News and Information
With the season over now is the time to recharge batteries, repair gigs and oars and raise some much needed funds. Hope as many as possible will be able to support the following events;
Sat 27th September “Curry Night” Blakewell Water Garden & Fishery, Muddiford.
Its £10 a ticket bring your own booze, 7pm start. Blow away the cobwebs in style.
Friday 24th October “Quiz Night” The Reform Inn Pilton
A chance to test your brains rather than your brawn and have a quick pint of “original” into the bargain.
Saturday 1st November “Table Top Sale” Appledore Church Hall
Got a garage full of quality second hand goods? Well now you have a chance to get rid of it without having to go to the expense of hiring a skip. Help also needed to organise tea coffee and cakes. If anyone can actually bake a cake that will be even better, this applies to both the blokes and the girls by the way…...
Sat 6th December “The Blisters Ball” Venue TBA
The final event of the year before the club closes for the winter break. Themed? You bet, an event that gets better with every year.
Please contact Lucy Chapman for more details about all these events.
This year the club sent four crews to the Newquay County Championships held over two weekends and traditionally the last event of the gig rowing season. With over 45 clubs competing and up to 1000 rowers in the town the event is second only to the Scillies and allows us to measure our crews against the best in the business.
The ladies A, Kay Denham, Lucy Bates, Emma Bird, Sara Hasted, Amy Coles and Di Woods, with coxswain Kev Hasted, drew an early heat. It was though against some very tough competition and they finished fourth. It was then a nervous wait to see if the time would be good enough to get them into the second round. As conditions deteriorated there looked to be every chance even well fancied crews struggled to match their time. In the end they just missed out but got to row in the plate race in which they also finished fourth. The final placing for the ladies was very respectable 47th out of 82 crews. A result of which they can be justly proud.
The Men’s A, Nick Williams, Alistair Peak, Michael Child, Kevin Hasted, John Nicholl, Pete Wilton with coxswain Len White sailed through the first round but were knocked out in the second. They finished in joint 28th place with Newquay B. This was an excellent result and great improvement on last year. It also earned the crew the events “Most Improved Men’s crew trophy”. The Men’s B also managed to improve on their placing from last year finishing in 70th place out of 80 competing crews.
The Under-16 Junior crew, Sam Martin, Colin Eastman, Dan Fisher, Jamie Evans, Luke Hasted and Matt Cox, with coxswain Len White competed with 24 other crews over arguably the toughest course of the season. Having got through the first round they finished in 9th overall.
This might seem early but can all club members start thinking about their attendance at this event now. Next years event will be bigger than ever and accommodation on St Mary’s will be in demand. The Garrison camp site is the only budget option so when booking opens we need to be in a position to act. Our new events couple Tim & Chris will be getting info out to everyone in due course but will need to know who wants to camp buy the end of September at the latest. Crew selection will occur nearer the time but with up to two gigs available to enter in both the main events and the vets there are opportunities there for the taking.
The paint is chipped and the varnish pealing, the season draws to a close. Just the Newquay championships to go. The Ladies and Junior Under 16s will be competing on 6th & 7th September with the Men on the 20th & 21st and it would be great to see as many supporters at these events as possible. Lets finish the season on a high.
The peak of the regatta season has produced some great results for the club despite the dismal weather and loss of key crew to the “Summer Holiday”. I would like to thank everyone who contributed to our success.
We started the month off at Hayle with the junior under 14s championships on 2nd August. The problem was we were a little short of under 14s so were only able to enter a crew in the composite races. Judging by the number of gigs entered into this class we were not the only club in this position. The crew did exceptionally well and finished in a time which remained unbeaten until the latter rounds of the main event. Those of us who attended to offer our support had a great day out especially as it stayed sunny for the whole day.
On the 9th August we travelled to Paignton to offer our support to this new club. The weather had returned to type and although the water off Paignton Beach looked calm, once off shore crews found themselves battling a difficult chop / tide / wind combination. We had some success however with the Men’s A achieving a third, the Men’s Vets coming second and the Junior Under 16’s Crew coming first.
The 17th August saw us at Clovelly for a mostly dry regatta which we once again did well in despite stiff competition. There was also an opportunity to welcome Ilfracombe to the gig rowing fraternity. On this occasion the Men’s A. Mixed and Junior Under 16’s all won their events, which was a great result for the club.
We had planned to attend Fowey but unfortunately demand for places at this regatta was very high and with limited river space we were unable to attend. Things looked up with the arrival on the schedule of Port Isaac Regatta which had been cancelled earlier in the month by the weather. Conditions were very deceptive as what looked like a flat calm sea quickly developed into a complex chop with some big swells once out of the shelter of the cove. In these challenging conditions the club did exceptionally well with wins for the Men’s Vets, Men’s A, Mixed and Under 16’s. At the end of the regatta the club found itself tied on points with Rock, who had great strangle in depth and were never out of the placings in the events they entered. Appledore won the day however with 4 gold’s to Rocks 1 and were overall regatta winners for what I believe is the first time.
Photos of all the above events are have been uploaded to our website, and thank you once again to everyone who attended or supported these events.
We have attended three regatta since the last news update. The Rock regatta came in as a late replacement for Zennor to allow more members to attend. It was a great event held in that all to uncommon weather this season, bright sunshine. Up to 24 gigs took part and our performance was similar to the IOC results. We were unable to make Helford due to other commitments but to make up for it held a fun day the following Saturday with a few light-hearted novelty races between the slipway and Instow beach and a barbeque in the evening. The Men's and Junior Crews attended Salcombe the next day and achieved some excellent results which made the papers the next week, so well done to everyone who attended. We skipped the vets race at Caradon due to a lack of vets and the weather messed up Weymouth which looks like being a great event to get involved with in years to come.
Our own regatta held on 12th July was just what we needed after the disappointment of missing Weymouth as the sun almost came out and we had a great day on the water. Racing was as competitive as ever with some very tight finishes. The mixed A won their race, as did the under 16's with the Men’s A just missing out to Bristol and the Men's Vets A coming second to Torridge A. The sale of food and refreshments, programmes and other items also brought in over £1300 for club funds. Our thanks to everyone who contributed to the success of the event.
The next day saw Siren join four gig's from Torridge Gig club at the Bideford Water Festival for a demonstration race from the old bridge down to the new and back. It was good to see the revival of this event attract such a crowd and it is one to add to the calendar for next year. We finished with a flour and water fight between the plastic gigs before a quick clean off under the river fountains. Just in case you were wondering the gig still floated with water above the foot rests and I am still picking four out of my ears and looking for my sun glasses.
We have received some very welcome financial help from a number of organisations in recent months as the arrival of Siren borough with it some unavoidable expenses in the way of pins, seats, radios and safety equipment. We would therefore like to thank the following for their generous support;
Peter Wilton of Wiltons Washes; for the purchase of the new plastic seats in Siren.
Bideford Round Table; for a cheque for £300 towards club funds to go towards out new gig.
Pilton Stars In Their Eyes; A cheque for £500 towards club funds.
Our new training gig has arrived and it has been decided to call her Siren after a pilot gig which used to be based in Appledore. A picture of that gig can be seen on our web site in the "pilot gig history" section. This is great news as it means we can get more crews out on the water training together while taking the pressure off the traditional wooden gigs.
Both of our gigs Whitford & Verbena have now been returned from the World Championships. The Swanage regatta was a victim of the weather, although on Friday night I was wondering what the fuss was about, by mid day on Saturday there was a full on gale blowing through the English Channel so it was definitely the right decision. Rock is our next regatta followed swiftly by Helston on the 8th June and Salcombe on the 15th June.
There is a club meeting on Wednesday 4th June at 8pm in the Church Hall and all members are asked to attend. With our own Regatta on the 12th July we need to start making plans to ensure it is a success. We have also welcomed a number of new members to the club over the last few months so it might be an opportunity to meet up over a pint after all the serious stuff has been discussed.
There has been one major change to the web site with the movement of the club photo archive to google picasa from flickr. The flickr site was becoming increasingly commercial and when they started limiting the number of photos I could post to 200 without charge it was time to move. The new site is FREE to look at and has all the features such as the slide show. If you want you can add your own albums, just give Rob a shout and he will explain all. New photos have also been uploaded of the Scilly Isles 2008.
What a wonderful weekend, a brilliant time was had by all who attended this spectacular event. Three superlatives in one sentence should indicate how I felt about the event, but it could all have been so different. As we sat huddled on the back of the Scillonian III on Thursday morning in full wet weather gear, the rain and sleet showers and strengthening wind suggested that this would be a Scillies experience to remember for all the wrong reasons. If I had not been off the beer !!! I might even have been tempted to head to the bar for a swift pint or several to drown my sorrows. But then as if my magic the sun came out, the wind dropped off and the fun began.
For the club things kicked off with the Men’s veterans race from St Agnes to St Mary’s. This year we decided against the pre race run over to St Agnes to “check out the course” and have a swift one in the Turks Head. So in the race there was just time to remember how far it is to the start before we had to turn round and race back. The crew achieved a respectable 46th out of 68 entries. The main events took place on Saturday & Sunday with the club entering one ladies crew and two Men’s. The racing was as competitive as ever and whatever the result we were always able to retire to the bar at the end of the day with members of our fellow clubs to discuss the day’s events. Our results after the final race were; Ladies A 103rd, Men’s A 39th and 3rd in group D an excellent result and finally Men’s B 91st this was an improvement of 10 places on last years result.
With the £5000 received from Devon County Councils Youth Opportunities Fund safely in the bank the club has been looking to raise sufficient funds to allow us to order the new Training Gig. Now thanks to the generosity of sponsors we are able to report that the order has been places with the gig builders.
Clubs competing; Appledore, Boscastle, Bristol, Bude, Clovelly, Torridge.
Club spirit was certainly needed when it came to packing up after the event as the weather had taken a turn for the worse during the ladies race from Barnstaple back to Appledore. Thankfully we were able to retreat to the warmth of the village hall. The customary prize giving was well attended thanks in no small part to plenty of hot food and cold beer. The good news is that thanks to our culinary efforts and the prize draw, we have added £400 to club funds.
There are a few more quid in the club coffers thanks to Tim Slopers idea to collect scrap aluminium, copper and lead. Tim reports that he has taken his first shipment of aluminium cans to South West Metals and received £25 for club funds. A big thank you to all who collected their old drinks cans. Other valuable metals are proving harder to find but we all have an opportunity to help by saving up our drinks cans both at work and at home.
Well not iron, but aluminium, copper and lead. Tim Sloper is collecting it and following the huge rise in scrap metal prices it makes real money for the club. So collect any clean aluminium cans, copper pipe / wire or lead (not old batteries) and we can convert it into cold hard cash. A word of warning on the contents of skips and other people recycling boxes, these belong to someone, unless you want to spend time with the local bobby always get the owners permission before removing items.