Putney Town Rowing Club

UPDATE 2: Due to high demand, the learn to row open day will now be held on both the 5th and 12th September.

Please also remember to bring some training kit along for some light exercise on the rowing machine.

Another beginners rowing course will start in September for men and women. It will run concurrently on Saturday afternoons, as well as a tank session on either Tuesday or Wednesday evenings as well as circuits on Thursdays. The course lasts for six weeks and costs £100.

There will be an open day which will be held on Sunday 12th September at 1pm. Anyone who cannot make the open day on the 5th, but wants to be considered for the course should arrange to come down to the club in advance and speak to us.

Ben Melham next to... Ben Melham!

On Saturday was the club summer BBQ and boat naming, attended by many of the club. We were lucky enough to have a period of sunshine whilst a number of boats were named, and local councillors attended the ceremony. The boats named were: -

It was very nice to be able to remember Martyn at the ceremony, and members of his family were able to raise a toast to him and put his last bottle of Sloe gin to good use. The event was covered by Richmond & Twickenham times Rowers name new boats during special ceremony.

The Summer BBQ followed and was spent dodging the showers but a good time was had by all.

The summer party is nearly here and will include the boat naming ceremony, BBQ, bouncy castle, annual rounders match and much more!

Timetable of events

• 12:30 - Boat naming ceremony
• 2:00 - Gourmet BBQ (£5, including veggie option)
• 4:00 - Rounders Match

The party will also be host to a welly wanging contest. There will be an outside bar open with guests beers and various other event. Putney Town is a an all weather venue but it will of course be gloriously sunny.

Volunteers are required to help with BBQ, bar, etc. If you can help, please contact Larry or James.

It was a very successful weekend for the Putney Town women at the British Rowing Championships, July 16 – 18, 2010. The women collected bronze medals in both the women’s lightweight 4- and the women’s open 8+. Following a long journey to Strathclyde in Scotland, the women were highly motivated to perform well and finish the season on a high.

The lightweight 4- with Hazel Tyldesley (stroke), Suzie Fairley (3), Laragh Walton (2) and Silje Ross (bow) was in tough competition against Mortlake Anglian Alpha BC (winners), Marlow RC and Vesta RC. The Putney Town LWT 4- took the bronze before Vesta at a time of 7:32.97 minutes over the 2000 metres.

The Putney Town 8+, coxed by Chris Carlson, finished third with a time of 6.57.84 minutes after a composite with GB Juniors (winners) and City of Oxford RC in second place, just ahead at 6:56.90. The racing crew was Kate de Bruyn (stroke), Julie Lewis (7), Hayley Cripps (6), Louise Bartlett (5), Amelia Smith (4), Kelly Thomas (3), Elizabeth McLoughlin (2) and Sofia Nilsson (bow).

Putney Town Women's 8+ in action at British Rowing Championships 2010

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We are planning to show some World Cup 2010 games in the PTRC Bar this year. Please come down and support England and your club by giving us your custom instead of your extremely busy and loud local pub!

The first scheduled match is England Vs USA on Saturday 12th June - KO 19:30 (Bar open from 18:30) and others will be scheduled depending on England’s progress! Next round games take place on the weekend of 26/27 June.

Bar open for every listed game (other games may be shown according to demand)

Family and Friends welcome!

Enjoy the best seat in town, with a 42″ Plasma Screen and no waiting at the bar!

We will also be operating a BBQ in expectation of hot weather - please bring your own food and feel free to grill at your leisure!

Hope to see you there- any queries please email: bar@putneytownrc.co.uk

Larry Eggleton,
PTRC Bar Manager

The Putney Town women had a very successful day at Poplar Regatta, May 16, 2010. The racing crew was winning the Greenwich Challenge Cup, WIM2 8+ and the WIM3 8+ category. These wins build on a season of consistent training and a very enjoyable training camp in perfect conditions in Brive la Gaillard, Bordeaux, France, April 2010.

Putney Town winners of the Greenwich Challenge Cup, WIM2 8+ at Poplar Regatta, May 2010. From left: Sofia Nilsson, Amelia Smith, Louise Bartlett, Tuyet Wu (cox), Hayley Cripps, Julie Lewis, Elizabeth McLoughlin, Kelly Thomas and Kate de Bruyn.

The Putney Town men and women’s squads this year visited beautiful Brive la Gaillard in Bordeaux, France for its annual training camp in perfect rowing conditions. The venue and training facilities proved a success. The camp was conditioning both squads for the competitive season with races in regattas such as Wallingford, Metropolitan, Marlow and Reading. The men’s squad is looking to qualify again this year for the Thames Cup 8 at Royal Henley and the women focus on success at Henley Women’s Regatta and the National Championships.

Putney Town Men and Women on Training Camp 2010

Training Camp 2010, Brive la Gaillard

Putney Town entered two crews in the Head of the River Race 2010 and both had great performance with one in the top one hundred and the other crew less than four seconds behind!

Congratulations to both crews – either equalling or bettering the best club performance in recent years.

HORR 2010 - Crew #180 finished 92nd

HORR 2010 - Crew #340 finished 107th

In a recent article in The Times (”You need brass to go for gold“), Matthew Syed claims that sports such as rowing are not as competitive as other sports because you need to have a lot of financial backing to participate in them.

We like to kid ourselves that Sir Steve Redgrave is the greatest British sportsman in history so far, for winning five successive golds in rowing — a sport so elitist that it is virtually non-existent across much of the planet. I suspect that Redgrave would not have qualified for a single Olympic final, let alone won any, had rowing been accessible to, say, 1 per cent of the population of Africa — a continent that dominates running, for which the only equipment needed is decent shoes.

Member Peter Rossi, who learned to row on Putney Town’s beginners course wrote to The Times (”Success, not diversity“) to set the record straight. (continue reading…)

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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