Coming Up - R.U.R.C's London to Brighton Bike Ride and the R.U.R.C AGM

Click here to visit www.putneycycles.com

This Sunday 20 of our most hardy/stupid rowers will be taking part in a London to Brighton Bike Ride in the aim of raising £1000 for the club to spend on buying our own Eight. This would allow us considerably more capacity to get more people on the water first and foremost, whilst also allowing our squads to train more often outside of the times currently set by our host club, hopefully leading to us being a more open, but also competitive club. 

The ride is being kindly sponsored by Putney Cycles who have donated use of 10 of their hire bikes free of charge for the weekend, allowing many more people to take part than would have previously been able to!

If you would like to donate, please contact our Club Fundraiser Diana Lava via di.lava@hotmail.com. 

R.U.R.C's Annual General Meeting

CALLING ALL MEMBERS - SAVE THE DATE

Roehampton University Rowing Club are holding their AGM this coming Tuesday (28th February) at 7pm in the Hirst Building on campus. The meeting will be held in Room 001.We would like all of our members to attend and have their say on the past year, the upcoming year and general aspects of the club's development. Biscuits provided :)

BUCS 4's & 8's Head - Day 2 and Women's Hammersmith Head

Roehampton University Rowing Club returned to Peterborough on Sunday, and thankfully found clear skies and even a little bit of sunshine greeting us - the complete contrast to the previous day's abysmal weather. That is not to say our luck got any better, with Men's Captain Sam Neal somehow managing to twist his back putting a boat trestle into the minibus in the morning and having to pull out of the mens senior crew at the last minute. Ryan Livingstone, the crew's cox, stepped in with Rachel Esker stepping into the coxes seat, and in the circumstances the boys put in a decent performance. 

The senior girls did very well and finished 24th in a good time. Well done to Rachel, Jana, Amy, Tessa and Diana! Check below for a video of the girls coming up to the finish and a selection of group photos from after the event!

Roehampton University Rowing Club also competed at the Women's Hammersmith Head this Sunday on the Thames between Chiswick Bridge and Hammersmith Bridge. An almost complete beginner crew did extremely well to finish 90th in a time of 17 minutes 25 seconds. Well done to Ciara Quinlan, Sarah Fort, Abi Durrant, Annabel Paterson, Aimee White and especially Jo Crouch, Elisabeth Tvedt, Elisabeth Stromneses and Isabel Bjorge who raced twice over the weekend having raced at BUCS on the Saturday. Please see below for a few pictures of the girls. 

Sarah Fort, Aimee White, Annabel Paterson, Isabel Bjorge, Elisabeth Stromneses, Elisabeth Tvedt, Abi Durrant and Jo Crouch

The girls racing.

BUCS 4's and 8's Head - Day 1

Women's Fresher 4+ battling the winds in Peterborough!

Well done to Rachel Esker, Elisabeth Tvedt, Jo Crouch, Elisabeth Stromneses and Isabel Bjorge for finishing safely!

The girls finished 26th in a time of 25 minutes 17 seconds

The men's beginner races in the afternoon were cancelled due to the atrocious conditions, so they had to make do with posing for photos by the riverbank.

Special thanks to those above (plus others) who braved the early morning and gale force winds and came along as helpers and supporters. Here's hoping for better weather tomorrow! Thanks also to Tessa Polder for taking these pictures!

Barnes Bridge to Kingston Row in Pictures

A few hardy members of Roehampton University Rowing Club today rowed the 20km from Barnes Bridge to Kingston, taking the 2 coxed fours we are racing at BUCS this weekend to Kingston University Rowing Club, who are kindly taking them on their trailer to the event. The row was long, hard, but extremely enjoyable. Highlights include men's cox Ryan having to get out of the boat at Richmond Lock to wake up the gatekeeper, him getting back in the boat in a rather precarious fashion, women's cox Rachel having to do the same at Teddington Lock and the women's crew getting a late Valentines Day present when a bunch of heart shaped balloons floated past and were caught by Jana. All in all a good days rowing, especially when finished off with a bit of food and drink at Wetherspoons whilst in Kingston! Thanks to everyone who helped out.

The men's crew of David Bedford, Richard Swoboda, Sam Neal and Jan Erik Haavik preparing for the row

The women's crew of Jana Frobese, Tessa Polder, Amy Austen and Diana Miguel Lava posing mid-row

Women's crew looking towards Richmond Lock

A late Valentines Day gift for Jana!

The view from the men's boat whilst waiting to go into Richmond Lock

Snow on the Thames and R.U.R.C's new oars!

We told you winter had finally arrived! This week Roehampton University Rowing Club had to contend not just with the previous weeks ridiculously cold temperatures, but also with snow! Monday night's fitness session fell prey to the weather unfortunately, but thankfully all this weeks water sessions went ahead as planned. Just as well with BUCS now one week away.

Women's Senior 4+ rowing under Barnes Bridge in the snow on Friday morning

Tuesday's water session saw the men's squad getting out in fours and doing some race pace pieces. It wasn't a vintage session by any means, but especially for the 1st Fresher four it gave them a good idea of what is to come on race day. The women's 1st eight had a good session also with March's head races nearly upon them!

Wednesday saw our men's 2nd Fresher four also get out and do some race pace pieces. The feedback at the end of the session was that they found it pretty hard going, but all agreed it was a good learning experience. One session to go for this crew before BUCS! Our training eight turn out was again rather disappointing at this session, with the cold weather seemingly putting a few people off, but luckily we had enough attendees to put together a mixed eight, who had a great session apparently. This bodes well, again with March's head races in mind, having entered two mens eights in races such as Hammersmith Head and Head of the River. The competition is now on for the men in the training eight to win their places in the second boat!

The girls at Friday's snowy session!

The men's senior 4+ put in an extra session on Thursday morning which went extremely well! Bring on the last week of training before race day! Friday's water session, on the other hand, was in danger of being called off due to heavy snowfall on Thursday night, but as you can see from these pictures, it was well worth braving the conditions to get out there and row! What a session! The girls went out in their BUCS fours and had a great session, whilst the men, depleted by a few absentees, got out in our quad - a first experience of sculling for 2 members of the crew, which they really enjoyed. Never have R.U.R.C taken part in a more picturesque outing.

Some of the men's squad messing around after Friday's session!

Another major talking point at the club this week was the arrival of our very first set of oars! Bought with proceeds collected from our ergathon in December (along with a contribution from Sport Roehampton) it is so great to now have our own set. Thanks to everyone who donated. Richard and Men's Captain Sam had a road trip to Marlow in Buckinghamshire on Wednesday morning to pick them up from a snowy William Borlase Grammar School, who kindly sold them to us at a very reasonable price. Members of the club are now committed to painting these oars up in University of Roehampton colours before BUCS on 18th February. Thanks to those who spent an hour on Thursday removing stickers and tape, and massive thanks to Club Captain Sam S, Richard, Amy, Rachel, Ian and Sam N for giving up their Sunday afternoon to sand away Borlase's colours and paint the first undercoat on the oars. See below for how they looked when we picked them up, check back in a week or so to see how they have transformed!

(Football scores - RURC FC won 4-0, Row Your Boat FC lost 10-2. Mixed fortunes this week!)

Quintin Head Comedown & Pub Golf

It's been a cold one this week down on the Thames! Winter is finally here!

After the success of both our Mens and Women's 1st Eights at the Quintin Head last Saturday (see pics below) Roehampton University Rowing Club jumped straight back into training on Tuesday morning with a nice ground frost and ice on our oars to accompany our (nearly) frostbitten hands! Despite the cold, the Mens 1st Eight had a good session back together working on a few technical elements ahead of our next head race in early March. The session was messy, as they always are when you are working on improving technical bits, but the guys really stuck at it and we're confident that next Tuesday's session in the eight will be all the better for working on improving our technical flaws this week. The girls were a few down on Tuesday due to illness, but got out in fours as preparation for BUCS (now 2 weeks away) really heats up. Both Amy and Sam will be announcing R.U.R.C's final BUCS crews very soon, after which the plan is to fit in as many training outings as possible in before race day to make sure we are as prepared as possible.

On Wednesday our two 'Learn to Row' members came down again despite the cold, after intending to give them their first taste of life on the water, a strong wind and a changing tide put paid to their outing on safety grounds. Next week hopefully! Both Ian and Kathinka worked again on the ergos, and showed off impressive techniques for only 3 weeks training - great news. Wednesday also saw our Men's 2nd Fresher 4+ get out on the water with their coach Rachel, working towards BUCS, and despite the aforementioned difficult conditions they appeared to have a good outing, and are becoming relatively well drilled as a crew. Two more good sessions could just see them in a position to challenge the 1st Fresher 4+ in the race itself on the 18th February. It'll certainly be interesting to see how the two crews fare! Finally on Wednesday, we saw the re-emergence of our Men's Training 8+ after last weeks poor turn-out. With the changing tide making things difficult, we decided to wait until it had turned completely before putting them out on the water, and so the crew took part in a relay race on the ergos to wind down some time, which looked like great fun. When finally on the water, they endured a difficult session i'm told, but looking forward we're happy with their progress ahead of March's head races. The Women's Training 8+ on the other hand carried on where they left off last week with only 2 members in attendance, meaning they were left to do ergos unfortunately. Thanks to Annabel and Aimee for their commitment.

Wednesday night saw R.U.R.C's biggest social of the year to date, with the annual 'Pub Golf' competition being held in the Student Union and Putney. Our members looked great in their golfers outfits, but it seems not many could remember much about what actually happened! The sign of a good night it seems! There are un-confirmed reports that the team containing Club Captain Sam Sears, Richard Swoboda and new boy Ian Esplin may have won, but the rumours are unsubstantiated at present! Thanks to Rachel and Sam, our Social Secretaries (below), for organising the event!

Sam and Rachel at our Pub Golf social

Friday's water session was even colder than Tuesday's with our men getting out in their BUCS fours, and the girls, again depleted through illness, training in their eight. The men enjoyed the pleasure of a full session's coaching from Franki, and felt the benefit of it straight away, with the Senior 4+ especially looking much smoother (and faster) by the end of the session. Same goes for the 1st Fresher 4+. The girls in the eight had a good session also to end the week on a high. Next stop Peterborough!

(For those interested in this weeks R.U.R.C football scores (as i'm sure you are!) R.U.R.C F.C drew their game with top of the league Georgie Thompson F.C 6-6, with Row Your Boat F.C unfortunately suffering their second loss of the competition in their game. The teams were without some of their stars who were involved in pub golf though, so next week we're expecting some big wins!)