As February unfolds, the GB Rowing Team continue to train hard for Tokyo – amongst them is double Olympic champion, Helen Glover – an announcement that made the headlines recently. The mother of three is aiming to qualify for the Olympic team and her commitment to both her family and her rowing goals is an inspiration to all.

Lockdown is also continuing and our Adventurer Series is a great way to keep motivated. Run, row or walk the distance between iconic locations around the world and see how your time compares with others on our Challenge Hub!

Thanks to everyone who took part in January’s ROW31 – it was great to see so many people engaged in our Facebook community. If you’re missing ROW31, there are still plenty of indoor rowing workouts and technical advice to follow on .

There’s no doubt that the last few weeks have been a challenging time for everyone on many levels with COVID-19 and our national lockdown.

The weather has also played its part with many clubs once again impacted by severe flooding. The River Severn has been particularly affected with clubs such as Pengwern, Bewdley, Stourport, Worcester and Upton hit hard. In our article below, rowers from Bewdley, Maidenhead, Ross and Runcorn share their experiences.

Clubs remain the backbone of our sport and we are very aware that many are facing significant financial and other challenges. We are committed to supporting clubs through this challenging time. So, the Club Emergency Fund has been extended to support affiliated clubs whose future may be in jeopardy due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The new deadline for applications is 30 April 2021.

In addition to this funding, there are also a whole range of funding options available from the Government and Sport England to help support your club during the pandemic. Check this reminder of some of the funding options available from earlier last year here.

To keep connected with our clubs and membership, our Ask the Board webinar invited members of the rowing community to submit their questions to the Board. The webinar was well attended and proved a positive forum in which to discuss club and wider community issues.

Finally, I know for many it feels like a long winter with little or no chance to be out on the water and doing the sport you love. With the vaccine being rolled out successfully by the NHS we are working through our plans for how we can all safely return to the water, as and when, that is possible. If you have any need for support or ideas for how we achieve this across the sport, please do get in touch with our Club support team here.

Keep well and stay safe.

Andy Parkinson
British Rowing CEO

The post CEO Membership Column – February 2021 appeared first on British Rowing.

The Club of the Year award spotlights clubs that are forward-thinking and well-run, with a thriving membership base of any size. While all five nominees for Club of the Year reflect the British Rowing value of being ‘Open to all’, demonstrating this through their club activities or through links to their local community, the winner welcomes inclusivity and diversity like no other.

Located next to Hammersmith Bridge, (FRBC) exists to improve lives through rowing. The club works with four groups within the local community to give them access to the river and teach them life lessons from being in the boat.

Their citation outlines how the club provides river sessions for 1,300 pupils from 14 local state schools. The club teaches them how to improve their confidence, focus, ambition and team-working skills with more than 80% of participants saying we have had a positive effect in these areas.

The club provides:

• River sessions for 1,300 pupils from 14 local state schools
• Helps half of the schools compete as British Rowing affiliated clubs across the UK
• Offers indoor rowing clubs to five prisons across the South East of England
• Over the summer holidays the club offers free-to-attend courses for those students receiving the Pupil Premium to tackle the problem of holiday hunger

The four other outstanding nominees are listed below, together with highlights from their citations.

1. London Otters RC (Thames Region)

(LORC) was established in 2014 when our founders struggled to find a club where they could develop their skills, whilst being openly gay.

LORC now has over 150 members, the majority of whom identify as LGBT+. Our learn to row courses are the only UK courses actively open to trans and non-binary people.

In 2018 we represented our sport at the Gay Games in Paris, winning several medals.

We see our club as key to providing a much-needed contribution to the LGBT+ community in London, but also to championing LGBT inclusivity in all British Rowing clubs.

2. Milton Keynes RC (Eastern Region)

celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2020, the year when Milton Keynes is the European City of Sport. For 24 of those years, the club’s boats were stored outside. But in 2013 a project was launched to raise £90,000 for an ambitious build. In August 2019 members, family and friends celebrated the opening of a new boathouse and training area.

We are very grateful for support from Sport England, MK Council, MK Community Foundation and several local businesses – as well as to club members who organised many fundraising events.

Lou Rivett (project lead and former Chair) said: “Having the boathouse… will allow us to expand and offer more people in MK the opportunity to take part in the amazing sport of rowing.”

3. Tynemouth RC (Northern Region)

is a small, relaxed and friendly club, established 153 years ago in North Shields. Located in the mouth of the Tyne, we can go for weeks without being able to practise on the water, due to the conditions.

We mainly use a couple of stable coxed quads and singles. Two crews were runners-up in the 2019 Sunday League competition. We are also entering some head races for the first time in years, as composite crews with Tyne ARC.

Our growing membership of keen rowers, backed up by the support of senior members who are true stalwarts, gives us a positive outlook for the future.

4. University of Leeds BC (Yorkshire Region)

Our aim at is to be the best university boat club at delivering both grassroots participation and high-performance programmes. We believe this is a mission that makes our club unique among university clubs.

Our participation programme allows our members to enjoy the sport while prioritising studying, or other interests. The highlight of the season for our social rowers is the Yorkshire Social Rowing League, established successfully last year.

As well as this, our performance results are improving every year, with club records set at the Head of the River, BUCS Regatta, Henley Women’s Regatta and Henley Royal Regatta in 2019.

We are also strong believers in the power of sport to do two crucial things: empower young leaders and improve social mobility. As the largest mixed-gender sports society on campus, we promote equal opportunities to both male and female athletes.

Thanks to the British Rowing Awards Panel for their time selecting our Club of the Year winner. On the panel were Laura Lion (British Rowing Board), Jo Virr (Captain, Castle Dore RC), Ian Dryden (Chief Coach, Canford School) and Will McGrath (Chairman, Shoreham RC).

We are celebrating the winners of the British Rowing Awards 2020 all the way up until 31 December so please keep and eye out for other winners #BRAwards2020

The post British Rowing Awards: Club of the Year winner appeared first on British Rowing.

The British Rowing Club Crew of the Year is for adult club crews with outstanding achievements in the 2019 calendar year, or over the course of the 2018/19 season. Nominated by the Eastern Region, Bev Goodchild and Jen Titterington from and have had an exceptional season, becoming the first women’s crew from East Anglia to qualify for an open event at Henley Royal Regatta.

Just one of their many achievements, read on to find out more from their citation below:

Following an amazingly successful 2017/18 season, their second together as a crew where they were winners at the Pairs Head, Wallingford Regatta and losing finalists at Henley Women’s Regatta, they completed an intense winter training campaign. This included a very commendable fifth women’s crew overall at the 2018 Pairs Head and eight other wins during the local winter head season in their double and single sculls.

Summer highlights included entering Henley Royal in the Stonor Challenge Trophy, an open level event for women, with, they thought, next to no chance of qualifying.

To everyone’s amazement they were one of the four crews to qualify, eliminating crews that contained GB squad members and a former world lightweight champion. This is the first time in history that a women’s crew from East Anglia have qualified for an open event at HRR. They were knocked out on Friday after a very spirited attempt.

To put these achievements into perspective, these two scullers both live in Ipswich and train at Ipswich RC, although Jen often races in Sudbury RC kit. Ipswich is a very small, recently formed club, operating from a Portakabin, with some weights set up in an old shipping container. It has a few boats stored on a marina pontoon and rows on a tidal estuary with a busy commercial port to negotiate.

The level of commitment and dedication shown by Bev and Jen has been exceptional, training daily at the club in less than ideal, challenging conditions. They each have demanding full-time careers but have put rowing first above everything else; fitting their training demands around their employment obligations. Neither was a long-time rower with Bev having learnt at university and with three years’ experience before the crew was formed, and Jen having been sculling for only one year.

Four other outstanding crews were all nominated by their respective regions. We include highlights from their citations below.

Kingston RC men’s eight (Thames Region)

The men’s eight had a successful campaign in the winter head race programme placing 18th overall in the Head of the River Race in March with one of the best results ever achieved by the club.

In the summer regatta season, the crew emerged as the fastest club eight in the country, beating all-comers at the prestigious Marlow Regatta in June.

At HRR, they competed in the Thames Cup for men’s club eights and consistently recorded the fastest times among the UK club crews, narrowly losing in the third round to an overseas crew which won the event.

All the crew had full-time jobs.

Talkin Tarn ARC women’s masters C 4x (Northern Region)

This crew had 18 wins as a crew at regattas across the North of England, Scotland and won three gold medals at the British Rowing Masters Championships in 2019. This was in W C4x-, W C4+ and NC Int W A-C 4x-.

The crew is from a small club with few members who compete and their ages range from 27 to 57. They train together four to five times a week while fulfilling their roles as Club President, Club Captain, Vice-Captain and Secretary. Three coach at the club and one drives the safety boat for training while another tows the club’s trailer.

This crew are not only competing at the highest level for a masters crew – they are also building a club for the future.

Thames RC women’s first eight (Thames Region)

has won the ‘club eights’ category at Henley Women’s Regatta many times, but recent success has come mainly in small boats. As the 2018/19 season began, we pinpointed success in club eights as one of the main goals.

Like many others, the Thames women juggled their rowing with the pressure of careers and study.

Their hard work paid off. At HWR, all three Thames eights reached the quarter-finals. While the B and C crews lost their second races, the A crew made the final, securing victory against a tenacious City of Bristol crew by two lengths.

At HRR, they then became the only full club crew to qualify for the Remenham Challenge Cup. An excellent end to a landmark season.

York City RC women’s masters E (Yorkshire Region)

The Women’s Masters E crew had a superb year in 2019. This group of women book ended the year with Tideway Head victories at the Veterans Head with a Masters E win and then returned in November to secure Masters D and E wins in coxed fours.

They picked up gold medals at the British Rowing Masters Championships in the eight as well as in D and E coxed fours again.

Six travelled to the World Masters Regatta in Hungary and they all came back with at least one medal.

This crew have all been great ambassadors for rowing and for masters women’s rowing.

Thanks to the British Rowing Awards Panel for their time selecting all our Club Crew of the Year Award winners – Karena Vleck, Jim Williams (President, Hereford RC), Tanya Podinovskaia (Captain of Boats, Warwick BC) and David Oates (Chair, Windermere RC).

We are celebrating the winners of the British Rowing Awards 2020 all the way up until 31 December so please keep and eye out for other winners #BRAwards2020

The post British Rowing Awards: Club Crew of the Year winner appeared first on British Rowing.

The strapline to Star Club’s lockdown newsletter – ‘It’s not about rowing or being fit – it’s about belonging’ – really sums up the club’s sense of community. Star Club Chairman David Rainbow explains how a , created during lockdown, has helped foster club spirit.

1 – How did the newsletter come about?

David: We found ourselves locked-down and isolated and the clubroom chat and camaraderie was gone for a while. We could see 1,001 different WhatsApp groups popping up, but they were missing links between each other – the club needed to find its voice and provide the glue that would keep us all part of Star Club.

We wanted to create something that could replace some of that missing community. The committee were also acutely aware that these were worrying times financially for many members and yet we needed them to understand how important it was to stick with us through an unprecedented period.

2 – The newsletter promotes new club initiatives including a book club and a Star digital photo archive. How did these start?

The ideas are all really exciting and, in all honesty, they came from the members and not the committee. I could see people reminiscing over past rowing photos on WhatsApp. I know which members have a passion for club history and photography and they kindly agreed to run with the idea.

The book club was the brainchild of one member with a love of books and a willingness to take the lead.

They’re the kind of people who make running the club easy and rewarding.  We are especially hopeful that the digital archive could become a really valuable resource to members, ex-members and their families, but we are feeling our way into it.

If anyone has experience of doing this at other clubs then we would love to hear from them.

“It’s a lovely place to have a coffee or grab lunch, and it has made the club part of a much wider community”

3 – The hardship fund is also a fantastic initiative

This started as quite an emotional reaction to the pandemic. We are fortunate that hardly any of our members have had to ask to terminate their membership because of money worries, but we weren’t sure that this would be the case.

We will be changing the name from ‘hardship’ to something broader because Bedford is a very diverse town and we have now committed to make ourselves much more open and affordable to all.

We are very much aware that rowing is too expensive for some families to afford and so we are embarking on new plans to increase access to rowing across all segments of the community.

Securing the funds to stop money being a barrier to talent is very important to us and resonates with both our founding principles and current sponsors.

4 – The club cafe even had a mention…

is our cafe franchise that we started in 2019 and operates from the clubhouse (as well as other sites in Bedford). Charlie (Charlotte) Fay and her staff have quickly become part of the fabric of the place and it has been a growing success in many ways – in normal times, the clubhouse is busy. It’s a lovely place to have a coffee or grab lunch, and it has made the club part of a much wider community.

Lots of groups with nothing to do with rowing now meet there (meditation, dementia care, even knitting!) and it brings lots of people into the clubhouse tor coffee, breakfasts and lunches.

That’s why we wanted her to have a section in the newsletter – Charlie and her team have worked so hard to make a success of the new venture and members really miss them and their snacks.

5 – Is another newsletter being planned?

We are aiming for a quarterly newsletter with interim email updates as needed, supplemented by Twitter and Instagram for anyone born after 1990.

Once you have established the newsletter format then it’s the content that takes time and not the presentation, so yes – we’ve taken a step forwards and we will not be stepping back, so long as someone is able to help the committee get to grips with basic desktop publishing.

The post ‘It’s not about rowing or being fit – it’s about belonging’ appeared first on British Rowing.

When was forced to shut in March because of the Covid-19 pandemic, it didn’t take long before members started missing the rowing and socialising. After the decision was taken to cancel the annual regatta, spirits sank to an all-time low. To bring the club together, albeit virtually, club captain Jason Lee and student club member George Fraser suggested a challenge. We share the club’s story below…

The challenge was to exercise the 15,247,180m from Hereford in the UK to Hereford in the USA – and back – during the month of May.

Making the H2H4H (Hereford to Hereford for Hereford) challenge as inclusive as possible: indoor rowing, cycling, running and walking could contribute to the total distance. However, staying true to our roots as a rowing club, we aimed to complete the distance one way (7,623,590m) on indoor rowers alone. All money raised was to be split 50/50 between the club and Hereford NHS workers. The club had been damaged from the floods earlier this year.

The challenge started incredibly well, clocking over half a million metres on the first day – with three members completing 33km ergs – but Hereford RC wanted to spread their message even further.

So, on the second week, George went on BBC Hereford & Worcester which helped spread the word in Hereford. With Hereford in the US being incredibly close to Amarillo, the club then created their own spoof video to the backing of “” starring Captain Jason in the lead role with lots of other club members also making an appearance.

The challenge started incredibly well, clocking over half a million metres on the first day

This video very quickly got a lot of publicity, with thousands of views across social media and it seemed certain Jason was a favourite for an Oscar.

Off the back of the success from the Amarillo video, Hereford member Kath Killick got in contact with KAMR Local 4 news, a TV show in Texas and Captain with Shardae LaRae from KAMR. It was played on American TV – Hereford RC was famous! The club also received many donations from residents of Hereford, USA, so they certainly got the message!

As time went on, people were still working hard and mileage was increasing at a rapid rate. Morale was certainly boosted when Jason led from the front with a 50,000m erg and junior member Inigo smashed out a marathon, a huge feat for a J14 rower.

The video was played on American TV – Hereford RC was famous!

Soon, we found ourselves on the final weekend and “Super Saturday” certainly didn’t disappoint.

The Hereford RC community smashed it.

Many of the mixed masters took part in marathons and half marathons, including the “Mattathon” from Matt Lewis and Matt Thompson. Another good challenge came from the McSherry family where Liam raced a relay with the rest of his family over a half marathon. There were also many other great achievements completed from all the members taking part.

So how did we do?

We exceeded our target of Hereford UK to Hereford US and back (15,247,180m) by exercising a total of 23,117,364m and managed to complete the distance purely on rowing machine metres (7,984,264m). We even banked an extra seven million metres for ‘virtual sightseeing’ when we got to the US!

Meanwhile, Super Saturday ended with a virtual barbecue over Zoom and an auction which raised £2,490!

To date, we have raised over £9,000. We would like to thank all the members who have donated. We also had generous donations from Concept2, Oarthentic Oars, Crewroom, Swift Racing, Termaxx, Capability Bramble and Sons, Stitch, Holt Farm Stables, Giedre Rakauskaite, Jack Beaumont, Olli Zeidler and Olaf Tufte.

Overall, we completed all our targets, raised vital funds but, most importantly, we have developed a wonderful sense of common purpose that has pulled us closer together.

If you’d like to support Hereford RC, then you can find out more .

The post Hereford rowers ‘travel’ to Hereford, USA and back to fundraise appeared first on British Rowing.

Before the Covid-19 lockdown Kathryn Henderson was busy running her own sports massage practice and café at Ryton Health Hub, a few minutes’ drive from just outside Newcastle.

As sport massage therapist at (DUBC), Kathryn (pictured above with the tray) would spend Thursdays treating the rowers and listening to any other problems they might have in their lives. DUBC Head Coach Wade Hall-Craggs would send text messages at 4am on Wednesdays and Saturdays asking Kathryn to send through a quick video of river conditions on the Tyne.

But then Covid-19 arrived.

For the last 12 weeks, Kathryn and a team of five other volunteers have been working round the clock six days a week to provide hot meals to the area’s vulnerable and housebound citizens. But the service also provides an emotional lifeline to the community’s most at-risk people, and a welcome chance for them to have a friendly chat every day.

Kathryn says: “We live in a village so there’s only a small Sainsbury’s and a small Co-op. In the first two weeks of lockdown we were getting calls from some of the more vulnerable people – and some were in tears because everything was sold out. So, I called the rugby club and they went and bought them supplies.

“We were getting reports back of people getting depressed and not being able to cope, so we then started cooking meals.

“It began with about 10 people and now it’s up to 34 – people came from Age Concern and some of the local Covid-19 groups.

“They are all vulnerable, so it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster. Sometimes they’re fine, but sometimes they’re a bit depressed. I ring round everyone every day to chat to them and if some are feeling a bit low, then I tell the driver to talk to them (social distancing of course!) for a bit longer.

While most day’s meals are based around meat, gravy and vegetables, together with soup or a dessert, VE Day on 8 May prompted Kathryn’s team to go one step further, creating a special afternoon tea with sandwiches, quiches and cakes.

A local chip shop always gives us fish and chips on Wednesdays

She says: “We included a note with what was going on during the day on TV and they seemed to really like this.”

People really appreciated the thoughtfulness and effort, with a relative of one of the recipients writing on Facebook, “I’ve just been on the phone to my relative who has been receiving the meals. They have really enjoyed VE day and the wonderful spread you provided.

“They’ve asked me to say a big thank you to all involved on their behalf. They’ve been stuck at home for 61 days so far, as they started earlier. Your efforts are most appreciated and are their highlight of each day. Thank you so much.”

I’m the northern mum for the students when they’re here for their three-year courses. I really miss them!

Though Kathryn works with two people in the kitchen and three volunteers deliver the meals safely to everyone, it’s a real community effort. In all, the team need about £200 to provide meals every week and with all food either donated or bought with donations, it’s a real measure of community spirit that the service has been able to keep going for so long.

“A couple of weeks ago we really needed some money to carry on and people immediately donated. A local chip shop always gives us fish and chips on Wednesdays.”

Kathryn adds: “I was born and bred here, and I just think that these vulnerable people could be my parents. It picks them up. It’s a generation that tends to have a landline and they’re not so good with technology. There is a bit of talk about ailments sometimes, so I often end up having a mini-clinic over the phone!”

When everything returns to normal and people are free to stop self-isolating, she plans to invite them over to her café for a coffee, so they can meet each other and talk about their lockdown experiences.

And hopefully the student rowers will return to Ryton Health hub to have their ailments treated too.

Kathryn says: “The standing joke is that I’m the northern mum for the students when they’re here for their three-year courses. I really miss them!”

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It’s the 25th anniversary of the founding of this year.��So, we had a 25th anniversary fitness challenge throughout May with each member picking something they committed to doing 25 times in 25 days – of the 31 days in May, allowing up to six rest days.

It’s a bit strange to celebrate individually rather than together on the water now it’s regatta season, but we are all working hard to keep the club spirit going.

Our women’s captain cycled 25km for each of the 25 days – and had frequent headwinds! Another member, Carlos, did 25 x 25 flights of stairs, Ben climbed 2,500ft on the turbo in 25 different countries while Alison stuck to 25 minutes of yoga for 25 days. Plus, some people committed to 2,500m or 25 minutes on the ergo, while others ran for 25 minutes or did 25 x circuits and more.

It wasn’t monitored except by the individual – it was simply a commitment to ongoing fitness, a celebration of club spirit, with support available from other club mates for those days when we didn’t feel like doing it.

One family – Claire and her sons Thomas, Reuben and Toby – all entered into the challenge with gusto.��Claire ran 5,000m a day with the family dog Forrest, who enjoyed stretching his legs too.

Our women’s captain cycled 25km for each of the 25 days – and had frequent headwinds!

The family is also doing the club circuits every weekend via Zoom as well as competing in the virtual Ergatta hosted by .��The May Ergatta had a division for running 1km and club mates were not surprised that Claire rocked this in 3.41 – the fastest woman competing.��The boys did their 1km on the erg, sent in their results, and then Reuben decided he could do better, so did it again and took six seconds off his time!

Our oldest active rower, Clay, completed 25 x 5km on the erg and finished with a personal best on 26 May. Meanwhile, Kay graduated from a learn to row course in October and has been on her bike for the challenge – often stopping to take the most wonderful photographs of the seaside to keep the rest of us happy as we suffer being locked-down inland.

Club captain, Pete, went a bit gung-ho with the challenge.

He says: “My pledge was to do a set of 25 sit-ups on day one, increasing by one set per day and doing whatever else I could fit in around work etc.

“Between each set of sit-ups I did 25 other exercises, e.g. press-ups, triceps dips, squats, one-legged squats, planks etc. I decided to do it all straight through, so 25 straight days, culminating on 25 May.”

I think the word ‘25’ has become a swear word for her

So, on Monday 25 May this meant that Pete did 25 x 25 sets of sit-ups = 625, plus a set of 25 other exercises in between each sit-up set, making a further 625 exercises. He also did 25km on the ergo, rating at 25spm and then a 25-mile bike ride!

He adds: “I think I must have burnt 2,500 calories today. I’m also doing 25 days without alcohol during May which finishes at the end of the month.

“I’m having a rest for a couple of days and eating dinner when my wife, Gina, wants to! I think the word ‘25’ has become a swear word for her.”

Overall, we’re all looking forward to getting back on the water, and hopeful that legs and lungs will have benefited from the 25th anniversary challenge, so the only hazard will be blade-handle blisters for scullers who haven’t been gardening!

The post Ardingly rowers celebrate 25th anniversary with training challenges appeared first on British Rowing.

Located by the River Weaver, is just over half an hour from Liverpool and the club’s website claims that it offers rowers the ‘best stretch of water in the North West’. With group activities on the water suspended because of the Covid-19 lockdown, rowers are thankful that the club’s varied programme of online challenges and training classes are keeping them in shape for when things return to normal again.

Club captain George Perrin says: “Clearly, as we move forward, we will have to be very careful to ensure we continue to abide by government and British Rowing guidelines to minimise risk to members and society.

“The demand for time on the water is considerable – after all we are a rowing club. The next phase is to cater for those who can, and want to single, whilst looking after those more attuned to crew rowing, so it will be a mixture of sculling, zooming and quizzing.”

Since the lockdown started, like many clubs up and down the country, Runcorn has organised Zoom sessions to keep members connected.

George says: “We are acutely conscious that the rowing machine is the main rowing tool, but we also have almost daily gym sessions over Skype and other video facilities. The juniors are being set tasks such as designing a body circuit and the seniors are undertaking virtual weekend outings on the rowing machine as they normally do.”

Women’s Vice Captain Jackie Hamer has given the squad a six-week plan on the rowing machine which can also be adapted to cycling.

Rowing is my main recreation, so it is a big loss socially

The women’s squad also have three main sessions a week via Skype starting on Mondays with core and yoga. Their Wednesday session is ‘Spell your way to a stronger core’ where each letter of the alphabet relates to a circuit training exercise and a different word or phrase is spelled each time. After doing squats on Friday the squad relax with a chat over a glass of wine.

A member of the masters’ squad, Mark Staden lives in a household of six – and with regular requests to help with school-work, training gives him the chance to find time for himself.

He follows the weekly plan, competes in the virtual Runcorn race league and does the strength and conditioning class with his son, a keen rower, and the reason why he took up the sport himself a year ago.

Mark says: “Physically I’m getting better but, as I’m determined to improve, I’m doing some extra so that’s helping too. Due to the contact with other club members and the activities being provided, it’s great for my mental well-being as well.

It is those who take advantage of times like these who are more likely to become champions

“Over the last year, the sport has become a big part of my life not only in terms of rowing, but in terms of helping out at the club, and supporting my son and his rowing activities; therefore, it’s a big gap. However, on the plus side it does mean I don’t have to get up early at weekends and travel over to the club for training or for races!”

Fellow masters rower Bill Aldridge was lured back onto the water when his son took up the sport, learning to row at university, as Bill had done himself in the 1970s.

“Rowing is my main recreation, so it is a big loss socially,” he says.

“Fortunately, physically I have no issues. I have a rowing machine at home, plus a weights rack and bike. Mentally, I am okay. Still working, and able to exercise. It’s just the boredom of land training, and not getting on the water.”

Looking ahead to brighter times, his ambitions are: “Go faster, win a medal at Nat Champs, and win Vets Henley.”

Mark adds: “Whilst it’s a huge disappointment for everyone that races have been cancelled, it’s a great opportunity for all to improve. It is those who take advantage of times like these who are more likely to become champions.”

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As the national lockdown got underway, Phil Haigh, Club Chair at , decided to organise a virtual regatta. This was made possible by the club’s foresight in lending rowing machines to members before closing the club. We asked Phil for his top five tips for running a virtual regatta successfully. Over to Phil >>>

1.��Enjoy it

The event was an opportunity to break the monotony of isolation, stimulate more interest in training, introduce a competitive edge to training, and bring people together for some social interaction, but most of all it was about having fun.

We had great fun with the racing, but also with the regatta WhatsApp group-chat and Twitter-feed where there was talk of virtual trailer loading, virtual cruisers on the course and real regatta cakes. I even wore my club blazer for the filming of the draw.

2.��Be inclusive

I included all sections of the club and ended up with a diverse entry list. The age range was from 13 to 72 years and included men, women, juniors, seniors, masters and a PR2 Para rower. A real sense of club unity was generated and people who would not meet at the club in normal circumstances came together remotely.

3.��Make racing fair and equal

A handicapping system which made allowances for weight, age, gender and ability enabled rowers to compete head-to-head on equal terms and produced some very close results. I left it to competitors to decide where they set up their rowing machines with the proviso that they took responsibility for their own safety. We had rowers in gardens, garages, spare rooms and on driveways.

4.��Be flexible with the format

I adapted the format and schedule to suit the number of entrants. Races were over 1km and each person had at least two races but no more than five. Entry numbers fell neatly into round-robin group stages followed by knock-out rounds and a final. It was important to allow athletes adequate recovery time between races – and also to allow me time to calculate handicaps and post the results.

5.��Learn, adapt, innovate, share

I have learnt from the event and I have shared details of the format and handicap system with several other clubs who have run their own virtual regattas and fed back their experiences and innovations to me.

We are now planning our next event. I will modify the handicaps, change the race distances, possibly include a time trial and include a race for scratch quads. I will also look at the possibility of running a parallel event with activities for people without access to a rowing machine.

Find out more about Doncaster Rowing Club .��

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Based in East London on the bank of the River Thames at Greenwich, Curlew Rowing Club has set up an online clubhouse via Slack to keep its 150 members informed and engaged.

“Slack is going really well,” says Emily Wilsher, club information officer.

“We have about 70 people using it and our coach Alex Brown posts home workouts every day which really helps.

“It’s been really good for me. One day not training leads to two days not training, but then Alex dropping me a line really helps to keep me motivated.”

The club is keen to look after the well-being of everyone, including prospective members.

Emily says: “The learn to row course attendees were in the middle of their course when the lockdown happened, so they had to stop. We’re trying to keep them engaged as well and they’ve been asking lots of questions – what to do on the rowing machines and with weights, and how to do certain movements etc.”

The Curlew committee chose Slack because the design looked better and had useful options for their virtual clubhouse, including direct and private messaging, sharing links and video calling. They wanted to be able to really interact with the membership rather than sending out mass emails which had the danger of becoming a one-way conversation.

In addition to his home workouts, Alex also holds a Zoom call every so often for the club where anyone can join in the chat and also calls individual members to check how things are going.

We had a bingo quiz last week which was fun with club kit as prizes

One of the coaches had coronavirus but, luckily, has now recovered fully. Club members also include some doctors and nurses working on the frontline in Covid-19 wards.

Emily says: “It’s been really nice to see how people are getting on and Alex makes sure that everyone has the chance to talk.

“Feedback from the Zoom call is really good and I think people really appreciate Alex’s efforts.”

If anyone loses their job then we make sure that they don’t lose their membership

On a lighter note, the social team – Ed, Stu and Tom – also host a regular quiz on Zoom with over 30 people taking part so far.

“We had a bingo quiz last week which was fun with club kit as prizes. And ‘It’s who wants to be a millionaire’ next week. The quizzes have gone down really well. And of course, we’ve also swapped pet pictures!”

Curlew is determined to support members as much as possible with reduced membership fees during the lockdown.

Emily adds: “If anyone loses their job then we make sure that they don’t lose their membership – they still have access to Slack and the community support available through it.

“We want to make sure that everyone can come back to the real clubhouse when things open again.”

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