It's been an eventful week for R.U.R.C this week. Everyone is in the swing of things training wise and we have seen good turn-outs at each session this week from our crews. On Tuesday our girls got out in fours for the first time this year in the crews that will probably be racing at BUCS, and seemed to have a good workout. With 4 weeks still to go until the BUCS Head things are looking good from a female point of view! The Men's 1st Eight had another good outing on Tuesday with a lengthy row down past Hammersmith, and are looking good for their first race together at the Quintin Head on the 28th January. On Wednesday our 2nd Mens Four got out on the water early and had a good 2 hour session with our new assistant coach Rachel. Apparently they improved vastly on their outing last week, so again, with 4 weeks to go another crew is looking set to make Roehampton proud at BUCS. Also on Wednesday our Mens and Womens training Eights got out on the water at 3pm with varying degrees of success. It is their second week as crews, and while the men pushed on and improved tenfold, the women retreated a little with a difficult session. Even the best have a bad session sometimes!
All was forgotten by Wednesday evening though with the kick-off of Roehampton University's new 5-a-side tournament, into which we have entered 2 teams, and with our 'squad bonding' nights out. The girls gave the boys great support at the football (both teams lost this week incidentally) and then broke off to the Student Union for food and drink(s) while the boys met up post-football at Pizza Express in Putney for a man-size spread of pizza. After that it was onto the Railway pub for the men where things took a drunken turn for the better/worse, before moving onto Fez nightclub to meet the girls, where a good night was had by all! Next social up is 'Pub-Golf' at the beginning of February.
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| Our members enjoying the culmination of our 'squad bonding' night out in Fez nightclub, Putney |
Wednesday also saw the start of our new 'Learn to Row' course, which saw 5 people come down and try rowing for the first time. We put them through their paces, and talked technique on the ergos this week ahead of putting them on the water next week, probably in a tub to start with, which should be great fun. Although 5 new members is amazing, we were hoping for more, so if you are reading this and want to try rowing, get yourself down next week and give it a go! All the details you need can be found on this website.
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| This weeks newbies |
We rounded off the week with our Friday water session where the men and women swopped boats from Tuesday, the men getting out in fours, and the women getting out in an eight. The Women's 1st Eight are also racing at Quintin Head so this session was really important in blending together as a crew with just one week to go until race day. I'm pleased to say they seemed to do this successfully, and had a good outing. The men also had a good session, with our 1st Fresher Four having a good first (ever) session in a four and tackling it really well. Big things are expected of this crew at BUCS and beyond so it was good to see them make a good start. Our Senior Four also had a good session and are gelling well, again with BUCS in mind. Bring it on!
