THE BEACON

2 New Boats, a New Sponsor, a 'ROCK' Social and the Head of the River = 1 Very Eventful Week!

The clue is in the title - this has certainly been one of Roehampton University Rowing Club's busiest weeks EVER! The first big news of the week came in the form of Men's Squad member Jeppe Fensholt approaching us about the possibility of his dad's company becoming our new sponsor. We obviously thought long and hard about this (not too long though!) and graciously accepted. As such we are pleased to announce that our new sponsor for the coming season will be Murmester Fensholt & Sons A/S of Oslo, Norway. They kindly donated £600 to add to the money from our massively successful London to Brighton bike ride fundraiser, thus allowing us to purchase our new 1987 Empacher VIII from our neighbours Quintin Boat Club! That means that overall our fundraising efforts raised not only the £2000 needed to buy the boat, but we still have a good amount of money left over to hopefully purchase a CoxBox. What an achievement! We collected our new boat on Friday morning, and used it for a short session with our newly painted oars before using them both in anger for the first time at Saturday's Head of the River, but more on that later! The VIII has been coded as ROE018 in recognition of the 18 people who started and completed the bike ride, and has been named THE BEACON after the famously steep hill just before Brighton on the ride's route. We'll be sure to add some close up shots of the boat later this week, but for the meantime try and spot it in our HORR pictures below! Massive thanks again to everyone that donated to our fundraiser, our new sponsor, and also Mark Chatwin and Alex Page at Quintin for helping us out with the purchase.

A sticker carrying this logo will be added to THE BEACON very soon as part of our new sponsorship arrangement

Not content with purchasing one new boat last week, R.U.R.C also had a hand in purchasing another. Men's Captain Sam Neal, Treasurer/Fundraiser Diana Lava and Hannu Hara have chipped in together, with a contribution from Sport Roehampton, to purchase a single scull. The idea being the 3 private owners can use it at their leisure for their own training whilst it can be used by other club members at R.U.R.C sessions. We think this will be massively useful going forward. The boat is a 10(?) year old Burgashell Super Carbon purchased from Monmouth Rowing Club in Wales. It was kindly delivered to us on Saturday as Monmouth too were competing this weekend, and was rowed back to TTRC by Club Captain Sam Sears, who had an amazing time in it apparently! The boat has been given the ID ROE101, and has yet to be named. Check out below for a pic of the new boat, and also a pic of the Croker oars which came with it.

R.U.R.C's new single!

Wednesday night saw our latest social, this one being 'ROCK' themed - think KISS, Black Sabbath etc. Safe to say, as always with R.U.R.C the night was not only brilliantly attended but also massively enjoyable. Thanks again to Rachel Esker and Sam Kirby for being so dedicated to getting our rowers drunken and disorderly! Think the below photo sums up the evening nicely!

Amy, Rachel and Sarah at last week's 'ROCK' social.

And so onto the weekend, and the biggest race of the head season - HEAD OF THE RIVER. Roehampton University Rowing Club entered 2 crews into this years event, which is a massive achievement in itself when last year we were struggling to put together 1! The boys in both crews did us proud, and despite a few set-backs in the preceding week, each crew put in a performance we are all happy with. Our 1st VIII came home 381st overall, 54th out of 64 in their category, in a time of 22:03 which despite worse conditions was quicker than last year! Our 2nd VIII came 394th overall in a time of 24:04 which is comparable to last years crew, and in itself is a massive achievement. See below for a few selected pictures of the boys.

Men's 2nd VIII - Toby Ballentyne, Antonis Mavrommattis, Mike Benson, Diana Lava (Cox), Ryan Livingstone, Tom Sykes-Brown, Reece Pawsey and Ben Thompson. (Matt Dodd not pictured)

Both crews!

Men's 1st VIII - Sam Neal, Jeppe Fensholt, Jan Erik Haavik, Sam Sears, Amy Austen (Cox), Richard Swoboda, Mike Bretton, David Bedford and Hannu Hara

RURC brave the London to Brighton Cycle

On Sunday the 26th of February, R U R C took on the challenge of cycling to Brighton. We faced 58 miles, with food in our backpacks and no other means of transport than our bicycles. The event was a success! 20 participants, both amateurs in cycling and a few proficient cyclists, took part in the event in order to raise money for the Club.

The team filled a car with bags of food, changes of clothes, spare layers and tools for anything that could possibly go wrong. Rachel Esker, our fantastic Social Secretary, drove the support car, and even tried her hand at cycling.

The route was successfully completed by every participant in 7 hours! None of us quit or gave into the exhaustion and pain. And despite the two punctures and the one fall, the team got to Brighton alive and ready to enjoy their time there.

RURC did what no other team has done in Roehampton, and had their first over-night social event away from London. It was a great success and kick started at a Whetherspoons near the Travel Lodge the team stayed at. An event that I am certain the team is more than willing to repeat next year.

The route took the team through a few hills, country roads and a lot of gorgeous scenery all the way to Brighton; but it was completed with great enthusiasm and support. RURC are extremely grateful for the support that was given for the event. Thank you to Putney Cycles for the fleet of bikes, RoeActive for the continuous use of the gym. Rachel Esker for the support car, Steven Coates for videoing the event (hopefully we will be able to post this soon!), Robin Dodson for his expertise in the route and supporting the cyclists. Thank you as well for every participant for having the courage to set off at 7.30 am on a Sunday and putting your bodies through hell to raise money for the club. All the proceeds are going towards our first boat that will soon be purchased and named. RURC are extremely proud of this fundraiser and promise to make the next one amazing. Thank you for everyone who sponsored us and helped make this bike ride possible. We enjoyed it just as much as we hated it. Some members of the team are considering cycling it again this Summer for fun, so if you want to cycle with RURC get in touch with one of us. Until the next torturous, challenging and epic fundraiser event!

BRIGHTON PIER!

Head Race Double Header!

Fresh off the back of a good weeks training, and our two 5-a-side football teams facing off against each other last Wednesday (RURC FC triumphing over Row Your Boat FC 11-3), Roehampton University Rowing Club took part in 2 big events on the tideway this weekend. Our Women's 1st VIII raced in the biggest women's event of the year on Saturday, the 7k Women's Head of the River, whilst our Men's 1st VIII competed on the Sunday at the 5k Hammersmith Head. Both races went extremely well which is credit to our rowers! In glorious sunshine the girls came in 272nd out of 287 crews and by all accounts looked smooth and good all the way down the course. The Captain at TTRC commented on the Sunday how good they looked and was 100% surprised they didn't finish higher! In completely contrasting conditions on Sunday (the weather was horrific) the boys came home 91st out 105 crews, gaining 10 places on their finish position last year and beating novice crews from some really good clubs such as Thames RC and Twickenham. Both results bode really well for next year when the majority of the crews will still be with us. A great weekends effort. Check below for some photos from the races, and also check back soon for an update and photos from last weeks London to Brighton bike ride fundraiser - it was EPIC! Thanks also to everyone who attended and contributed at the R.U.R.C AGM last Tuesday. Much appreciated.

Women's 1st VIII at WeHORR 2012

Men's 1st VIII at the Hammersmith Head 2012