The Clubhouse, Appley Park, Ryde, Isle of Wight, PO33 1ND - Telephone Isle of Wight (01983) 562127

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Dear Member,

As the rowing season is quickly drawing to a close I thought it a perfect opportunity to bring you up to speed with what has been and is due to take place in and around Appley in the coming months.

Although the weather doesn’t seem to know which way to turn this month it was certainly on our side back in May as our regatta took place in near perfect conditions. The event, sponsored by Southern Water and the Isle of Wight Council, turned out to be one of our most successful ever with increased takings for both refreshments (a record number of breakfasts on the Sunday – well done to ‘The Catering Crew’!) and the bar. A big thank you to all those members who committed their time to make the event such a fantastic all round success.

The clubhouse has also seen an increase in the number of member’s parties over the past few months. These all help to keep the club afloat through the traditionally quieter winter period. If your are thinking or holding a party or know someone who is why not use YOUR Rowing Club? Call Steph Hickman on 613077 for details.

While on the subject of the bar, it is becoming increasingly difficult to staff the bar during it’s normal opening hours. We currently open on Sunday lunchtimes from 12.00 – 3pm and Wednesday & Friday evenings from 7.30pm – 11pm. It would be fantastic to open the bar at other times but with 100% voluntary staff we just cannot achieve this. If you can spare either one evening or Sunday lunchtime a month to assist Steph in covering the bar please give her a call.

Now looking to events planned over the coming months starting with the Annual Dinner & Presentation of Awards at Ryde Theatre on Saturday 29^th September. Taking place a little earlier this year inorder to accommodate a very special guest it is hoped that Jurgen Grobler will be able to join us on the night, although this is subject to confirmation. He has many coaching accolades to his name; the most recent being that of GB Coxless 4 that took Steve Redgrave to his fifth Olympic Gold medal back in 2000.

The committee has looked hard to find a suitable outside caterer capable of meeting the club’s requirements and believe that in choosing Peter Hall of The Old Fort, Seaview (formerly owner of The Wishing Well) they have someone with the quality catering experience that can be relied upon. Tickets are again priced at £20.00. Further details are enclosed with this letter.

Other social events currently planned and to jot in your diaries are:

Further social functions are planned so please keep checking the club’s notice boards for updates. Alternatively surf the club’s Website at www.salkeld.freeserve.co.uk as this contains frequent updates or, for those with access to E-mail send a quick message to Steve Bull (steve@scbull.freeserve.co.uk) who will add you to RRC’s online address book.

The 100 Club social calendar will again be underway shortly however there are currently around 20 numbers available. For those members who are not familiar with The 100 Club, members pay £12.00 a year for a number between 1 and 150. Every month two numbers are drawn that each wins £25.00. At Christmas a special draw takes place where the prize money is increased. If anyone in interested in filling a number please contact Ian Lennie (612877).

We are endeavouring to keep the clubhouse as busy as possible into the winter and hope that as members you will support our efforts. If you have any ideas of Social functions that could be held please give Henry Adams (611101) or Pete Hewison (614385) a call. It is always good to hear of new functions as opposed to relying on those that are tried and tested.

I hope that some of the forthcoming functions will entice you down to the club. I know it has been said before but it IS your club, so I hope that you can support it in every way you can.

I hope that I will bump into you at the bar soon!

Kind Regards,Kevin 

The Club maintained its commitment to fully support the Coastal events at the National Rowing Championships of Great Britain over the weekend of 21st and 22nd July taking a Coxed Four, Coxless pair and two single scullers to the National Water Sports Centre, at Holme Pierrepont, Nottingham, along with a J16 Boys crew who competed in the Junior River events. We were also able to assist Shanklin Rowing Clubs first entry for a number of years by transporting their boat for them. Ryde also maintained their record of recent years returning from the

Championships for the fourth year in succession with a medal in the Coastal events. The Senior pair of Chris Jenkins and Steve Titmus finished in the Bronze Medal position in the Men’s Coastal Coxless Pairs in spite of sustaining damage to their rudder while carry out repairs to their boat at the start The Men's Coastal Coxed Fours Crew of Chris Aitkin, Matt Allsopp, Ben Ade, Steve Salter and Penny Abdul, coxing, made it through to the final where they found the pace just a little to hard to handle finishing just outside the medals in fourth place. Richard Adams, having just returned to the Island from University found the switch back to a Coastal Single Sculling boat more difficult than he had expected and failed to make the final in his heat or through the Repechage. However young Ashley Maitland, just sixteen, known as the "Pocket Rocket" racing against older and much bigger Coastal Scullers missed out on a place in the final, racing in the Repechage following a difficult heat, by just a canvas. Ashley had a busy weekend as he also coxed the Ryde J16 Coxed Four, the Wessex Regional Rowing Club Ladies Coxed Four, and picked up a Bronze Medal coxing the Shanklin Men's Coastal Coxed Four. The Ryde J16 Coxed Four, of Chris Walker, Matt Bull, Lee Bennett, Mike Palin with Ashley Maitland coxing had the misfortune to come up against the eventual Gold and Silver Medalist in their heat and were outclassed in this race. But they performed much better in the Repechage where a close race saw them just miss out on a place in the final. For the last few years the Club has also used the National Championships weekend as a mid-season Club Training Camp making the most of the facilities provided by the National Water Sports Centre. This year this included early morning and evening training sessions on the Olympic standard rowing course, the opportunity to see the latest innovations in equipment and coaching methods, coaching from ex.Ryde Oarsman and GB Under 23 International Simon Jones and a rare outing in an eight on the Trent.

18/8/01 MILFORD (LYMINGTON)

25/8/01 ITCHEN

1/9/01 BTC

As part of the Club’s Coach development Programme the Rowing Sub-Committee is hoping to stage three courses during the winter months - an Instructors award course , the first stage of the ARA’s Coaching award Scheme; an RYA2 Powerboat users course and Life Saver First Aid Course. There will be some cost involved but the Club would hope to make some contribution towards this. Further details can be obtained from Steve Bull - and if you are interested in any of these you should let Steve know. Active coaches who do not have RYA2 or above should certainly consider this course as it may well become mandatory in the near future if you intend to use the launch.

Agreed evening launch slots are as follows:-

6.30pm to 8.00pm Men’s Junior Senior Squad (Liz Van)Friday 7.00pm to 8.00pm Disabled Rowing [Dry Start] (Steve Bull & Petra Saunders)

J14/J15 Development Squads.The Club has development squads in training for J14/15 Men and Women - who are presently going afloat at Ryde in the training sculls and doubles under the control of Richard Adams and Pip Hersey - Richard can be contacted in 01983 611101 - Pip on 01983 612598.

STEALTH COASTAL BOAT.