Cotswold Rowing Club: first Open Day a great success
The weather relented and on 13th September, a lovely Saturday morning, Cotswold Rowing Club held its first Open Day at Waterland, Lake32 Keynes Country Park.
More than 50 people turned up to see the fun and of those, 28 managed to get on the water and a total of 10 different boats were launched and used. The event, which was designed to encourage absolute beginners as well as lapsed rowers, was very successful. It was particularly encouraging that 10 juniors, aged from 11 to 15, turned up and were coached in the training sculls, progressed to going out in double sculls and eventually made up two crews who rowed in quadruple sculls, coxed by HSCT coach, Annie Januszeski.
Cotswold Rowing Club was founded in late 2006, but only started rowing in May this year when suitable facilities were found at Waterland to enable the members to take to the water in a safe environment with sufficient water length to make an outing worthwhile.
The Club was founded to be the host club for the new planned International standard rowing lake at Cleveland lakes in the Cotswold Water Park. These facilities cannot be used yet as the extraction and reconstruction works are not yet finished but it is hoped that agreements can be put in place for Cleveland Lakes to be available for club use over 1500m in Spring 2009.
The Chairman of Cotswold Rowing Club, Terry Hardie, said “I am absolutely delighted that over 50 people turned up to see how we are progressing and it was great to see so many youngsters. We are planning to work with local schools on a Community Schools Rowing programme through the winter with dry rowing and progressing to on the water training in the Spring of 2009. Our Junior section will also start up on the same timetable and I was very pleased that our part time coach, Annie Januszeski, generously funded by the Henley Stewards Scholarship, was able to come today and help these novice oarsmen and women. It was also great to see Rachael Wooldridge, our ARA Regional Coaching and Development Officer, who very kindly helped out with the influx of newcomers.
We have been very lucky with offers of help from fellow rowing clubs, the generosity of our own members and the support of the ARA which have provided us with the necessary level of equipment to satisfy our members’ needs this summer. We are now planning our first Regatta entry at the Bristol Head and will progress from there. It is clear that Team GB’s success at the Beijing Olympics has inspired many people to take up rowing as a sport and we hope to see even more new members through the winter.”
The club meets every Thursday evening 6-8pm and Saturday morning 10-12am at Waterland (indoor training and rowing machines will also be available during the winter). Anybody who is interested should come down at these times or contact Terry Hardie on 01793 752650 or email on thardie@lineone.net
