Well issue 4 here we go. Thank you to everybody who has responded with positive comments about the newsletter. And to those of you that haven’t may you get a scratch on your boat or your coaching launch run out of petrol!! There has been lots of Action at MBC again since the last e-newsletter, not least of which was the Remenham dinner, you will here more about that from those that can remember it, too much wine, too much wine!! Anyway on with the important stuff….
Great Britain
Seniors - Since the last lot of trials in Belgium, the senior team have been involved in round after round of seat racing. This has led to Andy Hodge being selected to stroke the World Champion coxless four at the first World Cup next month in Linz, this despite some speculation he may end up in the pair as a lead boat.
Simon Fieldhouse has also been selected to race the quad in Linz and both these crews are looking ahead through the summer season to the Munich World Champs where they hope to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and Andy will hope to retain his World Title. Simon will hope he qualifies the quad as he did in Milan in 2003 and this time we are sure he will hold his place unlike 2004 when he was spare man for the team.
Tom Solsbury, after an injury ravaged winters training is currently the spare man for the team but we hope he can use the summer season as a springboard for next winters training and a push for the Olympics in 2008
Juniors – Callum Wright, Phoebe Smith and Vicky Knight jetted off to the site of the 2007 World Championships this month to race Germanys top juniors as part of the British team. Callum came home with some silver medals to his name whilst Phoebe came 5th in the 2- on both days and 6th in the 8+. Vicky came 7th in the 4- on Sat and won Gold on Sun. Vicky was also in the 8+.
Regattas
Wallingford Regatta
The first regatta for some of the MBC crews this year, results were mixed with the Women’s crews and the juniors proving to be the top performers from MBC at this event. MBC won WS3 4+ with a crew of Cox: Sarah Hopkins, Bow: Helli Bray, 2: Hannah Morris, 3: Sophie Drake Str: Alice Hunt. Cox: Bianca Matley, Bow: Emily Goldsmith, 2: Georgie Gately, 3: Hannah McDonald and Str: Alice Briegel came 3rd. An excellent result which sets the girls up for Nat Schools particularly for the coxed fours!!
The junior men’s octuple also narrowly missed gold by only 0.7 secs!!
For the seniors at MBC we saw some mixed results, the Men’s S2 4- won their heat but struggled in the Final coming home 6th and the Men’s S1 4+ missed out on the Final in their closely fought heat although in the S2 4+ they remedied this and made the final finishing in 4th spot.
Molesey’s senior women however of Tracey Axton, Georgie Horsfall, Ellie Blackwell and Tessa Zant coxed by Adrian Ellison, cruised through their heat then demolished the final winning by 7 secs in Women’s S2 4+. Also Tessa and Gina Keech dominated the W S2- winning by over 4 secs. We also had women’s Elite 2X come 6th (sorry I don’t have your names, if it’s you, email the above address and let us know who you are!!)
All of our wining crews found themselves going home with a rather nice Wallingford Regatta hipflask. I’m sure the Junior Girls will be filling theirs with……? There were also unconfirmed sightings of a couple of MBC men racing with Latymer Schools 1st 8+ but these are unconfirmed. Does anybody have any picture evidence? You know where to send it….!
Ghent Regatta
This saw a large contingent of MBC head off to Belgium for the thinghty thingth Belgium National Championships (which always seems to be dominated by British crews!) We had numerous crews racing on both days with some mixed results. The highlights were
| Mo Sbihi | Gold | Men's Pairs |
| Debbie Pyke, Julia Warren, Gina Keech, Tessa Zant | Silver | Women's Quads |
| Gina Keech, Tessa Zant | Siler | Women's Pairs |
The medals in these events are great results, and it seems the women’s squad has now given the coaches a headache as they sit down and try to work what is best to enter at Women’s Henley (double entendre?)(ahem, sorry it’s a family publication!). Well done girls! Keith is still recovering from his 4.15 am alarm to drive Julia and Debs down to the course for their 6.30 am race! Whilst some of the other crews had less success, the regatta did give the coaches some food for thought. The athletes did show some good performances, and attitudes in the face of adversity and MBC supporters should still expect to see more than one MBC crews in the latter stages at Henley Royal.
Anyway the beer was good, the chips were good and MBC Captain Ollie tucked into plenty of cherry pie (he needs feeding up!).
Looking Ahead with MBC…
Pack your hamper, buy a bottle of Pimms (Some of the MBC juniors have a hipflask you could borrow!) The key event in May is of course the National Schools Regatta. MBC is the holder of the Girls Championship 8’s event. Good luck to Coach Alice Bray and her girls, lets hope it’s gold again this year, although it won’t be easy. Also good luck to the rest of the MBC juniors. Abley led by Dickon, Jon VI, Foxy, Steve I’m sure we’ll be celebrating many medals this summer.
Sat May18th Thames Ditton - Thames Ditton Regatta
Friday 25th – Sund 27th May - Nottingham National Schools Regatta
Sat 2nd June – Sun 3rd June Dorney Lake - Metropolitan Regatta
Sat 23rd – Sun 24th June Dorney Lake - Marlow Regatta
Fri 22nd – Sun 24th June Henley – Women’s Henley Regatta
Weds 4th – Sun 8th July Henley – Henley Royal Regatta
Don’t forget Remenham members, you can cheer on the MBC Girls at Women’s Henley from the “mound” an see them as they cross the finish line.
JONTY ON TOUR
Our very own Jonty Steele went to the US of A recently where he is an assistant coach to some juniors out there. Let’s hope in future years he coaches them to a magnificent second place behind MBC in the Fawley Cup at Henley Royal Regatta!! This, is his story….
Arrived in Philadelphia evening of Fri 27th and taken out to drinks and to an evil local bar by our two MBC guys Jack StClair and Joe Morgan staved off jet lag by stumbling to bed at 6am body clock.
Caught up with the Osprey Oars squad from Sarasota FL(Peter de Manio's club) who were racing on a 2k multi lane course on the Cooper River just across the river from Philadelphia. Osprey are finding that in order to test themselves to see how fast they are as they have aspirations for the US Nationals and the Fawley Cup at HRR, so they have to travel out of state as the Florida sculling scene is not competitive enough.
There was some good racing but being 3rd all the way till the last 250m Osprey came in a disappointing 4th.The two colleges dominating this event for the last couple of years has been Malvern and Maritime, if they come over to Henley it will be interesting to see how they get on.
I ended up coming back to Sarasota with the trailer 1 1/2 days of driving down the I-95,1200 miles. The speed limit and the quality of the freeway seem to vary a bit from state to state. When we got to Florida people were whizzing past our trailer on both sides and we were doing 70 mph!
Helping Peter with the coaching which happens Mon-Fr at 430pm are a recent ex grad from the squad Chase and Andy Berster whose cousin is Chris Lewski. Chris is in the US National Squad and is a friend of Hodgy as they rowed in the victorious blue boat together. Chris has done really well despite having some of his first coaching a few years ago from Dickon, Foxy, Alan and myself!
The standard of sculling technique is excellent and though it is a small squad they are very keen but Steve Matley will be pleased to know that there are other Tom Fains about!!
My last weekend-12th/13th is at the regionals in North Carolina with the aim to qualify there to go to the Nationals in early June, hopefully my two weeks of coaching wont have slowed them down and we will pick up from a poor race two weeks ago. It might also sort out the question of sticking with the quad or concentrating on the double or both!!
Any one with a MBC connection will get a warm and hospitable welcome down here-See you back at the club next week
Osprey Oars practise on the Intra Coastal Waterway where you often see Manatees and dolphins going past your boats.The locals are not quite used to these racing boats and often fly past with really huge wakes(6ft -enough to get even Biff to shout) but the kids know when to easy to protect the boat and the water is warm at least!
The ICW is prone to wind coming down it or off the sea hence practising later on or at 730 on Sunday or Saturday. Last Sunday we had a long row and the water was like glass and even at that time the temp was in the upper 70s.
Newsletter Exclusive!! MOLESEY OAR VISITS PARLIAMENT The MBC men’s squad came down to training at the beginning of May only to find themselves an oar down. There was no shortage of volunteers willing to “sacrifice” themselves and have no oar for a week. The mystery deepened when the oar mysteriously reappeared with some exciting stories to tell of it’s week in Westminster. Apparently Blair confided in the oar of his impending resignation and despite it’s best efforts, MBC Oar failed to get enough votes to stand as the next Labour leader. Pity.
