Doubles Marathon 2010

Doubles Marathon (TVSC, 10.10.10) – “mellow fruitfulness” for The Skiff Club

Another season finished, with mixed feelings of happiness and nostalgia at the last competition of the 2010 season. The pictures nearly say it all – thanks to Roger Haines again. Go to the Skiff Club website, and click on “Regattas”: there you will see, as well as some great racing shots, a fabulous group photo taken on the towpath by the Valley when racing was over. Rowdy cheers and a contented captain.

There were 32 SC members competing including coxes, with 12½ crews and some doubling up required. (Last year we entered a total of 4 crews, all Gents.) In a season where we have had a few cobwebs blown away by a gale of youthful new members, you may be surprised to know that at this event 21 of those competing members were of several years’ or decades’ standing. 6 were “Bob’s Babes (and Boy)” from Thames RC, and 5 were recent members from other sources. A strong diversity!

The other striking feature of those pictures to me is how the enthusiasm of the coxes leaps out at you. Look at the sequence of crews approaching the finish and there they are, one cox after another, looking like a Winged Victory or the Spirit of Ecstasy, leaning improbably far forward, hair streaming behind them in the sunshine, jubilantly willing their skiffers on. (Well, John Previte may have lacked the sweater-bumps to quite do the impression, but it was a good try.)

We had spectator support, too: thankfully, Bob Downie could be there to witness the fruits of his exceptionally well-organised and knowledgeable coaching this year; ditto Dave Tappin. Plus families of several generations; our venerable president Gordon Dear; Ron Catt, up from Sussex; Chris Coveney was all over the course on his bike; and Bill Taylor’s words at start marshal calmed a few nerves before races.

Did we reward them with wins? Yes, we did. We contested 3½ Gents and 3 Ladies categories, and came away with 3 wins – a pretty good ratio. 1 win to the “newbies” and 2 to the “oldies”.

If you are wondering about the ½ … that’s Keith Shore, fraternally paired with his old mucker Dave Hudson of TVSC. And how could I question his decision, given that they recorded the 10th fastest time of the day (43:10), faster than any all-Skiff Club crew, and finished 3rd in a very strong field of 6 Gents Veteran Open crews? Respect.

Our first winners were Janet Mehers and Fran Kenden, coxed by Kim Burridge (a ‘blonde’ only in the literal sense, as her meticulous work on membership records attests!). This is the sort of crew that makes a captain’s job easy: they told me they wanted to enter (without being chased); they found their own cox. No waste, no mess; just 100% effort and good humour – and a stonking win at Ladies JS. Thank-you.

Second winners were Tom Lee and I, coxed by Toni Weekes (ever-pert despite an injured leg). We won Gents Novice for the second year, by a jaw-dropping 2minutes 40seconds, in a time (43:37) that tied the Gents Junior winners Weiss and Hobson of Dittons; last year they were 2½ minutes faster than us, but they have lost 1 minute and we have gained 1½ … a good omen. We were 12th fastest overall, the fastest all-SC crew, and fractionally faster than 2009’s fastest SC time (Haines & Downie – phew!). I can boast about this without blushing because I know that the lion’s share of the credit is my partner’s, who willingly took the stroke seat, and has spent 40minutes with weights in the gym each day in past weeks – it’s not rocket-science, is it ..?

And our third winning crew: OK, how impressive is this? Rachel Miller and Verena Diehl (Verena just back from several weeks at home in Germany, in great shape and clearly been training hard). Their first time racing together. Coxed by Fran (who I gather has become a bit of an icon for some of the Babes) they absolutely swanned it to victory in Ladies Junior, overtaking a number of very surprised Gents crews and clocking a fantastic 46:37 – faster than the LJS winners even – and finishing 23rd of 39 starters. Not that the beaten crews should have been surprised after Rachel’s Novice win in the Singles Marathon the previous weekend, giving a similar drubbing to 3 very competent and competitive rivals from Valley and Dittons.

So the day’s honours were evenly split between the three ‘premier’ clubs (just kidding, Wraysbury): 3 wins each to us, Valley and Dittons. But I do take special pride that all our crews finished the course, while each of the other 3 clubs had one “Not Rowed Over”; that shows mettle, condition and morale. And that this year our slowest Gents’ time was 51:52 – a very honourable improvement on last year’s 55:12.

Some of our most competitive members will be disappointed that they didn’t win, due to a combination of marathon ‘specialists’ in their opposition, and maybe some less-than-ideal pairings by me – I don’t have Roger’s Midas touch! But Martin Roche shrugged off his jet-lag, with Hamish Gaunt (coxed by Heather), to grittily hold off Dittons’ relentless eventual GJ winners and go down by only 20 seconds. Richard Davies and Brind Waldron (last week’s winner at Gents Novice Restricted Singles) were the 3rd fastest Gents Novice crew (of 7). Valeria and Lydia will surely come back still quicker next year.

At the prize-giving, the Ormiston Trophy and the SRA Most Improved Skiffer of the Year Award were also decided. In the trophy, we came very close to second place (from a more distant 4th in 2008 and 3rd in 2009) with something like 46 points to Valley’s 53. In the MISYA Valeria had to give best to John Ridgway of TVSC, a worthy winner who had 10 victories to Valeria’s 8, and had reached Junior in all 3 categories – but then, he did join in December!

Then it was off for a banquet on the lawn at Bacchus Moorings as the sun sank and the wind lifted the SC flag on Keith Shore’s pole – only the hardy braved the hot tub! Pasta, salads, fruit, cheese, quiche – how healthy was that ? And wine, and beer … Many thanks to Keith and Hilary for their great hospitality, and looking after the boats again. We had a memorable time. Even Becky Golland showed up, on her way back from a hen weekend – despite Bob having narrowly failed to deliver on the challenge Becky set him for the season of getting her down to a dress-size 10 and finding her a hunky husband.

We all said our goodbyes and gulped back a tear (and another glass). There were people on the pitch … They think it’s all over … But it isn’t, it’s time for winter training ! See you in the gym on Thursdays for Fran’s beastings, and on Saturdays for Round Ravens Ait - details to follow !

Tom Millest