05/11/2020
Hi all, George (president) here. Was hoping to make a newsletter including the results from Fours Head and the British Rowing Sprint Festival, but since both were cancelled and we're now in lockdown, I thought I'd give a quick update of how the year has started for the club:
Starting off, it's clear we have a really strong crop of seniors this year, as a combination of experienced freshers and a lot of keen returners from last years novice squads put the club in a good position with plenty of squad depth. We also have 3 senior men gunning for GB Trials (2 open, 1 lwt), 1 senior man and woman each on the Performance Talent Pathway, a beginner woman working with World Class Start at Agecroft RC, and 1 senior woman being accepted onto the GB Paralympic Development Programme! The river has been kind to us, and we haven't had any flooding yet (praying that we don't have a repeat of last year...), and we've been mostly doing fours and quads, staying away from eights for the time being. Things started off rusty with most people not being on the water since April, but we're back to form now. Boats damaged from the flooding in February are also trickling back over the next few months, and the infamous new boat racking in Worcester is genuinely looking realistic this year.
The novices this year didn't have an in-person sports fair, so the ones we have are keen and despite the changes really throw themselves into training and club life where possible. This year we have switched to a focus on sculling to start with, as this was more realistic with bubbles and COVID measures, and only this week we had our first swimmers in singles. They've also been benefitting from a new 4x+ at the res bought from Monmouth RC, and a spending plan has been drawn up for a number of long-overdue QOL improvements at the res.
UBSport have facilitated our indoor training well, and despite a limited number of bookings (and no S&C) the standard of training has been good, and the COVID measures the club has in place seem to work as there hasn't been any inter-club transmission. Most importantly, people are enjoying the training, and it's something to look forward to as there haven't been any sports nights or fabs. We've only had the 1 club social, at Norton's Irish Bar in Digbeth, which went exactly as you would expect with a large group of socially-starved seniors (low thresholds), but another rare opportunity to integrate the club gone well.
The club was looking forward to racing the Fours Head and the Sprint Festival before their cancellation, with the next event provisionally being Bristol Uni Head in January/February. However, with lockdown 2 in place, we're in 4 weeks of home training before being allowed back out, so just hoping to maintain momentum where we've been fortunate to make gains where other clubs haven't been able to. Less of a performance aim, more just making sure members are engaged and enjoying training. Overall it's been a great start to the year given the circumstances, and the club spirits are surprisingly high!
As always, if you have any other questions about how the club is getting on, contact a committee member, or want to get involved yourself, just ping a message my way :)
