catered for “moderately bright young men who had not quite managed to gain a scholarship”. Ronnie always maintained that the school’s chief task was to mould boys into “clerks for the City, who were content to touch their caps and be nice to their masters as long as they got paid reasonably well”.

    Upon leaving school in 1943, Ronnie went straight into the Royal Navy where he served for three years. To his eternal regret he never went to sea which may perhaps explain why he jumped at the opportunity to join Cygnet RC, having been invited to do so by his old school chum Vic Reeves. Messrs Reeves and Lambe were duly elected as new members on 16th August 1947, he under the happy impression a sparkling career as a club oarsman beckoned. In truth, and as Vic Reeves confessed some 60 years later, they had only ever intended him to be a coxswain, a role that he accepted with his customary equanimity.

    In 2005, Ronnie penned some of his memories of those early post-war years: “Many members were returning from the armed forces which tended to engender a rather relaxed air in contrast to the enforced discipline they had become accustomed to.” Beer drinking was popular – Jenner’s Golden Ale was the chosen tipple – and Ronnie recalled the huge consternation that greeted the submersion of the club bar in the floods of 1953. Still, there were ‘pots’ to be had and Ronnie shared in the club’s haul of silverware throughout the heady days of the 1950s.

    An astute observer of his surroundings, Ronnie recalled that “The river was rather different in those days. Not only was it very dirty, but there was a considerable amount of commercial traffic – mainly tugs pulling eight to nine barges loaded with coal up to the old Brentford gas works”. Nonetheless, “we still sometimes swam at the top of the tide through Barnes Bridge and back”. Small Profit Dock, opposite the boathouse on the Surrey side, was still in occasional commercial use and “it was…. there that I, as cox, put a brand new eight aground on its first outing”. Plus ςa change!

    Despite his long tenure at Cygnet, Ronnie was never a civil servant. However, as an employee of a nationalized industry, he always considered himself to be one. Having been ‘demobbed’ in 1946, he initially became a vacuum cleaner vendor before taking up a clerical post at British Gas primarily because it was close to home, and he needed a stop gap until something better came along. He never left, serving 40 years as a “gas employee”; yet in all those years he never seems to have been tempted to join Horseferry, the gas board’s counterpart to Cygnet.

    The Civil Service Boathouse has always been a marriage bureau first and a rowing club second and Ronnie duly married St George’s lass Anne Crewdson in 1960. Procreation followed: Stephen was first on the scene, then twins Philip and Rosemary. Thereafter, Ronnie’s active rowing days were few and far between. Nonetheless, while he may have vacated the coxswain’s seat, he never relinquished his quill.

    A natural bureaucrat, he amply fulfilled the aspirations of Elliott Central, performing secretarial duties at Cygnet, the Civil Service Boathouse Executive, Putney Town and Borne at Chiswick regattas, Ranelagh Sailing Club, ‘Cygnets’ bungalow committee and the Hamhaugh Islanders’ Association among others. At times he must have felt his very sanity was on the line: Marjorie Israel, his successor as Secretary at Cygnet, recalls a classic occasion when he found himself writing a letter to himself at the CSBE from himself as club secretary. Nonetheless, he stayed the course as club secretary for almost two decades, while his association with Putney Town Regatta extended over half a century.

    A safe pair of hands (and an obvious choice as a club trustee), Ronnie steered Cygnet through some turbulent times, not least the ultimately abortive negotiations for a merger with BBLRC. Yet he always remained above the fray and enthusiastically embraced the age of the word processor. Neil Pickford recalls that in later years he attracted the (affectionate) nickname of the ‘The Lambinator’ amongst the younger, active members of Cygnet and BBLRC, a pun born out of his predilection for creating laminated signs for the boathouse at every opportunity.

    Among his contemporaries, Ronnie was unusual in escaping the clutches of the Golden Oldies and he rarely imbibed with them at the Boathouse on a Tuesday or Thursday afternoon. Still, he was never above having a good time. Family gatherings on Hamhaugh Island were common, while he and Vic Reeves were instrumental in founding the ‘veterans’ lunch at Henley which became the Leander lunch.

    Bungalow committee meeting lunches at ‘Cygnets’ held a special attraction in latter times with all the great and the good – Peter Sly, Vic Reeves, Mike Arnold-Gilliat and Nina Padwick to name but a few – in attendance. Very much the gourmet, these occasions lent themselves to all sorts of Lambe culinary delights. His meat pies at Borne Regatta were legendary.

    For many of us, one of our last memories of Ronnie will have been of him wearing his stripy club blazer at Old Blades on Henley Friday. In 2009, Ronnie sat down with Vic Reeves and recorded a Talking History looking back over a lifetime at Cygnet Rowing Club. At the close of that recording he reflected that “joining Cygnet was a major action in my life and a source of the greatest pleasure”. Anne predeceased him in 2009; he is survived by Stephen, Philip and Rosemary, five grandchildren, and a wealth of committee minute books.

    Ronnie’s funeral will be held on Friday, 23 September at 10.30am at Guildford Crematorium and afterwards at Philip and Viven’s home, 13 Hamhaugh Island. Please contact the Secretary if you plan to attend the reception.

    Paul Rawkins, September 2022

    Ronnie_Lambe_RIP



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  • Frank Caughlin

    Author: Neil Pickford |

    3rd May 2022

    Francis Lawrence Caughlin 

    1926 – 2022

    Anna Caughlin, Frank’s wife, contacted us recently with the sad news that Frank had passed away on 22 April after a short illness; he was 96

    Frank Caughlin joined Cygnet in 1949 and counted Vic Reeves, Ronnie Lambe, Eric Wale and Brian Lovis among his contemporaries. The club archives are nothing if not exhaustive and his application form records him as a Clerical Officer in the Civil Service (the department is indistinct) living at West Hampstead.

    He was one of the new intake of young members who would form the core of some of the most successful Vllls of the 1950s, commencing with a win at Chiswick Regatta in 1953, the crew of which are shown in the picture below taken on the lawn at the Civil Service Boathouse. Frank is the first on the left in the back row.

    The win at Chiswick was Cygnet’s first notable victory in open competition since the end of WW2 and rekindled hopes that it would not before long before the club reclaimed the ‘Glory Years’ of the 1930s. Although this was not to be, Cygnet did nevertheless enjoy a spate of wins in Vllls throughout the remainder of the decade.

    A very capable scribe who often wrote pieces for the Civil Service Sports Journal, Frank would later recall of this win ‘The Ronald Studd cup shone like a jewel on the top table at the Cygnet annual dinner….at the Bull at Sheen’. Warming to his task, he continued ‘this cup symbolises the re-emergence of Cygnet as an opponent worthy of respect after a long period of post-war obscurity’. The title of his article: ‘Cygnet R.C. for Henley?’.

    Later articles would describe the success of Cygnet ‘Invitation (Scratch) Eights’ in August 1953 that attracted sufficient contestants to fill twelve Vllls - the changing room was packed to the gills - and Cygnet’s expanding fleet. Small boats were in short supply and Frank recounted the aura that surrounded the club’s latest acquisition, a coxless lV built for the 1948 Olympic Games, named after the club’s then president ‘Lewis Balfour’.

    A future captain in the making, Frank opined ‘A cox’nless four is not a boat to be knocked about. She must be regarded with a deference due to her light build and fast speed. Heavy handed oarsmen should be kept well away…’. There were high hopes, sadly unrealised, that the crew rowing the ‘Lewis Balfour’ might reach the Wyfolds at Henley in 1954.

    Frank would remain an active oarsman throughout the 1950s before ascending to the position of captain in 1960 when, for the first time in its history, Cygnet entered five eights in the Head of the River, a record that is thought to remain unbeaten to this day.

    Although we rarely saw him in later years, he continued to take an interest in the club, while articles such as ‘Chiswick Rowing Gossip’ which he penned in October 1953 give us a sense of the great hopes and aspirations of that early post-war generation of Cygnets.

    Frank’s funeral will take place at 4pm on Thursday, 12th May, at Worthing Crematorium, Horsham Road, Finton, Worthing BN14 ORG, when the family will pleased to welcome any Cygnets who may care to attend.

    Paul Rawkins, 2nd May 2022

    1953b


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  • Malcolm Burman

    Author: Neil Pickford |

    27th September 2021

    Malcolm James Burman

    1951 - 2021

    Shock and sadness greeted the news that Malcolm Burman had succumbed to a fatal heart attack on 15 September, barely a month after his 70th birthday. A larger-than-life character, Malcolm was a member of Cygnet Rowing Club for half a century, initially as a fit young blade, followed by a decade-long stint as club treasurer and latterly one of two independent examiners.

    Malc, better known to his close rowing contemporaries as 'Big Malc' aka 'Beermeister', joined Cygnet in 1971. As a British Telecom employee, a privatised offshoot of the Post Office, he came closer than most to fulfilling the founder members' vision of a club intended primarily for employees of the General Post Office.

    Lest his expanded girth of later years suggested otherwise, Malc was regarded as 'a real boat mover' in his day, initially rowing in a pair with life-long pal Mick Yetman, before settling into the engine room of the successful club Vllls of 1972-73 and 1977-78. Hard to imagine now, but in those days the crew weekly training regime found Malc pounding round the local gym, weightlifting and running through Richmond Park - shy and retiring he was not.

    Remembered by his contemporaries as a 'gentle giant' who was rarely if ever riled, Malc was always generous with his time: Norman Cowling, among others, recalls a 'bedrock club man' who always took an interest in new members. 'Dusty' Miller, the first club historian, characterised Cygnet as 'ever a club to foster the social side'. Malc fitted that mould to a tee, striking the less than perfect balance between work, sport and play that we all readily identified with. Career development was never high on our list of priorities in those days.

    An 'ale man' to his core, many anecdotes revolve around the demon drink. Fellow crew member Gary Fettis recalls an infamous trip to the West Country (regattas) during which 'much cider was taken' and one of their number ended up 'before the Beak'. Others recall the notorious Treen Avenue set (Dave Morgan, Steve Reeves et al) who were always on hand to lead Malc astray; needless to say, local hostelries were more than happy to oblige. Many a fitful night was spent on the legendary bus seats in the club bar, the last train or bus home having long since been missed.

    Cygnet has always been a marriage bureau first and a rowing club second and the club duly delivered at the 1978 annual dinner dance when a chance rearrangement of the table plan found the future Mrs Malc strategically sat opposite Malc. By the end of the evening, it was clear that their individual quests for a life-long soul mate had reached a mutually satisfactory conclusion. Henceforward, (for Malc) the daily drudge of living hand-to-mouth on some dubious ready meals - the merits of tinned dog food had apparently been contemplated on one particularly impecunious occasion - and copious infusions of alcohol ceased.

    Marriage and parenthood ensued, and the world was blessed with the Burman babes Rachel, Rheanna and Georgina, not to mention some more recent grandchildren. However, while rowing took a back seat, Malc found time to turn his auditor skills to the club treasury, conjuring up the necessary funds for new boats and blades, much to the collective relief of the captain (me) and expectant active members. A wise head on all things financial, Malc would later become a school bursar having taken early retirement from BT.

    Retirement proper allowed Malc to concentrate on the things that really mattered namely family, living in a warm climate (Spain), the odd beer festival and the bi-annual canal trip with the likes of 'Warp' (Yetters), 'ngineer' (Wylie), 'Schedule' (Alan Cox) and 'Mumsy' (Rawks P). Life in Spain settled into an agreeable social rhythm; Malc's formidable grasp of general knowledge earned him a reputation as a mean quiz master among the expatriate community; and Cygnet receded into the background. However, fate has a habit of springing surprises and a spur-of-the-moment Spanish real estate purchase found club chairman Nick Wylie unknowingly taking up residence but a stone's throw from the Burman household. History does not record Mrs Malc's reaction!

    Canal trips were Malc's guilty pleasure. Colloquially referred to as the 'Fat Bastards Canal Cruise', these trips were meticulously planned by Malc down to the last lock-mile with the day's mileage strictly adhered to between breakfast, lunch and dinner. However, opening and closing locks can be thirsty business and the so-called 'in betweenie' pint became a regular fixture of afternoon cruising, while an Indian restaurant was always de-rigeur for dinner, followed by a night cap on the poop deck. Those occasions often provided an opportunity to ponder the night sky - many a time airplane landing lights were mistaken for shooting stars or lost galaxies.

    Unlike some crew members, Malc never 'lost form', a stabilising influence and the voice of reason until the end. Looking back over the years, one or other of the crew nearly always befell some accident on these trips, leading Malc to add 'A&Es' to the landmarks of note when planning the schedule. As he wryly remarked at the end of the last cruise in 2019 'it's nice to have finished the cruise with the same number of crew members we started with'. Sadly, the next cruise will start without its customary commander-in-chief - crew anarchy awaits.

    Paul Rawkins (aka 'Mumsy), September 21

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  • Greg Steene

    Author: Neil Pickford |

    3rd December 2020

    Greg Steene 

    1950 - 2020

    It is with great sadness that we record the death of Greg Steene, who died suddenly on 20th November at the age of 70.

    Greg joined Cygnet in the 1970s; a solid stroke or bow side man (see photo below), he powered several Vllls over the head course and proved to be a timely addition to the Plumtree Vlll of 1977, securing several senior B pots in the process at Staines and St Neots regattas.

    For a club steeped in the ways of the Civil Service - most members were still public sector employees - Greg was a breath of fresh air hailing, as he did, from the world of boxing. Henceforward, après rowing took on a whole new meaning. Contemporaries, myself included, recall an action-packed night at the ring side in Clapham Town Hall, where Chairman Nick Wylie emerged speckled with blood, and he was only a spectator. Phil Beckett tried to engage an attractive young woman in conversation, only to be informed that her boxing beau was not best pleased.

    On hearing the sad news, Dave Wynne, another contemporary, said 'I was thinking about Greg only the other day, about sharing a flat and rowing a novice four with him'. Others recollect a weekend at Stourport Regatta where Greg kept the whole camp site awake all night recounting jokes and bawdy tales that nobody could remember the following morning. Few pots were won on that day.

    Jackie, Greg's wife, who survives him, was not above joining the fray, steering Greg and Mike Evans in non-status pairs at Llandaff regatta, notwithstanding warnings that she would need a stomach pump if she fell in. Still, as Mike wryly reflected, it was 'a trip noted more for the visit to Barry Island for the 2.00am bar rather than the rowing'.

    Mike reminded us all of Greg's wedding reception where we rubbed shoulders with all the great and the good of the sparring fraternity. Evans sat on a table for non-family guests: 'Conteh, Ted Moult and some other long forgotten show biz types, lots of former boxers and a couple of Krays (but not the twins!). Conteh felt that rowers had much to learn from the boxing community, but not on the drinking front where there was an unmistakable meeting of minds.

    A legendary boxing manager and match maker, Greg drifted away from the club and we had not seen him for some years. However, for those of us who were lucky enough to know him, they were memorable times indeed. Greg's son Aleck would be pleased to hear from anybody who would like to share their memories of Greg by posting in the comments below and they will be forwarded to his family.

    Paul Rawkins, 2nd December 2020


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