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News stays here for about a month before archiving:

November 2002
October 2002 September 2002
August 2002
July 2002
June 2002

29 December

Scotland Team Selection Policy for 2003: yup, here it is (already gone out to club secretaries) - and all athletes (senior and junior) and coaches aspiring to represent Scotland this year need to read it thoroughly. I see the first compulsory selection event is the SARA Open Indoor Championships on 26th January (closing date for entries 17th January, (poster, programme, entry form). Anyway, the detail of all the selection events (Appendix E) and target regattas is there.

Given this document's importance to those involved, I'll keep publishing reminders on this item over/after New Year.

27 December

Rules of the Clyde: the rules for the safe use of the Clyde for rowing have been updated and agreed between the clubs - and further endorsed by Glasgow City Council. So if you want to stay safe (and avoid getting shouted at!), read, learn and inwardly digest before you next set off for a paddle. Remember, this doesn't just apply to 'first time visitors and novices' - the updated rules deserve just as much attention from the most experienced hands on the river.

23 December

Corrected details for SARA Open Indoor Championships now on line: the revised (changed lwt limits) poster and programme referred to below, and the entry form, are all now up in their final form.

21 December

Lightweight rules correction for SARA Open Indoor Championships: I understand from those responsible that an error was made when they were preparing the poster and programme for this event. These documents are currently being amended - meantime please note that the limits for lightweights are NOT the FISA weights for rowing events (as originally published) but the usual indoor rowing limits of 75 kg for men and 61.5 kg for women. So you can eat that turkey after all!

Indoor Champs entry forms now available to download: entry forms for the SARA Open Indoor Championships can be downloaded from here (also a permanent link from the Events page)

19 December

SARA Open Indoor Championships: the poster and programme are here and also in the mail to clubs. This is first of what is to become an annual event, held this year at the David Lloyd Sports Centre in Renfrew on Sunday 26th January. A full spread of events from J10 to Vet H - providing the ideal incentive to keep training through the Christmas pudding season. Entries close 17th January.

BBC TV Sportscene Review of 2002: for anyone who missed the note earlier in the week, there is due to be a piece on Scottish rowing's record run of successes and milestones this year included in the programme, broadcast on BBC 1 in Scotland this Saturday at 1025pm.

18 December

"Lightweight Rowers Reassured as IOC Executive Board Modifies Controversial Principle": an important story about the future status of lightweight rowing events at the Olympics, fresh up on the FISA news site this afternoon. Needs to be read carefully . . .

Nat Schools Bursaries for Volunteer Junior Coaches: recognising the importance of volunteer coaches at schools and clubs, the National Schools Regatta is offering £400 bursaries each, in 2003, to up to 15 coaches who are working with junior athletes towards appropriate events such as the GB vs France match. Coaches from Scottish clubs/schools wanting further information should contact SARA development officer, Callum Macdonald, in the first instance.

17 December

Frozen out? Winter is here: Strathclyde Park has started to freeze in places- clubs are advised to check with the booking office at Strathclyde Park before traveling. Also the Union Canal in Edinburgh is frozen as at this morning.

GB Senior Trials - how Scotland's National Coach saw them: I thought it would be of interest to folk to read an expert assessment from John McArthur - so I asked him! (Full results here)

As one would hope, Academy Athletes did well in the trial. Gavin Shaw (Academy Athlete and Aberdeen Uni), fresh from finishing 1st and 2nd in racing at the GB U23 lightweight men's camp in Hazewinkel, finished 3rd in the full trial - but reduced the 11 second margin between himself and 1st place at the October trial to just 4 secs this time. Jonny Logan (Academy Athlete and Glasgow Uni) was known to be unwell but raced anyway: he had just overtaken the sculler who ultimately finished 4th in the trial when he was forced to slow dramatically: John McArthur believes Logan, if fully fit, would probably have finished 4th, possibly challenging Shaw for 3rd.

Both Shaw and Logan have been invited to the GB camp at Ely in January, rowing in 2- to work alongside the current U23 coxless four contenders.

Sarah Fettes (Academy Athlete and Clydesdale ARC) finished 5th in U23, up from 9th and with her margin to the first placed athlete being reduced from 49 seconds to 22 seconds from the October trial.

John also commented on Kirsten McLelland-Brooks 2nd place in LW1x, 10 secs behind GB's World Champs LW2x bronze medallist Helen Casey. Lorna Ferguson's (Marlow RC) 9th place in LW 1x, one place behind GB's World Champion in LW2-, was an excellent result in McArthur's assessment, with Clare Haley's (Aberdeen BC) first GB trial ranking of 24th in W1x being another highly creditable result.

"The challenge now for all these athletes", John points out, "is to close the gap even further to secure an invitation to the final, closed, trials in April."

15 December

BBC TV Sportscene Review of 2002: this year's Sportscene review is apparently likely to include a piece on highlights of the Scottish Rowing year. They have been looking at material from Henley, the Commonwealths and the National Rowing Academy opening - though we won't know what's in until the programme goes out this Saturday at 1025pm, BBC 1 in Scotland.

GB Senior Trials: full results from the weekend's second GB senior trials at Boston, with notable results for Scots Katherine Grainger (SABC, W1x), Clare Haley (ABC W1x), Gavin Shaw (AUBC U23 LM1x), Peter Haining (UTRC LM1x) and Lorna Ferguson (MRC LW1x)

Christmas present for rowing friend? RowTV have put together DVD compilations of some of the top racing in 2002, including Henley, Docklands, Women's Henley, Nat Champs and the Commonwealth Championships. Details in their newsletter.

13 December

Scottish Rowing Awards 2002: a date for the diary. The Scottish Rowing Awards Dinner will take place in the Elphinstone Hall at Aberdeen University, Old Aberdeen, on Friday 4th April 2003. Ticket information and details of how to make nominations for the awards will be published early in the new year.

12 December

Sculler Chris proves he’s a bit of oar-right : an extended piece about Castle Semple RC members in the Paisley Daily Express

11 December

Coaches: tell us what courses you want! National Coach John McArthur and Development Officer Callum MacDonald have a remit to develop 'coaching-for-coaches' seminars at the National Rowing Academy. They would welcome input from current or aspiring coaches as to whether in principle you would be interested in attending, what sort of content you would most welcome/find useful, what format you would prefer (evening? one-day weekend? two-day weekend?). Potentially, there could be several seminars on different topics run during 2003, so this is your opportunity to make sure they present the information you want in a format you can attend. Comments to Callum MacDonald in the first instance.

Watson's sculler on GB camp: Chris Logan of George Watson's College finished 2nd overall in the November GB Junior Early Identification Trial, and has earned himself an invitation to the GB Junior High Performance Camp from 13-20 December at the Swiss national rowing centre at Sarnen.

10 December

Bring me sunshine . . . : are you female? 5' 9"+? No, it's not a dodgy modeling proposition - but it could be the start of your rowing career in the Sunshine State in the US of A. Full details here of fully-funded scholarships for athletic students at University of Miami. Oh, did I forget to mention the 7:25 ergo test? Well you didn't expect it to be that easy, did you?

9 December

Rowers are Club of the Year: at last Friday's Inverness Area Sports Awards, Inverness Rowing Club won the 'Club of the Year' award. Tom Baker and Roy Sinclair of Inverness RC are pictured (centre rear) with the trophy, together with other award winners at the event in Inverness Town House.

6 December

Sportscotland Sport21 Review: Another official notice from the SARA secretary. The national strategy for sport in Scotland is currently being reviewed. Roadshows will be held throughout the country as shown below and anyone in our sport of rowing is welcome to attend. Please contact Sara Hamilton in advance if you want to attend any of the meetings (Tel 0131-472 3208). Further information is available from www.sportscotland.org.uk

9 December, Orkney, Town Hall, Kirkwall, 7pm
10 December, Glasgow, Glasgow Green Football Centre, 2pm, 6.30pm
10 December, Highland, Inverness Town House, 2pm and 6.30pm
11 December, Edinburgh, Peffermill, 2pm, 6.30pm
12 December, Western Isles, Council Chambers, Stornoway, 6.30pm
19 December, Perth, Dewars Ice Rink, 2pm, 6.30pm
19 December, Borders, Eskdale Sports Centre, Langholm, 2pm, 6.30pm

A couple of recent pictures just come through . . . On the left, Ron Wallace, secretary of the Committee of the Dee (for over 25 years!) received an engraved travel clock from the assembled Aberdeen clubs in appreciation of his contribution to the sport. Presenting the award - his son Colin Wallace of ASRA.

On the right, Lucy Buglass of ASRA receives her National Playing Fields Association Medallion from Scottish Sports Personality of the Year, 400 metre runner Lee McConnell (left of photo).

5 December

Perfect for the Scottish rower this Christmas? Following the Commonwealth Rowing Championships, Alison Harrison has a couple of items of surplus team kit up for grabs. One woman's (L) one-piece for £45 and one XL Scotland fleece for £30. Priority, obviously, will go to athletes who represented Scotland at the event. Contact Alison Harrison.

A number of official notices from the SARA Secretary:

1. A reminder to regatta organisers re making sure that some under-13s coming from down south to compete in your regatta may not have insurance cover as per normal ARA membership cover. Please ensure that you find out the situation in plenty of time to be able to arrange your own insurance. September's issue of Rowing Action (page 3) gave clarification of the ARA position.

2. The first Scottish Rowing Indoor Championships will be held on Sunday 26th January 2003 in the David Lloyd Sports Centre in Renfrew just off the M8 motorway near Glasgow Airport. As you will be aware, at the AGM last month the SARA constitution was amended to incorporate the SARA running Indoor Rowing Championships - we very much hope that this is the start of another (major) thread to our sport and we very much hope that all clubs (as well as sports centres) will support the event.

3. Executive members are available to come along to club committee meetings. Should you wish for an Executive member to come along and give any input at committee meetings, please let me know and also let me know possible dates of attendance.

4. It is intended to have a conference format at the Half Yearly Meeting with speakers / discussions on various topics. A questionnaire will be issued to clubs in due course looking for input on subjects that clubs would like to be covered. In the meantime, it's just a bit of advance warning to put your thinking caps on.

5. Talking of the Half Yearly Meeting (yes, I know we've only just had the AGM!), it is scheduled for Sunday 23rd March at 1:00pm in the National Rowing Academy Meeting Room.

4 December

Rudolf tackles ergo challenge: This Saturday, Aberdeen Uni BC are holding a "Santa row" outside John Lewis, George Street, Aberdeen. A rolling team of 6 AUBC "Reindeer" will endeavour to pull Santa and his sleigh all the way to Lapland, in aid of the Archie foundation (new Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital). The event will take place between 9am -5pm, and collection buckets will be at hand for suitably generous donations. If you can't make it along, Tom Hanna would be happy to accept your pledge in support of their imaginatively seasonal charity fund-raiser.

New Sales and Wants: an ergo wanted, and a bunch of sweep blades for sale.

"Donner" and "Blitzen": not to mention Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid and Rudolf. The Aberdeen clubs have their Christmas 'Scratch Eights' event this Saturday. Individual competitors sign in from noon at ABC, mixed sex/mixed ability crews (named after the reindeer, thus the headline) are then drawn from a hat. There follows hard fought but not very serious sprint racing. All rowing members of Aberdeen clubs (and, I imagine, of any other clubs visiting town) welcome.

3 December

Dundee sponsored ergo raises £3100: Dundee University BC's recent 24 hour ergo raised £3100 - half of which goes to Breast Cancer Research Scotland, the other half to the university's boat buying budget.

The 'rowers' got a lot of support from the wider university community - including the Rector, Fred MacAulay, who dropped in to give his personal encouragement (see photo, right).

Glasgow Rowing Club has a new web address (and new web site design).

Check yesterday's news! A reminder to check yesterday's news (if you missed it) for important update information on the Scotland Selection Policy for the coming year, and on the Scottish Rowing Indoor Championships which is the first compulsory trials event.

2 December

Scotland international selection policy 2002-2003: word from John McArthur is that the draft selection policy document is now in the hands of the SARA Executive. It will be circulated to clubs and published on this web site as soon as it has received final approval - but aspiring internationalists also need to read the following story about the Scottish Rowing Indoor Championships . . .

Scottish Rowing Indoor Championships: a new event on the SARA calendar, to be held on Sunday 26th January at the David Lloyd Centre in Renfrew. The event will be similar in format to the British Indoor Rowing Championships held last month in Birmingham - 2000m racing on Concept 2 ergos, in a wide range of age classes and at both light and heavy weight. Full details of the Indoor event later, but one confirmed element of the Scotland Selection Policy I have been asked to publicise is that participation in these Scottish Rowing Indoor Championships will be compulsory for ALL athletes resident in Scotland, England or Wales, junior and senior, registering for possible selection for the Scotland team for the Home International Regatta in Cork in 2003.

U23s head for Hazewinkel: U23 lightweights Jonny Logan and Gavin Shaw (both National Rowing Academy athletes) are heading off to Hazewinkel with their coach, John McArthur (Scotland's National Coach) to attend the 4-day GB U23 Training Camp, led by GB U23 High Performance Coach, Darren Whiter.

Vesta Scullers Head update: always easy to identify Scottish clubs - sometimes harder to identify individual Scots in a big event. It looks, however, as though Martin Harris of London RC (25th) was the highest placed Scot in the weekend's Scullers Head - unless of course you know different . . .

Contacts updates: George West of Nithsdale and Craig Love of Glasgow University have both changed their e-mail addresses. Please update your records accordingly.

December news: December is a bit slow for rowing events, except the GB trial in mid month. But I do know there are informal events (e.g. Aberdeen Scratch Eights) and assorted socials at clubs throughout Scotland. If the various organisers of these events would like to send me details, I'd be delighted to give them a plug on the SARA site- and even to carry the embarrassing photos afterwards.

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