sheffield university rowing club/file/rowing... · sheffield university rowing club ... erg tests...

4
SURC Sheffield University Rowing Club Winter Newsletter 2016 A Message from the President Following the success of the club‟s 12 days of charity event last year, we thought we‟d run a similar event this year. Starting on the 2 nd December we aimed to help as many charities as possible, both practically and financially, in a 12 day period. Our members donated blood, put together Christmas boxes for the homeless and perhaps most enjoyably, spent an afternoon digging trenches at Holly Hagg Urban Farm. In addition we partook in a number of sponsored events with our Novice Men‟s Squad having their chests waxed in Bar One and some very brave rowers trying their hand at a 12km fell run. Of course no rowing club charity fundraiser would be complete without an ergathon and ours was no exception, with our members all completing at least one thirty minute slot at one of our two twelve hour rows. All the money raised will be split between Sheffield Children‟s Hospital and Sheffield University Rowing Club; with 80% going to the Children‟s Hospital. This charity means a lot to the club and after visiting in September we saw how important it is for both the children and their families. The charity‟s current campaign is called Make it Better, which aims to make the wards more comfortable and exciting for the children. We have currently smashed last year‟s total raising over £1000, however should you like to contribute our fundraising page is still open with a link to our fundraising video (http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/ showFundraiserPage.action? userUrl=SURC12daysofChristmas&faId=652227&isTeam=true ) A huge amount of work was put into organising the event by our volunteering officer Daisy Ash - thank you! On the first day of Christmas... James Palmer (President 2015-2016) With the Winter break approaching, I feel that now is a time for reflection. Personally, I look back on my first term as President with nothing but fond memories. The hard work and stress of running a sports club that I was forewarned about has been nothing but a joyous occasion. This has been the case due to the nature of the people that our club attracts. This year‟s committee are fantastic, the friendliest of faces; all with a firm grip on their positions, they make my job very easy! Their commitment and warm-heartedness is matched by every member of the club. From existing members, down to the new novices, the atmosphere within the club is energetic, welcoming, and great fun to be a part of. The disappointment of cancelled races has not deterred our spirits. Members are training harder than ever, cementing new and old friendships, and are ready for whatever the New Year may bring. 2016 is to be looked to in anticipation. On the horizon, we are looking forward to returning to Soustons for our Easter training camp, hosting alumni events and winning both head and regatta races. We are also looking to purchase a new “top” coxed four, to be shared between the Senior Squads. Once such a boat is found, we intend to name it after the late founding member, Dr Peter Cook. I sign off by wishing you all a Merry Christmas, and hope you have as much to be thankful for at the end of the year as me. I look forward to seeing many of you at our Alumni events in the new year.

Upload: doankiet

Post on 12-Jul-2018

231 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

SURC Sheffield University Rowing Club

Winter Newsletter 2016

A Message from the President

Following the success of the club‟s 12 days of charity event last year, we

thought we‟d run a similar event this year. Starting on the 2nd December

we aimed to help as many charities as possible, both practically and

financially, in a 12 day period. Our members donated blood, put together

Christmas boxes for the homeless and perhaps most enjoyably, spent an

afternoon digging trenches at Holly Hagg Urban Farm. In addition we

partook in a number of sponsored events with our Novice Men‟s Squad

having their chests waxed in Bar One and some very brave rowers trying

their hand at a 12km fell run. Of course no rowing club charity

fundraiser would be complete without an ergathon and ours was no

exception, with our members all completing at least one thirty minute

slot at one of our two twelve hour rows. All the money raised will be

split between Sheffield Children‟s Hospital and Sheffield University

Rowing Club; with 80% going to the Children‟s Hospital. This charity

means a lot to the club and after visiting in September we saw how

important it is for both the children and their families. The charity‟s

current campaign is called Make it Better, which aims to make the wards

more comfortable and exciting for the children. We have currently

smashed last year‟s total raising over £1000, however should you like to

contribute our fundraising page is still open with a link to our fundraising

video (http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/

showFundraiserPage.action?

userUrl=SURC12daysofChristmas&faId=652227&isTeam=true)

A huge amount of work was put into organising the event by our

volunteering officer Daisy Ash - thank you!

On the first day of Christmas...

James Palmer (President 2015-2016)

With the Winter break approaching, I feel that now is a time for reflection. Personally,

I look back on my first term as President with nothing but fond memories. The hard

work and stress of running a sports club that I was forewarned about has been nothing

but a joyous occasion. This has been the case due to the nature of the people that our

club attracts. This year‟s committee are fantastic, the friendliest of faces; all with a firm

grip on their positions, they make my job very easy! Their commitment and

warm-heartedness is matched by every member of the club. From existing members,

down to the new novices, the atmosphere within the club is energetic, welcoming, and

great fun to be a part of. The disappointment of cancelled races has not deterred our spirits. Members

are training harder than ever, cementing new and old friendships, and are ready for whatever the New

Year may bring. 2016 is to be looked to in anticipation. On the horizon, we are looking forward to

returning to Soustons for our Easter training camp, hosting alumni events and winning both head and

regatta races. We are also looking to purchase a new “top” coxed four, to be shared between the Senior

Squads. Once such a boat is found, we intend to name it after the late founding member, Dr Peter

Cook. I sign off by wishing you all a Merry Christmas, and hope you have as much to be thankful for

at the end of the year as me. I look forward to seeing many of you at our Alumni events in the new

year.

Races

SURC represents at Henley At the end of last year both of our senior squads had shown vast improvement and on the

advice of more experienced rowers we decided to enter 8+‟s into the academic categories at

the internationally acclaimed Henley Regattas. The senior women were first to race at

Henley Women‟s Regatta on 19th June. An intense week of training following the end of

term led to the crew feeling confident. They had a quick paddle in the morning to familiarise

themselves with the course before boating for their qualifying races, a strong row sadly left

them less than 2 seconds outside of qualifying. Nevertheless they came off the water smiling

and most happy that an umpire had complimented their roll up! With even stronger competi-

tion at Henley Royal Regatta, the Senior Men headed down to compete at the qualifying

races on 26th June - a week before the main event. Having had a few weeks to train together

following the end of term, they too looked in great form. However it too was not to be nar-

rowly missing out on qualifying.

This experience has only fuelled

our desire to do better next year

and our senior crews are deter-

mined to qualify this year!

„Rain, rain go away‟ might be the

most apt way to summarize the start

of the race season. Our senior crews

set an impressive precedent at their

first race, Head of the Don, in

October with both our men‟s and

women‟s IM3 8‟s winning their divi-

sions, along with the men‟s nov 4+

and IM3 2-; the Senior Women also

impressively won the pennant for

fastest women‟s crew of the day.

Continuing this success we had a

large number of senior entries for

Dee Autumn Head however this is

when the weather began to cause

havoc with our race season. The ex-

ceptionally high river levels lead to

coxless boats being dropped from the

racing schedule. Nevertheless those

who did compete rowed well and

there were wins for our men‟s IM3

8+ and IM3 4-, as well as our

women‟s IM3 4+. The continuing

rain has caused unsafe river condi-

tions across the country and the 3

races we had planned to attend in No-

vember be called off. Sadly this in-

cluded Lincoln Beginners Head

which meant our novices have yet to

experience racing. Perhaps the big-

gest advantage of the cancelation of

races was the extra training time it

gave us and this was certainly benefi-

cial at BUCS indoors where SURC

members won 3/4 of the categories.

Erg tests probably bring back

dreaded memories for most of our

alumni but our current members put

this aside and many pulled PBs in

their 2 kilometer races. SURC mem-

bers dominated in all the heats and

our entries vastly outnumbered all

the other Yorkshire Universities.

The Boston Marathon The Boston Marathon has come to be

seen as the ultimate test for any rower;

a grueling 50km row from Boston to

Lincoln. However this did not deter 8

of our senior rowers and 2 brave coxes

(plus one crazy single!) who set them-

selves the challenge on 20th Septem-

ber. Both originally entered as IM3

4+s our Senior Men agreed to race

IM1 status to have some competition.

They raced well gaining on the other

crew for the first 20km however the

notoriously weedy course caused the

steering to break and the crew resorted

to pressure steering for the remaining

30km. The women‟s crew also faced

their share of problems with the course

proving a challenge to existing inju-

ries. Despite these problems both

crews posted respectable times with

the IM1 4+ taking 4 hr 40 mins and

the W.IM3 4+ 5 hr 4 mins. The crews

also raised an outstanding £1021.50

for Sheffield Children‟s Hospital.

alumni were also in

attendance and are pictured

left (Charlie Shillito, Gemma

Lawless, Martin Chick and

Andy Edwards). Emma said

it was „the perfect special

touch to our day‟.

Congratulations on a

beautiful wedding Emma and

Dave!

It‟s not every day you get a

request from alumni to borrow

university blades - however

when Emma Spencer emailed

us that‟s exactly what

happened. Having met her now

husband, Dave Goley, at SURC

in 2005 she wanted to surprise

him with a guard of honour as

they left the church on their

wedding day. Other SURC

water and land training. A

tough training plan was put

together by the captains and

of course the novices were

introduced to the infamous

erg-run. Despite the rainy

weather everyone improved

massively, benefiting from

the long stretch of water and

not having to constantly turn

around! We would like to

thank Royal Chester

Rowing Club for making us

feel so welcome.

In September we saw over

100 students trialling for

just 36 spaces as part of our

novice squads. The

competition was tough and

difficult decisions had to be

made by our novice

captains. On 24th October,

just two weeks after being

selected our new novices

experienced their first

training camp on the River

Dee in Chester. The two

day camp consisted of 3

sessions a day with both

Novice Training Camp

A SURC ROW-mance

Overall this term has been a fantastic success and we have many exciting

plans for the New Year:

Races

After the weather caused a disappointing start to our race season, we

look forward to competing in 2016. We will again be returning to com-

pete at both the London Eights Heads and as we look towards the sum-

mer we also hope to bee targeting a number of high profile regattas. See

key dates for a provisional list of the races we will be attending.

Alumni Events

Following the success of our 50th Anniversary dinner last Autumn, we

are hoping to host a similar event in the spring. Further information will

be sent out early in the new year. Additionally there will be a number of

opportunities to row at Damflask. Should the club manage to acquire the

proposed new top 4+, we will also hold an informal naming ceremony to

honor the late Dr. Peter Cook.

SURC relies on donations from alumni and sponsors in order to fund the equipment we need to func-

tion as a competitive club. We are continuously overwhelmed by the generosity and support of our

past members and current member‟s family and friends. We would particularly like to thank the fol-

lowing people for their continued support:

Looking to the Future

Acknowledgements

Mr David Allen

Mr Graham Bishop

Dr William Briggs

Mr Richard Connelly

Mr Christian Crawford

Mr Reginald Ellis

Dr Peter Gardner

Mr Stuart Green

Mr John Hartley

Mr Andrew Hug

Dr Alan James

Mr Brian Perry

Mr Brian Richardson

Mr Roger Smith

Mr Miles Stevenson

Mr Michael Thompson

Mr Ed Wardle-Davies

Mrs Elspeth Wilson

Could you support us?

It is the generosity of our alumni that enables

us to continue to rowing in Sheffield. We

would be most grateful if you would consider

supporting SURC. See the attached cover letter

for more info.

Key Dates

13th Feb — Head of

the Don (Doncaster)

20th Feb — BUCS 4s

& 8s Head (Newcastle)

27th Feb — Runcorn

Head

5th March — WeHorr

12th March — North

of England Head

(Chester)

19th March — HoRR

20th –27th March —

Easter Training Camp

(Soustons)

April TBC—Varsity

May Bank Holiday w/

e — BUCS Regatta

(Holme Pier Point)

Please do come and say hello

and support us, should you

be around.