Putney Town Rowing Club

The first race of 2010 (that wasn’t cancelled due to poor weather) took place at the weekend, and we had good representation, and some notable success.

Well done to the girls – retaining the IM3 pennant for the 3rd year.

Pennant Winners - Women's IM3

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In late December, Putney Town spent a weekend training on the river Avon in Bath as guests of University of Bristol Boat Club. The cold weather didn’t dampen the spirits of the training group and lots of good work was done on the fantastic water, culminating in a piece with UBBC.

Pairs Head 2009 - Ants and Simo

Putney Town had a good turnout for the race that is for many the first significant race of the Head season.

The weather before the race had looked like truly epic head weather, with the wind whipping up the water and some predicting some involuntary swimming sessions. However, the tide turned and things calmed down a lot much to the relief of all the participants.

The club was well represented and had some good results:-

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Clearly showing his annoyance at being overtaken by lots of schoolboys, former club Captain Anthony Cakey provided the Town’s first result of the season, and would have won Vet B if only he had entered the right category.

Well done Cakey!

Anthony Cake at Wallingford Long Distance Sculls. October 2009

Like an experiment in poor taste, Saturday was “Minging Kit” day at Putney Town and was followed by a party to welcome new members to the club.

Two mixed eights raced over the water outside the club dressed in kit that rated about 12 on the loudness scale. A small selection of the visual onslaught is below.

Mankini man

Men in pink

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Putney Town Men's Squad on Training Camp in Banyoles

The men’s squad at Putney Town is also kicking off the new season with an open squad meeting to be held on Wednesday 9th September in the club bar at 20:30. Please contact Mens Captain Peter Rossi menscaptain@putneytownrc.co.uk 07983 325 992 or just turn up on the night.

In 2008/09 the Senior Men’s rowing squad qualified a Thames Cup 8 at Henley for the third year running, and were competitive at IM1/2, including wins at Marlow, Kingston and Oxford City regattas. 13 of the last two Henley crews are back for 2009/10 and we have over a dozen boats suitable for the squad. Our goals for 2009/10 are for the 1st 8 to finish top 100 at HORR and to qualify two boats for Henley Royal.

Coaching for the Men’s squad is provided by James Davey and Andy Holmes MBE. The squad attended an overseas training camp in Banyoles and has access to excellent equipment, with recently purchased eights and fours.

In addition, we are always keen to recruit coxes and will provide full training for steering on the Tideway and club membership is also free for coxes.

More information about the mens squad, club facilities and location is available on this website.

Women's Lightweight Coxless Four bring home some medals

Putney Town women’s squad have brought some impressively shiny National Championships medals back to Mortlake after clinching bronze in the lightweight coxless four.

The crew started as a bit fun on training camp in Hazewinkle, Belgium, when coaches Tom Evens and Paul Keane decided to race the smaller four girls from the women’s first VIII (the skinnies) against the slightly bigger crew members (the heavies).

In a triumph against the odds, the skinnies took a win after finding an early rhythm. Thus the lightweight coxless four was born, both stroked and steered by Emma Wells, backed up by Hazel Tyldesley, Laragh Walton and Suzie Fairley.

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IM3 4+ Prizegiving at Kingston Regatta 2009

Putney Town was in action at Kingston Regatta this weekend. The club was well represented both on the water and on the banks with the PTRC ‘choir’ doing their best to drown out the competition.

We had singles, doubles, fours, quads, and eights from both men’s and women’s squads with two lots of rowing novices getting their first taste of racing at a regatta after joining the beginners rowing course earlier in the year.

The men had an eight in the finals and managed a win in IM3 coxed fours, after three rounds of racing. Ian, rowing at bow, writes: -

We were down half a length or so for most of the race until we approached the enclosure and with the roar of both clubs supporters ringing in our ears, we dug deep, wound it up and managed to inch inch inch up on Twickenham to win by 3ft! Epic race!

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This weekend the women from our latest beginners rowing course completed their final session and despite the occasional washout from a Thames cruiser and a few new blisters, all are eager to continue on with rowing.

Women's Beginners Course 2009

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Whilst the Olympians were battling it out at Henley Royal Regatta this weekend, back at home it was the London Youth games.

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