Clydesdale Amateur Rowing Club

Unfortunately the river isn’t behaving at the moment, and with the expected rain later tonight we don’t expect an improvement soon. Therefore we had to take the decision to cancel the regatta. We will do our best to find an alternative date.

The 2015 4’s and 8’s Head will be held on 28 February. The Poster and Entry Information for this year’s 4’s and 8’s Head are now available on the event page (4’s and 8’s Head).

Circuit training for the 2014-2015 season re-commences on the 6th of January (tomorrow night).  We look forward to welcoming everyone back after a fortnight of festive feasting.

Last Sunday saw our weekly club time trial kicking proceedings off for the day with a medley of boats tackling the 2x3km onslaught of rough water. The dreich and difficult conditions continued throughout the day, making life difficult for all participants.

Following a brief break three random crews of eight were drawn as rowers of all ages and abilities came together for some fun (but competitive) scratch racing. These crews were assembled into their selected boat for a series of knock out races down the 500m home straight. With a rather definitive final verdict for the winning crew of Jamie MacDonald, Jack Bagley, Thomas Howatt, Bethan Fulton, Kirsty Wescott, Chris Walton, Lauren MacNaughton, Fiona Hazlett and Lindsey Vest.

Competitors came together as club-mates once more after the racing for the prize giving, showcasing some of the best the club has to offer from its athletes and volunteers. The awards for the Club Sculling Championships were given, showing the breadth in performance across all squads whilst in direct competition. Winners included:

The Member’s Cup for Women’s Novice Sculls: Alika P. Molloy

The Melvin Cup for Men’s Novice Sculls: Danny Morris

The McGhee Cup for Clydesdale Women’s Junior Sculling Champion: Fiona Hazlett

The W A McGhie Quaich for Clydesdale Men’s Junior Sculling Champion: Euan Malone

The Charles D. Simpson Trophy for Clydesdale Senior Women’s Sculling Champion:  Hannah Duncan

The Fleming Shield for Clydesdale Senior Men’s Sculling Champion: Giacamo Galano

Outside of the club sculling awards, the club President awarded prizes for outstanding achievements as recognised by the membership and committee.

McNaughton Quaich for outstanding Services to the Club–

“Everyone will be aware of Mike Lekakis’ commitment to the club over the last few years. Mike has gone from being the lesser half of Skirtings and Ceilings (the official club decorators) to being the omni-present volunteer in novice coaching, boat repairs, picture framer, window fixer, cleaner, decorator, bunting bearer, keeper of the cabinet and general go-to guy if you want something done. That he goes above and beyond the duties of a Clubmaster show his commitment which makes him this year’s winner of the MacNaughton Quaich for Outstanding Services to the Club.”

The Collie Shield for Outstanding Achievement –

“The silver medal at the British Championships, gold medal at Scottish Championships and gold medal at National Schools all confirm Ryan Morrison as a two-time winner of the Collie Shield for Outstanding Achievement.”

The John Hercus Trophy for Oarsperson of the Year –

“The recipient of the Horn this year has been nominated by his peers who have watched him develop in our sport from being one of the infamous “ducklings” under the tutelage of Tom McGuinness to having put in several years solid training on top of a demanding career. In addition, he has long been a supporter of the development of the club and though not on the committee, has kept it propped up by providing email, website and database support for several years. To quote the nomination: ‘An understated all round good club guy, training hard and encouraging others at every turn.’  The Clydesdale Oarsperson of the Year and recipient of the Horn is Stephen Walker.”

These events have demonstrated an innate ability within our club to be friendly and involved but at the same time succeed in the world of sport. Qualities most would merit. Long may it continue.

Thomas Howatt

With the festive break upon us, it’s that wonderful time of year at the club when we welcome back our many members in exile – what better opportunity to catch up than get out in a mixed boat for a blether.  If you’re back in town at some point over the next couple of weeks, let us know and we’ll get some mixed crews out for a paddle.  Training continues as normal for many of our squads – but as last weekend demonstrated, folks are always up for a scratch eight!

The event page for the Scullers Head has been updated with the results from today’s event.

A successful day’s racing saw 97 Single Sculls and 41 Double Sculls complete the course, with the Scullers Head being won by Glasgow Schools’ Gavin Horsburgh.  Gavin completed the double by also winning the Doubles event with clubmate Josh Armstrong.  Well done Gavin!

The fastest woman single sculler was Edinburgh University Boat Club’s Kelly Limond.  The fastest women’s double was Wicklow and Rankin of Glasgow Schools.

Our thanks go to all who assisted with today’s event:  the umpires, marshals, club volunteers, parents, the tea bar contributions and the safety boat personnel.  Thanks also to Glasgow Rowing Club for their launch and driver and to Glasgow Humane Society for the provisional of additional safety cover.

Huge thanks in particular to event organiser Michele Foran.

The Annual General Meeting will be held at the West Boathouse on Thursday 30th October 2014 at 7.00pm.  Light refreshments will be provided.

The Annual General Meeting is your opportunity to have an input into the management of the Club and it is important that we have a full turnout of members to give feedback and also to elect a new committee.

If you cannot attend the AGM please send your apologies by emailing the Hon. Secretary.

It’s time to get your dancing shoes pulled out, get your ticket, and get yourself along to Clydesdale’s Annual Club Dinner and Ceilidh in St Andrews in the Square on Saturday the 15th of November at 7.00pm.

 The evening starts with a drinks reception welcome on the balcony, followed by a beautiful 3-course meal before the main entertainment of the ceilidh with music from a wonderful ceilidh band until midnight.  All this for just £35!

This year, we are going to be super-efficient with our ticket sales.  Tickets will only be available to purchase online, with the use of a credit or debit card or paypal account.

You can buy as many tickets as you like and are willing to pay for, just update the number of tickets requested.  Please note:  just before you confirm your order there is a link that states “dietary requirements/seating preference” – you must complete this information with your:

• dietary requirements
• names of those you are purchasing a ticket for
• preference for which table you should be sat at.

Purchase your tickets here.  Do this now to help us plan for numbers.

As the date gets closer we shall let you know the exact arrangements for the evening.  In the meantime talk all your friends into coming to a wonderful evening in a beautiful venue, the more the merrier!

Club circuit training for the 2015 season kicks off on Tuesday 9th September at Caledonian University. This is a group session for the WHOLE CLUB and members of all ages, shapes and sizes are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED to come long. The more people that attend, the more fun it is for all! Cost is a meagre 66p per night, payable in one easy lump sum of £20.

Please encourage others in your squad or crew to come along too. Details are as follows:

Where: ARC Gym
Glasgow Caledonian University
Cowcaddens Road
Glasgow
G4 0BA

When: Tuesday nights, 19:15 until 20:30
(try to arrive at 7pm for a quick start)

Cost: £20 for 30 weeks (ends 31st March 2015)

Donaldsons Drowned Gods – 2014 Corporate Regatta Winners

A fantastic day was enjoyed by all with some great rowing prowess. The weather was kind to us and our trusty old boats held up for yet another year. Despite the challenging start to the morning, the group stages ran smoothly starting at 10:30am through to lunch. All the crews put in mighty performances, which was a real testament to all the weeks of hard work they put in learning to row.

The group stages saw the top four from each of the groups continuing on to the quarter finals.  For some light relief over lunch 4 of our 10 crews took part in our ergo challenge, racing 2km in a team relay. This proved to be a very exciting competition, with the teams’ supporters providing much needed encouragement to fuel their efforts. GlaxoSmithKline were the winners with at time of 6:30.5.

The quarter finals kicked off the afternoon’s proceeding, with “Take it easy there”, Drowned Gods, Bad News and GSK Super Heroes making it through to once again race head to head in the hotly anticipated semi finals.

The final between Donaldson Associates- The Drowned Gods and GSK Super Heroes was an exciting race to end the day. The Drowned Gods stayed composed under pressure to pull away from GSK to take the victory and claim the coveted British Steel trophy.

On their introduction to rowing, Donaldsons said:

“Learning to row as a team was wobbly at first, but thanks to our coach Ryan’s expert (and astonishingly patient) guidance we managed to stay upright and started to work on the techniques required to get us to the finish line.

During training, ‘The Drowned Gods’ only lived up to the first part of our name when the skies opened: soaking us during a couple of sessions – it might have been drier just jumping into the Clyde!

Race day arrived and after crossing the exciting new burst-water-main-moat, we found ourselves competing in the first race of the day. To our surprise, we won the first race and continued to win all but one of our group stage races to qualify for the final knockout stage.

In the final race, everything seemed to come together for us: the technique we had been taught finally seemed to have stuck in our heads. We rowed in time and remained composed. We won the race and it felt great to lift the trophy!

The atmosphere around the clubhouse was great: work colleagues came along to cheer (and heckle) and entire families came out for the occasion. The barbeque, cakes, music and face-painting were excellent!

We’d like to share a massive thank you to Ryan for his coaching and to Amy for stepping into his shoes for the day of the race. Thanks also to everyone involved at Clydesdale ARC for organising a fantastic day, and a great experience overall! A team from Donaldson Associates will be back to defend the Corporate Regatta title next year!”

Thanks to everyone who helped to make the regatta such a brilliant success, particularly Amy Walton, who pulled it all together.

 RESULTS