Important
Note! Racing Licences for Inverness
8s and Small Boats Head:
A reminder of the notice from the Race Control Convenor published
on 25th January (scroll down to re-read): it takes 2 weeks to turn
round a licence application. Inverness Head (always one of the biggest)
is 2 weeks tomorrow - so if you think you even MIGHT end
up racing you need to get your licence application off through your
club right away. Otherwise you could be one of the first to suffer
the new fines for racing without a licence - Ouch!!
Rowers
take indoor medals: a retrospective on last Sunday's
indoor championships in the Highland News. Unfortunately I haven't
been able to find any other press write-ups about clubs' successes
at the event. Anybody else able to point me at them?
Rowing Instructor Certificate (RIC): Callum
Macdonald (SARA Development Officer) has just published details
of his first coaching course, at RIC level, to be held over the
weekends 8-9 March and 15-16 March at the National Rowing Academy.
Callum points out that assistance with the cost of such courses
can be sought from your local authority sports development section.
Full details and the course
application form are available as downloads.
29 January
Keep the
Scottish Rowing Awards nominations coming! Nominations
close on 9th February - this is your chance to recognise the achievements
or hard work of someone you respect in the sport. Here are links
to the background info and rules
- but in truth you can probably cut straight to the chase by either
going to the on-line nomination form
or by downloading the Word
version for postal nominations.
Changed times at Strathclyde Park: as daylight
extends (honest!), the booking hours for boats at Strathclyde Park
are shifting also. The first booking slot has so far started at
0930: this now changes to 0800 each day.
Results from
SARA Open Indoor Rowing Championships: apologies for the
delay in getting these up (now complete with 500m split times).
Combination of an unfamiliar database and 'life getting in the way
of rowing'! Still looking for photos from the event . . . please
do e-mail me any you are happy to share.
SARA Indoor
Champs - send me your photos! Great atmosphere at Sunday's
SARA Indoor Rowing Championships at the David Lloyd Centre in Renfrew.
Huge thanks to them, and especially to Concept 2's traveling event
team of Simon and Ben. Superb presentation, guys.
I'm working through the race results which will bring up full stats
with 500m splits. But it will take until into Monday to get this
lot ready for the web.
Meantime SEND
ME YOUR PICTURES FROM THE EVENT. If you have editing software
to keep the file sizes sensible, crop your pics for best content,
then save at 400 pixel width and 72 dpi before sending as JPGs (if
you take/scan pics, you'll know what I mean!). I may even be able
to drop your (photographer-credited of course) pics into the results
files to which they relate.
25 January
Official
Notice re Racing Licences. This from Sandy Walker, the
Race Control Convenor: "The new licence arrangements go live
this weekend and new and replacement licences for 2003 will be available
to accredited club representatives, who have been previously advised
to the Convenor of Racing Control, at the SARA Indoor Rowing Championships
on Sunday afternoon. The new system will replace the previous blue
card and will be broadly similar to the ARA arrangements.
Competitors are reminded that with the new season almost upon us
a minimum of 2 weeks is required to turn round applications from
one point source in each club. The SARA AGM decreed that anyone
competing without a valid licence is liable to a surcharge of doubling
the appropriate licence fee. Clubs can use the download on this
web site for the licence
application form or return last years licence card duly completed
when making a submission to the Convenor of Racing Control.
Applicants should therefore get their forms sent in ASAP before
entering a regatta, as an application coincident with a regatta
entry will be too late."
24 January
3-times
World Lightweight Sculling Champion Peter Haining (stroke),
here racing in the coxless pair with Martin Harris in Peter's
last major 2002 regatta appearance in Britain at Henley Royal
Regatta.
(Photo Martin Worth)
Scottish rowing legend retires: Peter Haining,
Scotland's most successful oarsman ever, has announced his retirement
from international competition.
Haining was World Champion in lightweight single sculls in 1993,
1994 and 1995. When I spoke to him this morning, however, he quipped
that "People always forget the 10 years I spent getting my
backside whipped before I actually won anything!"
This is, perhaps, slightly disingenuous. In reality Peter had already
won 3 silver medals at the World Rowing Championships - two in the
lightweight coxless four and one in the lightweight coxless pair
- before switching to the single and striking gold. His most recent
World Championships medal was another silver in lightweight coxless
pairs, again with crew mate Nick Strange, in 1998. They missed gold
by just 0.3 of a second.
Haining, now 40, started his rowing career at Loch Lomond ARC.
He made a welcome return to competition in Scotland this year, winning
men's coxless pairs with another Thames-based Scot, Martin Harris.
Whilst Scots may have hoped Haining would be available for the Commonwealth
team, GB had other plans and Haining had one final outing in the
GB lightweight eight at the World Rowing Championships in 2002.
Whatever the future holds for Peter, he leaves a legacy which will
stand as a challenge and inspiration to any young aspirant in the
sport.
22 January
SARA Open
Indoor Rowing Championships: the text of the full
programme, with competitors' names, times of races and instructions
for competitors on the day, is now up. Note for prospective
Scotland Team Members: there will be a mailbox at the competitor
registration point on Sunday for anyone wanting to hand in a Team
Registration Form.
Hiring of SARA Boat Fleet: there have been some
changes to the rules for hiring at the Park-
and to the guidelines affecting hires which would take boats away
from Strathclyde Park.
Glasgow University BC former members: GUBC are
updating their records. If you were a GUBC member at some stage
and haven't received any 'news updates' from them recently (i.e.
think you may have got overlooked!), they would be grateful if you
could fill
in the form on their web site so that the contact can be renewed.
20 January
Late News:
SARA Indoor Rowing Championshipsrace
order. Full race schedule for Sunday's championships is now
up. Must surely rank as the biggest indoor rowing event yet in Scotland
- unless (tempting fate) somebody knows different? It's the full
Concept indoor rowing event presentation, so even if you didn't
enter, it's worth turning up as a spectator (event
details).
The
Scottish Rowing Awards - you can make your nominations on line from
today! Nominations for the Scottish Rowing Awards - which
recognise excellence or endeavour in the sport in the 2002 competitive
year - are invited from both individuals and clubs. This is your
chance to nominate people you admire in Scottish Rowing for some
deserved recognition. There are junior, senior, male and female
classes for competitors. There are also awards for coaches and for
'volunteers'
Follow this link to the section of the
SARA web site dedicated to the awards (includes the classes of awards,
rules, online nominations, downloadable postal nomination forms,
etc). Ticket sales information for the awards dinner/dance on 4th
April will come out within the next week.
19 January
Scotland
Team selection policy: a reminder that all athletes and
coaches aspiring to membership of the Scotland team in 2003 must
return the registration form in the Selection
Policy document to team manager Tom
Baker by 31 January. Any eligible athletes from outside Scotland
who have been unable to enter the SARA Indoor Rowing Championships
on 26 January MUST, in addition to their registration form, provide
a 2000m ergo time, witnessed by a coach, to the team manager (also
by 31 January).
New Multi-Lane Umpires: following the seminar
last weekend and examinations this weekend, Scotland has 3 newly-qualified
multi-lane umpires - Gary Bain , Terry McNeill and George West.
Rowing Action: the next issue of Rowing Action
is due out shortly. Ailie
Ord needs to know ASAP about articles, letters,club news, photos
etc which you plan to send her (all welcome!) with final date for
submission being 22nd January.
SARA Indoor Rowing Championships: around 240 entries
have been received. The full draw/race schedule will hopefully be
published here sometime on Monday.
17 January
Contacts
update: new contacts for Castle Semple RC - see contacts
page
Wanted: Durham Uni are in the market
for a 4+ if anyone out there is looking to sell
A small triumph: a member of a Scottish club recently
advertised an ergo for sale on three well-known UK rowing-related
web sites, including this one. It sold within 48 hours to a buyer
who saw it first on this SARA site.
15 January
SARA Half-Year
General Meeting to take 'Workshop' format. The SARA Executive
plans to change the format of the half-yearly (official Notice
of Meeting here) at the National Rowing Academy on Sunday 23rd
March: less formal business, more discussion and debate. Through
the web site they would like to gauge club and club-member views
on the value/relevance of a number of topics which could be featured
in the programme, including:
Sprint Season - The Way Forward?
Why and how should we host international events?
How to be effective in Junior/School recruitment and retention
Scottish Rowing - a safe sporting environment?
What's to be done to gain more publicity?
What my club wants from the SARA.
Some other currently important topic (please specify)
The final decision as to which topics will be programmed at the
event will be influenced by responses received to this survey through
the web site. Replies to the event planner, SARA vice president
Mike Haggerty.
14 January
New Sales
& Wants: the Scotland team has a 'sale' of some
surplus team kit from the Home International/Commonwealths in summer
2002, and there is also an ergo newly appeared for sale.
Service interruption: apologies for the absence
of a web site this morning. Our host's server connection went down.
13 January
SARA
Indoor Championships entry deadline approaches: entries
close this Friday 17th January, and with gold, silver and bronze
medals in each of the 56 event classes (Junior 10 right up to Vet
H, age 70+), that's 168 medals looking for deserving homes to go
to (poster, programme,
entry form). The event
is being staged in partnership with Concept
2 and the host venue, David
Lloyd Centre at Renfrew, so the competitive atmosphere of the
Championships should bear no relationship to the lonely business
of the 2K ergo test 'back at the club'.
New threat to Edinburgh Rowing? Scotland's water
is not, after all, for sale - merely "To Let", if this
board standing in the Union Canal yesterday is to be believed. Am
I imagining things, or is there a well known member of a certain
Edinburgh club on the management of this company which appears to
be so cruelly seeking to threaten the very future of our sport in
the nation's capital?!
10 January
Ice slowly
melts: the Dee and the Clyde are both now reported free
of ice (and the Caledonian Canal was never affected). The Union
Canal, having started to thaw, froze solid again last night (thanks
for update, Jim). Strathclyde Park is still reported well frozen.
9 January
Clydesdale
contacts update: see the contacts
page for details for Clydesdale's president, Ken Diamond, and
captain, Murray Wade
7 January 2003
Breaking
the ice? I know the Union Canal (Edinburgh), River Dee
(Aberdeen) and Strathclyde Park are all unrowable due to ice. The
Caledonian Canal (Inverness) is definitely still open. Anybody got
any updates on how other Scottish rowing venues are currently affected
by the big freeze? Do let
me know and I'll pass it on.
Boathouse Fitness Club Newsletter: the Boathouse
team at the National Rowing Academy have produced a 4-page members'
newsletter about their
facilities, session plans, etc. Makes interesting reading - especially
when you remember how important the continuing success of the club
is to the wider SARA financial plans. The best contact for anything
you want to know about the gym is Kevin
Watson, the fitness team leader
6 January
McArthur
safe after car crash: Scotland coach John McArthur was
injured in an accident involving several vehicles on the M74 yesterday.
He has a broken collar bone and a chipped pelvis, but has been discharged
from hospital to convalesce at home. He has been told he can expect
to make a full recovery. John anticipates being off work for a few
weeks, but having spoken to him on the phone I can vouch that he
is in good spirits. He asked me to convey a message: "Tell
the athletes to keep bl**dy training!".
Western Eights Head: First competitive event on
the water in 2003. The full poster/events offered/entry form/rules
(combined in one Word document) are here.
On this first day back after the
long holiday, a reprise of some important news items from over the
break.
The Scotland Rowing Team Selection Policy for 2003
is now here in MS Word
format. Note that the first qualifying event is the Indoor Championships
in Renfrew on 26 January, entries close 17 January.
SARA Open Indoor Championships (26 January): the
poster, programme
and entry form have all
been on line since before Christmas
Rules of the Clyde:
an updated set of rules, now adopted by all the rowing users of
the Clyde. So before you go training for the Western Head (or whatever!),
read up on how to stay safe on the river. Permanent copy on the
downloads page (and if any other rowing locations in Scotland have
similar all-user agreed rules, I'd be delighted to publish them
also)
1 January 2003
Happy New
Year everybody! Wishing you Peace, and the Performances you hope
for in 2003.Terry
Reception,
Dinner, Awards Ceremony & Live Ceilidh Band,
all in the baronial splendour of the Elphinstone Hall, Aberdeen
University
Viewing problems?
This site is designed for
MS
Explorer 5/ Netscape
5 or later. If you have older versions, try using the links to download
their latest (free) v6 updates
The
Scottish Rowing Awards - you can make your nominations on line from
today! Nominations for the Scottish Rowing Awards - which
recognise excellence or endeavour in the sport in the 2002 competitive
year - are invited from both individuals and clubs. This is your
chance to nominate people you admire in Scottish Rowing for some
deserved recognition. There are junior, senior, male and female
classes for competitors. There are also awards for coaches and for
'volunteers'
SARA
Indoor Championships entry deadline approaches: entries
close this Friday 17th January, and with gold, silver and bronze
medals in each of the 56 event classes (Junior 10 right up to Vet
H, age 70+), that's 168 medals looking for deserving homes to go
to (