Well the new year is now under way and this is our review of the first couple of weeks. Sadly this report will no longer be weekly as the responsibility now falls on my shoulders and shall we say I am not a natural at report writing. I will endeavour to put together a missive a couple of times per half term.

The Launch Evening on Thursday 20th was a great success and we were delighted with the turn out. It is great to see the youngsters and their families coming along and getting a flavour of what is instal for them over the coming year. Mike Cooper was very impressed and enjoyed meeting our new young rowers. A special mention must go to UAW for their turn out, full numbers and all in uniform, a great start.

Mike Cooper of Bubble Clothing has now produced his kit package and you should all have details of the bundle. It looks great value and will help greatly with the appearance and suitability of their clothing. If by chance you have not seen this offer please let me know.

Nearly all schools have now started and by next week we will be under way with all our new athletes. The first session that we delivered to the novice rowers was an introduction to the sport and a safety briefing that was hidden within a boathouse quiz. Some of the schools also spent time in the gym, getting a flavour of the basics.

The second session for the schools involved an introduction to the boats and tentative first steps to becoming rowers. We might have called this a taster session but sadly Sir Thomas Boteler boys literally got to taste the river. They capsized due to a combination of factors that included trying them in racing boats from day one. This is a practice that is used a lot, by many rowing clubs, even so we will be reverting to the wider more stable boats for the next sessions. I do hope this incident did not put any of the youngsters off.

The boat that was involved in this incident is going to have to be replaced as it suffered high levels of damage during the capsize. There is absolutely no blame for this on the people involved, it is simply a matter of fact. It was an old boat, perfectly safe but it does though illustrate the costs of this sport as the new boat will cost £13k.

The move to year 8 looks like a good move and I do hope we can hold onto them for a couple of years, there are certainly some characters emerging already. Warrington Rowing Club have asked me to try and recruit some of these new rowers into the junior ranks of the club. I will be watching and extending invites over the next few months.

It has been a great pleasure to see some of last years athletes return as year 10’s.

A reminder that its Capsize Drill for the next two Mondays. Please be on time and the times listed below are poolside times.

Most schools should by now (or by 5pm today) have qualified launch drivers. Can I thank the schools for arranging time and cover to ensure that your staff get this vital qualification. Most schools should also have a qualified coach and the combination of these two factors will make a huge difference in time, allowing us to expand our numbers.

Can I remind you of a couple of things?

We need as many testimonials as possible!

Fundraising dinner on 16 November to pay for our trip to London for The National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships. We have just purchased the train tickets at £750!

The WhatsApp Group for leads is working well, please let me know if anybody needs adding.

Schools of The Week

Week One – UAW – Great turn out at Presentation Evening

Week Two – Penketh – Good turn out and strong numbers.

Week Three – Sir Thomas Boteler – Especially the boys for reacting well and doing the right think during the capsize!

Kind regards

Richard

View From The Launch

September 2018

A new year beckons and lots of new opportunities present themselves. Lets hope we can build on the huge success of the last two years.

First thing to mention is that Phil Lyons has moved on and he will be greatly missed. His input has been tremendous and without him we certainly wouldn’t be where we are now. We wish him all the best for his next venture, whatever that might be.

We will though be keeping in contact as he has agreed to be an ambassador for Warrington Youth Rowing. Joining him as an ambassador will be Warrington Rowing Club’s Lucy Glover. For those of you that don’t know Lucy was the first member of WRC to be crowned a World Champion whilst still a member of WRC. Although she is now a student at Edinburgh she is still active at WRC and has been known to help out with our sessions!

Replacing Phil will be Paul Johansen. Paul is just about to embark on a Masters Course at LJMU in a sport related subject. Paul has a varied rowing CV and he is well qualified to fill the gap left by Phil.

Thinking back to last year we would be interested to hear from you if you think we can improve in any way. It might also be interesting to hear about the things that you think we do well?

A couple of schools sent us information about the impact of the project on your pupils. This is very important information for us and can I urge you to please help gather as much information as possible. We still have confirmed funding for the next two academic years but after that we need this type of information to support funding bids to extend the life of this project.

In a bid to extend and increase the size of the project we invited the school leads to enrol on a coaching course. I was amazed and humbled that 7 of our leads from 6 schools gave up their valuable holiday time in August to become rowing coaches. I think its fair to say that they all enjoyed it! The next stage of this process is to get these leads qualified to drive the safety launches at WRC. With this in mind I have circulated dates that are available for these 2day courses. WYR will organise the funding for them.

Can I ask please for confirmation of Key School dates, as I know that at least one school has two weeks in October as opposed to one week for the others? Easter last year was a mess for us with different holiday schedules, which lead to a lot of confusion at our end.

Kit. Can we please get on top of this as early as possible, last year we spent a lot of time talking to the students about inappropriate clothing. Can I suggest if the kit is not right they don’t leave school?  If the schools are buying kit please remember no hoodies.

Dates

Thursday 20 September. Launch event 6pm-7pm Priestley College.

Monday 24 September. All schools invited to start this week.

Monday 8 October.  Capsize Drill Broomfields/Bridgewater Pool 1-3pm

4 schools to have a ½ hour slot each.

Monday 15 October. Capsize Drill Broomfields/Bridgewater Pool 1-3pm

4 schools to have a ½ hour slot each.

Please can the schools bid for the week and time slot that they would prefer to do this very important drill. So far I have Birchwood for w/c 15.

Please also note that if you choose w/c 8 Oct for the capsize drill this will be your only rowing session for the week. Like wise for the following week.

Wed 30 Jan 2019 Indoor Rowing Competition at Warrington Wolves Stadium.

We need to collect (day before) and return (day after) 30 rowing machines from Nottingham for this event. If any schools can help with this we would be very grateful.

Fri 15 March. National Junior Indoor Rowing Competition. Copper Box London.

Athletes to be selected for this competition from our event on 30/01/2019

Tuesday 2 July WYR Regatta at Warrington Rowing Club

We have moved this forward to try and avoid clashes with school trips and other events. The pupils work hard throughout the year and it is a shame if they can’t showcase their talents and so we have moved to this day. It will be the only rowing session that week.

Friday 16 November – Fund Raising Event. Mere Court Hotel.

I have run this event for many years, I used to be a Wine Merchant and this was one of the events that I ran to promote business. As from last year it has become a fund raiser for WYR and indeed it funded the London trip to NJIRC. The plan is to do the same this year. It is a great event, somewhat different to your average fundraiser. All the fundraising is done within 10 minutes via a game of Heads and Tails. This year our guest of honour is Matt Rostron CEO of London Youth Rowing and he will speak about his experiences with LYR. It is a very social event with plenty of time to relax and enjoy good company. There is a four course meal and five glasses of wine (about a bottle per person). Each wine, chosen by me, will compliment the menu and I will even talk about that at the dinner.

Prices – Meal and Wine only £50 per person (book direct with me 07970796917)

For those wishing to stay. £155 per couple inc meal, wine, room and breakfast . (book direct with hotel 01565 831000)

It is a good fun evening and probably the best value event of this type by miles!

Cheers Richard 07970 796917