News for
Rowing Action: the next issue of Rowing Action is 'imminent':
Ailie Ord would
be grateful if anyone with additional news/pics/pieces for here
could get them through urgently - in particular she would be grateful
for an indication of what/how many words you propose sending to
reach her this weekend.
Scotland Senior team development weekends: those
hoping for invitations to attend the Scotland senior team development/training
weekends at Strathclyde Park on 13/14 March and 10/11 April should
take note of this reminder from team manager Gary
Bain that (unless they competed at the SARA Indoor Rowing Championships)
they must submit a witnessed 2K ergo time to him by this weekend.
29 January
Andy
Dunn (right) in happy times as a winner in Men's Veteran Fours
at Scottish Rowing Championships in 2003, with crewmates (left
to right) Duncan Paterson, Mike Williamson and Owen McGhee
It is with sadness that we record the death of Andy Dunn,
who suffered a stroke on Monday of last week and died in hospital
on Sunday 25th January.
Andy had been a ‘rowing man’ for well over 50 years
– at Hutchesons’ Grammar, then Glasgow University, as
a founder member (and former president) of Castle Semple, and also
member of Clydesdale and the North British rowing clubs. He had
rowed for Scotland and was in active training right up to the time
of his death – preparing, amongst other things, for the Vesta
Veterans Head for Eights on the Thames in the spring.
A regular at the FISA Masters (he raced at Vichy in 2003), Andy
had already volunteered his services to assist in Scotland’s
hosting of the event in 2005 – having once previously made
a reputation for himself as the organiser of the fondly-remembered
post-regatta ball at the FISA Masters the last time it was staged
in Scotland in 1988.
Andy Dunn was an oarsman, coach, organiser, motivator, commentator,
writer – there wasn’t much he didn’t do in rowing.
The funeral will be held at St. Machar’s Church, Kilbarchan
Road, Bridge of Weir on Tuesday 3 February at 12.00 and everybody
will be most welcome. The burial will be private.
Draw for Western Head: the start orders for Division
1 and Division 2
of Saturday's Western Head of the Clyde are now up.
Strathclyde
University Small Boats start order: the start order for
Div 1 and Div
2 of Sunday's event are now up - including, I gather, some corrections
to the information sent earlier to clubs direct, so worth checking.
Registration for the event is at Clydesdale boathouse and competitors
must be at the start 10 minutes before start time to avoid time
penalties.
26 January
As in 2003,
the fastest time of the day was set by Colin Williamson of
Aberdeen University, winning the Under 23 Heavyweight event.
Left to right: Mary Massaro, SARA president, Colin Williamson
(gold, 6:08.9) Ross Stewart (Glasgow RC, silver) and Andrew
Dickie (Glasgow University, bronze)
SARA Open Indoor Rowing Championships - official results:
a busy day's competition on Saturday, and many thanks to everyone
who made it possible (Concept 2, North Lanarkshire Council, Dalziel
High School, the event team and scrutineers) and to the competitors
who were always in the right place at the right time as far as I
could see! The full official
results are here (pdf format, free
Acrobat Reader download if you don't already have it). I hope
later to publish the computer data which includes all the 500m split
times - and there is even the possibility that we will have the
opportunity for competitors to replay the big-screen display of
their race so you can see how you performed stroke by stroke. Look
back here for these updates.
Racing Licence Reminder: race control convenor
Sandy Walker has asked me to re-emphasise this information already
circulated to clubs some time ago.
"All clubs have been advised that the turn round time for
licence applications is two weeks. This means two weeks before the
entry date for your first regatta.You are required to enter your
licence number on the entry form or you leave yourself liable to
the surcharge which clubs agreed at the AGM. On no account will
licence numbers be provided by e-mail or telephone at short notice."
Full draw for SARA Indoor Rowing Championships now here:
do read the introductory notes so that you are properly prepared
for your day. If your name is misspelled in the draw, apologies
(we tried very hard!): if you e-mail
me the correction we'll have it in place for your timing certificate.
19 January
Indoor champs
pull healthy entry: the 2nd SARA Open Indoor Rowing Championships
(this coming Saturday in Motherwell) has attracted entries from
212 competitors - close to last year's total. The detailed race
schedule will be published here as soon as it's available, with
the organising team doing everything possible to fit in with the
special requests on timing which were on some of the entries. Racing
is expected to start at 11.00am and finish at 5.00pm
15 January
Semple to
host junior trial: the 21st February Scotland Junior Trial,
originally scheduled to take place at Strathclyde Park, will now
be held at Castle Semple RC, Renfrewshire. Full details of the day's
arrangements will follow in due course from national coach, John
McArthur.
14 January
More overseas
sales success! continuing yesterday's theme of Scottish
clubs' second-hand eights being sold to the continent, I hear from
Paul Arnold of Loch Lomond that their eight (also advertised on
this site) has been sold to Norway. Rumours that delivery is to
be by LLARC rowing it over in a reverse re-enactment of a Viking
raid have yet to be confirmed . . .
Incidentally, LLARC still have a 'Veb' 4 for sale (details on the
sales and wants page).
13 January
'Indoor'
entries closing date approaches: a reminder that entries
for the SARA Open Indoor Rowing Championships close this Friday,
16th January. Also a correction from team manager Gary Bain to the
earlier note about senior trialists entering the event/submitting
2K times. Apparently the 2K time submission by 31 January is not
a condition of selection for the ultimate team, but is a condition
of invitation to the two squad coaching weekends in March and April.
Eight is 'offski' to pastures new: Glasgow University
advertised a rather 'venerable' Aylings 8 on the SARA site a while
back. I hear from Alasdair Anderson today that they had lots of
interest, including from Norway. The ultimate buyer however is in
Poland. That'll be why they call it the world wide web, then! If
you're a member of a SARA club and either you or your club has kit
to sell (or wanted), remember you can advertise free (perhaps we
should re-think that offer?) on the SARA web site by e-mailing
the details to me.
12 January
Two heads
better than one? after the lull over the holidays, news
of two more heads early in 2004. First up, Aberdeen
Eights Head on 7th February. The link is to full information
on the Committee of the Dee web site. Please note this is a completely
new 'CofD' web site (the older address
has had to be superseded, the 'meter having run out' as Ron Wallace
puts it), so please update your links so you will be able to find
details of all Aberdeen based regattas and heads.
Then on 14th February it's the Caberfeidh Motors Inverness
8s and Small Boats Head. The poster/entry
form, local rules,
and additional information
for competitors are all here. And, taking a bold leap into the technology
age, Inverness now offer an online entry system on their web site,
in addition to the traditional mail format.
9 January
Aspiring
internationalists and SARA Indoor Champs: national coach
John McArthur and team manager Gary Bain would like to remind those
seeking selection for Scotland senior and junior teams this year
of the importance of the SARA Indoor Rowing Championships on 24th
January (details on right).
For Junior Triallists, the junior
selection policy entry to and competition at the indoor championships
is compulsory unless a medical waiver has been submitted to John
McArthur in advance.
For Senior Triallists, the selection
policy states that an independently witnessed 2K ergo time
must be submitted to the team
manager by 31st January. Gary Bain points out that one of
the 'easiest' ways to meet this requirement would be to compete
at the indoor championships 7 days earlier.
8 January
Traffic update:
visits ('sessions') to the SARA web site increased from 116,429
in 2002 to 226,994 in 2003. The simple on-screen counter on the
left was reset to zero this afternoon. The more sophisticated background
statistics report shows that the most popular pages, in order of
number of visits, were News, Contacts & Links, Sales & Wants,
Events/Results and International Rowing.
7 January 2004
Additional
Events update (correction) for Indoor Champs: apparently
the Under 23 classes were omitted from the entry forms (oops!).
These have now been reinstated as follows:
Event 1a
Men's U23
Event 34a
Women's U23
Event 21a
Men's Lightweight U23
Event 54a
Women's Lightweight U23
6 January
SARA Indoor
Rowing Championships: last year's championships were highly
successful, with around 240 competitors, some traveling from gyms
and sports clubs as far away as London. The Indoor Champs are a
partnership between Scottish Rowing, Concept 2 and North Lanarkshire
Council - if you haven't tried it, you should! Computer-generated
big screen tracking of competitors' relative positions as they race
over the 2000 metres: some say indoor rowing is actually a better
spectator event than outdoor - certainly the noise from the crowd
last year was pretty impressive. Links to full details in the panel
on the right. (With 66 event classes from J10 to Age 75+, there
must be one for you!)
5 January 2004
Happy New
Year everyone: here's hoping the coming year is healthy,
happy and successful for everyone in Scottish Rowing.
What next for the Development Officer?: a reminder
of Wednesday night's meeting (open to anyone with an interest) in
the Clyde Room at Strathclyde Park. The director of the National
Rowing Academy, Iain Somerside, will chair a discussion about the
what should make up the future role and responsibilities of SARA's
next development officer.
Western Eights Head & Strathclyde University Small
Boats Head: a weekend of rowing, Burns and hung-over small-boaters.
Saturday 31st is the Western Eights Head (full
entry details) on the Clyde organised by Glasgow University
BC, then on Sunday it's the Strathclyde University Small Boats Head
(full entry details)
over the same course. In a rare show of camaraderie between the
'Spotty club' and the 'Waspy stripes', Strathclyde and Glasgow have
issued a joint
invitation letter - which includes details of the "Mither
of all Parties" at the Glasgow University Union on the Saturday
evening.
Scottish
Rowing Awards
Get your nominations in now for
Oarsman, Oarswoman, Junior
Oarsman, Junior Oarswoman, Crew, Coach and Volunteer of the Year
Awards to be presented
at Scottish Rowing Awards Dinner, Thistle Hotel, Sat 3rd April.
Tickets £35 from Mary
Massaro
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