Putney Town Rowing Club

Charlotte Taylor showed that she is among the top lightweight female scullers in the country by reaching the final of Senior Lightweight Single Sculls, braving some horrible weather conditions at Henley Women’s Regatta.

Having impressed in a hastily arranged time trial, she dominated the quarter-final on Friday afternoon, then won a thrilling semi-final against regular rival Kate Evans of Llandaff before being unable to overcome Elizabeth Polgreen from Isle of Ely in the final.

Because of results earlier in the season, Charlotte had been seeded through the original draw but that was torn up when organisers decided a fast-flowing stream and strong headwind demanded a revised timetable, with a time trial to reduce the field to eight before head-to-head racing.

On informal timing, she was second-fastest in the 16-boat field, three seconds behind Polgreen, who was slower over the first half of the course.

All of the quarter-finals were won with an easily verdict, Charlotte beating Hannah Addley of Queen’s University, Belfast in 8’36. The wind was so strong on Friday afternoon that several singles races took over nine-and-a-half minutes to complete.

With the rearranged timetable, the scullers were given Saturday off, while larger boats raced in winds of up to 40mph.

On Sunday morning  Charlotte and Kate Evans met on a start line for the fifth time this season, with the scores level at 2-2 up to that point, and the two were level through the first 500m until Charlotte – who had endured some early wobbles in rough water – moved away through the enclosures to win by three-and-a-half lengths in 7’30.

The duo were watched at the finish by Sir Steve Redgrave and John Inverdale, anchoring the BBC’s World Cup coverage from the garden of Remenham Club.

The umpire’s launch was unable to keep pace with the finalists later in the day: a replacement had to be found and a re-start ordered after the propeller on the original broke and the umpire veered into Temple Island.

Elizabeth Polgreen, who finished fifth in Great Britain Under-23 trials in April, had the better of the start but Charlotte held her to a length until the enclosures, when she pushed on. Polgreen doubled her lead to four-and-a-half lengths in the final 500m, winning in 6’53.

Charlotte’s next event is the British Rowing Championships in Nottingham on 14 and 15 July.

Words by Martin Gough

Charlotte Taylor began her multilane sculling career with victory as Putney Town kicked off their summer season on Dorney Lake, at Wallingford Regatta.

Charlotte, who only took up sculling seriously at the end of last summer, won a thrilling Intermediate 3 race at the end of the afternoon division, having finished third in Intermediate 1 in the morning.

In unusually benign conditions at the Olympic venue, races ran to time throughout the day with a morning crosswind the only annoyance. It was a stark contrast to last year’s event, where racing was cancelled at midday.

Putney Town’s women’s senior squad found themselves in the fastest Intermediate 3 heat of the morning but the time of the crew - stroked by Rochelle Morrissey and with several of last year’s beginners’ squad on board - showed them to be right at the front of the chasing pack.

A crew featuring a slightly different line-up took further lessons for the rest of the summer from their afternoon IM2 heat.

Four crews from the Town’s men’s squad faced tough opposition throughout the draw at an event dominated by schools in the build-up to next month’s National Schools Regatta.

However the first eight, stroked by Jack Mellish-Dix and featuring several oarsmen who have graduated from the club’s Learn to Row programme, recorded the fastest time of the day by a club crew at Intermediate 3. A second eight competed at IM3 and a coxless four at IM1.

In the afternoon division, an eight put together recently on training camp in Banyoles, Spain, featured at Intermediate 2, beating the only other club crew in their heat.

Words by Martin Gough

April 2012 saw the PTRC women’s squad descend for the 3rd year in a row (forgive the pun) upon the beautiful waters of Brive la Gaillard, Bordeaux, France for an intense (but enjoyable) week of rowing.  Despite varying conditions of wind, hail, thunder and lightning interspersed with the usual beautiful sunshine we had prayed for, the squad successfully made it through an arduous if fun week of preparation for the summer regatta season.

Highlights of the week included a 2k race against fellow campers -  Worcester and the Putney Town top eight.  Having been neck and neck for the first 1,000 metres after an exciting start, the girls successfully pulled away at the 1,100 mark and by the final 60 strokes had a good length clear which lengthened considerably by the time they hit the finish line.   Thanks to our sporting friends for such an enjoyable race!

The week was rounded off with the usual annual ‘minging kit’ games (all still rowing focused of course!), interspersed with more hail and thunder.  With the 2 coaches Gary and Emma each heading up a team, Em comfortably took the glory this year with some impressive 360 spinning in sculls and a four and some unusual coxing efforts!

The squad drove away from Brive feeling confident for the coming months with regattas at Wallingford, Metropolitan, Reading & of course Women’s Henley to look forward to.

This year saw members from across PTRC’s men’s squads descend upon The Blue Anchor in Hammersmith. This riverside location provided the back drop for a fantastic festive shindig. The Blue Anchor has played host to PTRC parties in the past and were well prepared for the level of boisterous behaviour that ensued!

With the civilised(?!) three course meal out of the way, attention soon turned to the variety of small gifts given to each of the guests on arrival, these ranged from a gyroscope to help improve wrist strength (useful for strengthening that feathering arm!) to modelling balloons which were subsequently moulded into many different shapes – all of which were very…imaginative…

A further highlight of the evening was a rendition of ‘we all row in a yellow submarine’ a tribute to a recent, unfortunate incident involving an Empacher 8+, a cruiser causing a HUGE amount of wake and some very soggy rowers! Happily, all involved were unharmed aside from being a bit wet and cold! The song was expertly led by men’s captain John Hickling on acoustic guitar however I’m sorry to report that the singing was anything but expert! Stick to rowing lads!

Many of the party goers continued the fun in Citizen Smith in Putney where the festive cheer continued to flow amid some interesting dance moves (I use the word ‘dance’ loosely).

Apart from the odd sore head the next day and a few lost personal belongings, the night was a storming success and has put all of us very much in the festive spirit. Next up it’s the PTRC girls turn to paint the town a festive shade of red on Friday followed by the PTRC presidents’ cheese and wine party happening on Saturday 10th December open to all PTRC members and their friends and families. Merry Christmas from us all at PTRC.

Words by Nick.

The Town was out in force at the recent Teddington Head. A total of 18 crews raced across the 2 divisions, including some doubling up, and came away with pots in W.IM3 2X, MAS D 1X and MAS A NOV 1X.

Particular congratulations to our mens novice squad, who learnt to row at the Club in May of this year and performed admirably in their first race, competing in both divisions.

Official photos and some taken by club member Peter Rossi.

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Open Day for all experienced rowers and coxes – both male and female - interested in joining Putney Town for the 2011-12 season

Saturday September 10th 2011 at 11am

Are you looking for a rowing club in London and have previous rowing or coxing experience?

As the ‘friendliest Club on the Tideway’, Putney Town welcomes experienced coxes, oarsmen and oarswomen to an Open Day on Saturday, September 10th, at 11am.

The day is an opportunity for you to see Putney Town’s facilities, to meet our rowers and coaches and to learn about the Club’s history and activities. The Open Day is also an opportunity for us to get a feel for your level and ambition so that were you to join the Club, we can match you with the appropriate squad.

We will meet at 11am in the main hall of the boathouse (upstairs) and based on numbers you may be going on the water.

If you will be attending, please register your interest by sending an email to Ben menscaptain@putneytownrc.co.uk (for men) and Elizabeth womenscaptain@putneytownrc.co.uk (for women).

Please bring kit for water or indoor training, a water bottle and wellies (you can borrow wellies at the Club if you don’t have any at hand).

To learn about our squads, please visit the Squad sections on our website.

Any questions in the meantime, please contact Elizabeth McLoughlin, Women’s Captain or Ben Burston, Men’s Captain.

The Putney Town Women stormed through to a win in the WIM2 8+ category at the Wallingford Regatta, May 1, 2011.

In windy conditions at Dorney Lake, coxed by Chris Carlson, the 8+ settled into a steady and effective rhythm. With a very strong second half of the race the winning time came to 07:49:97 minutes. Eight seconds before Vesta in second place and Molesey in third place.

Finishing 26th overall, the Putney Town senior women achieved the best result the Club has ever recorded in recent times in the Women’s Head of the River Race on March 19, 2011.

Finishing 6th in the IM2 category, the result positions the Putney Town women in the top 10 of pure club crews in the country. Following on from wins in IM2 in the Quintin Head and the Hammersmith Women’s Head, the senior Putney Town women are now looking forward to continued strong performances during the summer regatta season. As  one of the most vibrant clubs on the Tideway, Putney Town had three additional boats in the race finishing 130th, 283rd and 288th. In particular the novice crew showed great potential, having started rowing only six months ago.

Putney Town has been running learn to row courses for over five years and is please to announce that we will be running another course for Men starting in May 2011.

We’re looking for men wishing to train and compete for the club for the course which will cost £100 and run for 6 weeks with both land and water sessions included. Once the course is finished, the group will join the novice mens racing squad.

An open day will be held early in May 2011, which gives interested guys and opportunity to come and see the club, try out the equipment and speak with recent graduates of past learn to row course.

If you are interested, you can find our more details on the learn to row page, or simply sign up and we’ll contact you with details of the open day. If you have any other questions, please contact Peter Rossi on learntorow@putneytownrc.co.uk.

Under Head Coach Martin Gough, the Putney Town women continues to show their strength on the Tideway and picked up the WIM2 8+ pennant in the 2011 Hammersmith Women’s and Junior’s Head. With a time of 12.44.5 minutes, the crew, coxed by Emma Linthwaite, fought off strong competition from clubs such as Tideway Scullers and Molesey. The women’s squad at Putney Town is one of the most active on the Tideway and promising results were also shown by the WIM3 8+ and the WN 8+ crews finishing 8th and 3rd in their respective categories.