Captain's Chat
July 2010
Well as I am sure you are aware the position of Rowing Club Captain is a varied one……. but this month will take some beating!!
It has been another very busy month at Newark Rowing Club; senior men preparing for Henley, novice men’s squad racing at every opportunity they get, juniors, well they have at least doubled in number! and continue to do NRC proud winning at regattas.
NRC's involvement with the North Muskham Riverside Festival was a huge sucess, I'd like to thank everyone who was involved with the racing and also helping out on the day. I'm sure we will be back there next year for more racing.
I was very pleased to accept an invitation from Wilkinson’s in Newark to re-open their refurbished store on the 1st July. There is never a dull day as a rowing club captain and never one to turn down an opportunity to promote the club along I went with a pair of scissors and my club blazer. I met Barbara and Tony Wilkinson, daughter and son of JK Wilkinson, the founder of the company who presented me with a cheque for £50 for a charity of my choice – which was the Steve Redgrave Trust and promptly wrote me another £50 cheque out to bump it up to £100 – brilliant.
One of our aims for this year was to increase membership as numbers have been decreasing for a while now. We are on our way to achieving this by investing in the Explore Rowing programme and running learn to row courses, Steve and Paul have been coaching lots of new juniors from both Grantham and Newark Schools and running taster sessions in schools. While we are in this period of growth and to ensure we hold on to new members we really need more people to help out our coaching team. Any help you can offer would be much appreciated – helping people on and off the water and biking up the bank to supervise some of the newer rowers would really help us out. Let me or Steve know if this is something you would like to do.
I know we are still very much in the racing season but just wanted to get the date for the annual dinner in your diaries. The Town Hall and a band have been booked and we are taking the same format from last years successful event (one speech then awards handed out). So Friday 19th November 2010 get it in your diaries – tickets will be on sale nearer the time. We will also be running a raffle and will shortly be looking for some extra special prizes to make it the biggest raffle yet!! Can you or your company offer anything or any experiences that we could raffle off? Let me know.
A provisional date for the Newark Indoor Rowing Competition has been set as Saturday 30th October. Will put more details on the website nearer the time.
The clubhouse development is now gathering pace. Having received tenders from five construction companies we now have an idea of the cost for the build. A few of us are frantically working on an application to British Rowing to part fund the build along with taking a trip to the bank!! We have been advised by British Rowing to complete the build by April 2011 to increase the chances of being granted the funding, so the timescales we are working to are rather tight!!
I would like to thank Jo for organising a lovely Henley Party which I am sure will now become an annual event for the NRC social calendar. A very relaxing and enjoyable day was had by all. I would also like to thank Jayne, Sara, Jess and Sally for helping to name the new Explore Rowing boats. I think it will be a while before we have seven new boats to name all at once!
Our second learn to row course came to an end on Sunday with nine new faces graduating. I would like to welcome you all to Newark Rowing Club and look forward to seeing you out on the river soon.
That’s all from me for now (I need to get on with writing a sports development plan!)
fliss