Welcome to the fist email newsletter for MBC. We are hoping to email every member of the club on a more regular basis to keep people up to date with upcoming events and recent results. We are also keen to do regular “biographies” of Molesey members so you can get to know those around the club. This won’t be just for the famous amongst us such as World Champion Andy Hodge but all the clubs members so please do write something about yourself so we can let people at Molesey know who you are! If you know a Molesey member who is not receiving this email please let a committee member know so we can build up the MBC email list or email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
As this is the first email newsletter some parts of the club may have been missed out, if this is the case let us know on the email address above and keep us up to date so we can let all of MBC know what you’re doing! (It’s also a rather long issue so hang in there, maybe print it out read it in the loo!)
Since the turn of 2007 we have been limited in the events we have entered due to the floodwater but we have still found time to keep MBC’s profile high in the time. Some key wins see below…..!
Great Britain Trials
Andy Hodge, Simon Fieldhouse and Tom Solesbury our three Team GB members were disappointed in February to have the National Trials cancelled denying Andy the chance to again show his dominance in the British Men’s Team. Andy will be going to the spring assessment regatta with Pete Reed his crewmate for the last two years and defending GB Trials Champions, Andy will go for his 4th consecutive GB trials win! Tom Solesbury is pairing with Oxford Blue Tom Parker and Simon as part of the GB Sculling Squad will be in his single, good luck for April Boys.
Great Britain Junior Team trials were more of a success with Callum Wright (pairing with George Nash of Winchester College) dominating the 5km race to win by over 15 seconds.
Phoebe Smith of the Junior Women’s Squad came third in the single and teamed up with Chrissie VanBesouw to come 5th in the pairs.
All Great Britain time trial results can be found on this link: www.bostonrowingmarathon.org.uk
FISA Team Cup – Seville
Our National team with Andy Hodge, Simon Fieldhouse and Tom Solesbury went to Seville to compete in this annual event and came home with many medals! Andy Hodge won the coxless fours on Saturday whilst Tom Solesbury was a part of the victorious GB Eight, coached by MBC coach John West. Simon Fieldhouse, coached by MBC member Steve Gunn, was third in the double scull behind MBC Junior Coach and World Bronze Medallist Steve Rowbotham in first place. On Sunday Andy raced the four and the coxless pair winning both with Tom and Simon repeating their results from the Saturday. Well done Boys!
Hampton Head
Hampton Head proved MBC’s juniors squad first race of 2007 and a win was forthcoming for the Junior Women’s Coxed Four of Phoebe Smith, Hannah Mcdonald, Hellie Bray, Alice Hunt,coxed by Bianca Matley despite never having rowed the four together until race day! The Men’s Junior Under 15 Eight came a confidence boosting Third behind top opposition.
Veterans
2007 has already seen the clubs Vet groups fly to Ireland for the Head of the Erne. The crew Won their event and with the Vet Handicap system won the event outright. That’s the Molesey Way!!
Alan Cosgrove, Roger Wotton
David Beamand, Lewis Balkwill
Mike Gardiner, Jonathan Steel
John Van Ingen, David Porteus
Christopher Fox
At Molesey Veteran Head our Men’s Novice Eight won their event as well as being the fastest Molesey Boat of the day.
Cox - Paul Collins
Stroke - Tony Gilbert
7 - Steve Parsons
6 - Alex Knox
5 - Hugh Fleming
4 - Chris Daley
3 - Darren Partridge
2 - John Parker
Bow - Peter Dennis
World Ergo Championships
Tracey Axton dominated her event at the World Indoor Rowing Championships in Boston USA and won by over 20 seconds over the 2km distance. This meant Tracey defended her World Title from last year and she won in a time of 6.56.5!! An incredible achievement. Also, Avelline Deighton came 4th in the Lightweight category by 2 seconds. Well done to our World Championship athletes.
School’s Head of the River
This event saw some good racing from the MBC juniors, the highlight being the 5th place achieved by the Boys J15 8+, coached by Steve Matley, in a very competitive field of well over 30 crews. Kings Wimbledon and Hampton are the class crews in this event but with some hard work the J15 boys could be challenging the medal places at National Schools in May.
The J15 Girls 8 were disappointed to have been obstructed in their race but still came home 3rd (despite a time penalty?!?) And the Junior Girls 4+ were unhappy with their row but still managed a creditable 5th place, as well as the chance to race again two days later in 8’s at the Women’ Head!!
Women’s Head of the River
17th March saw three Molesey Eights of which two were junior crews, head to Putney for the Women’s Head of the River. The women’s first 8 contained 2002 World Rowing Gold Medallist Sarah Birch, Reigning Ergo World Champion Tracey Axton and 2003 World Rowing Silver Medallist Julia Warren and coxed by 1984 Olympic Champion Adrian Ellison. This crew had a superb row and came home in 14th place in a time of 19.24 secs. The first eight also raised over £1000 for Breast Cancer research and are now all very attached to their pink race socks!
The junior 1st 8 performed magnificently winning their event by over 12secs in 20 mins flat and beating Headington (second in the 8 at School Head) by nearly 30 secs! Well done girls.
Our 2nd Junior 8 also competed well and the event has raised expectations of some good performances by the Senior and Junior women this summer.
Upcoming Events and Races
Kingston Head March 24th (Kingston) sees crews from all sections of the club racing from the Development squad, club squad, novices and veterans squads
The Eight Head on March 31st (Tideway) sees FIVE Molesey Crews Race. Our big hopes rest with the First Eight containing Reigning World Champion Andy Hodge, as well Tom Solesbury and Simon Fieldhouse, coxed by Oxford Blue and GB cox Acer Nethercott. We hope this crew can win the title last won by MBC in 1992!
Our Second Eight shows experience with no less than 4 Olympic Champions on board as well as Olympic Bronze and world medals a plenty. Whilst this crew is perhaps “past it’s prime” (ahem!) it is a crew that will turn heads and no doubt show a turn of speed!
We then have three crews, our Development Squad, and two Club Eights. These crews are all moving fast and we hope to see all 5 Molesey Crews in the top 40 of the 420 entries and three in the top 15.
Vesta Veterans Head (Tideway) on April 1st will see a strong MBC entry as the “experienced”club members show the boys from the day before how it should be done!
Boat Naming Ceremony and Balloon Race! March 25th at MBC from approx 1.00pm Come down and see Molesey's Fleet of top racing boats being named. The Day is also the launch of the MBC Balloon race! 1000 black and white balloons will be let skywards with great prizes for the furthest travelling balloon! Get Tickets from this link: http://www.chrismartin60.users.digital-crocus.com/ticketform.doc
More info on the Gorilla Nest website: http://www.thegorillanest.com/
STOP PRESS!!!!
Molesey’s First Eight will be racing Cambridge University’s Boat Race Crew on Friday 23rd March at 3.45pm. They are expected to race over sections of the Boat Race Course starting at Putney and probably ending at the famous (but impossible to find) Chiswick Steps. Skive off work and see two of the top eights in the country race side by side!
What have you missed?
Tuesday 13th March saw a great evening at MBC as Greg and Jonny Searle, Molesey Members & Olympic Champions told us the story of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and their great victory. (There was also loads of free pizza!) It was a fantastic evening and Greg and Jonny shared with MBC members of all ages what it took to win Olympic Gold. Greg and Jonny are still active members of MBC and will be racing at the eights head in Molesey II. Keep an eye on the notice boards for future events!!
