Whew!

We're through to the next round!

After a good warm-up, we had a nervous 15min wait before the start, eyeing off the other crew. Finally, the umpires boat arrived, carrying Cindy, Hugh and Amy (Shane's mum), hosted by our starter and umpire, 4 time Olympic Gold medallist Sir Matthew Pinsent! Who apparently is a very nice bloke.

Anyway, we blew the first 2 strokes, but still managed to pull out to about half a length lead by Temple (about 300m). By the Barrier (600m mark), we had a bit over a length and had settled to a nice rhythm. There was a strong headwind and a lot of chop and slop on the course, which we weren't expecting to be so bad. We seemed to manage it ok, and had eked out to about 2 lengths by Fawley (1000m to go). Nottingham came back at us with everything here, but we held them at about 1.5 lengths to the finish.

The last 1000m or so was all about holding form in the rough conditions, it seems as if we had the worst of the days weather, so our time of 7.39 is hard to compare to the 7.25's set in the mornings calm. Our next race will be against Poplar & Blackwall RC, who were too strong for Bexhall and will provide us with a very tough race. Naturally, the talk on the bank is all highly expectant of an easy Poplar win - we seem to carry the underdog tag regardless. :)

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We had great support today now that Amy and her partner Kevin have arrived, also some Ancient Mariners from Sydney popped up with a few cheers. All down the course we heard nothing but "go Notts", "come on Union", etc, until we reached 400 to go and clearly heard the bellowing "C'MON POWER HOUSE!!!". No-one who knows him will be surprised that we correctly identified Dave Scoullar amongst thousands of voices.

We're off out for dinner to celebrate the fact that we haven't completely wasted our time coming here. Day off racing tomorrow, I'll be back in touch when we know what our draw is for Friday. Thanks again to all the PHRC supporters in Oz, your faith hasn't been completely unfounded!

Cheers, Drew

4.5 hours to go...

Hi all,

Just a quick one for now, it's about 1.30pm, just over 4 hours to race time for our first race against Nottingham and Union Boat Club. Apparently they are quite confident, which suits us just fine. We had a short paddle last night, probably not a great session, bit of tension, but nice to have it out of the way.

Nicole and particularly Cindy, have been looking after us in fine style, making sure we are well fed and hydrated. This morning we have all been down to the course for a short session on the ergo, we have chosen to avoid the traffic jam on the river and are now back at the house for food and an afternoon nap.

The course is astounding this morning, thousands of people in their finery, strolling the riverbank, listening to race radio (with all the commentary, opinions, etc), and of course, drinking plenty of Pimms. Hopefully some of our photos will partially convey the atmosphere. Apparently today is nothing compared with what to expect on the weekend.

I'm off to sleep, we'll hopefully have some good news for you all later this evening.

Cheers, Drew

In Henley

Hi all,

Sorry about delay with this post, had some trouble finding Wi-Fi access at our new base, but Bingles has come through with the goods and I'm squeezed into the one corner of the flat that has coverage... We have a 3 bedroom apartment, tiny, but enough for our eating and sleeping requirements, and best of all, about an 8 minute walk to the course. No cars for a week!

The crew is mostly well, Bingles and Rad are dealing with a bit of hayfever, but are coping well. I was laid out on the kitchen bench last night by masseur Shane with his slightly overkeen assistants and put through some serious pain to get my back in order - too much time in the car of late - and consequently feel much better this morning.

We had two paddles yesterday, about 18km all up with only about 5 or 6 min of work throughout. Again, the paddling continues to improve in quality, the platform is solid and we are still working hard on the final polish. We are all getting a bit antsy, not nervous but just wanting to start racing and get on with why we are here.

Last night, we attended a reception for International Competitors at the River and Rowing Museum, the ultimate destination for the rowing geek. Everyone had their favourite exhibition, Shane was in raptures over the scull with the sliding rigger, Bingles very excited about the experimental, titanium-framed West German eight, Conrad very impressed with the food. Cindy thought the badger was cute and Nicole was glued to the videos of olympic crews smashing if off the start. Personally, I loved a quote, written in 1876, which went something like... "If you can fill the unforgiving minute with forty strokes, both long and full, the earth and all therein, is yours to savour". I know, I'm a rowing geek too.

This morning we have been joined by our Irish contact/guest coach, Conor Walshe, who has very kindly offered to guide us through the next week. This morning after breakfast, we are off to walk the course and get some tips on where to expect some wash, current, wind, etc. Nicole is obviously very happy about this, and the rest of us quite keen to reinforce our mental picture of the course. The plan then is for a short paddle this afternoon, possibly with a crew from UCD (Conor's club) who are competing in the Prince Albert.

Tomorrow we race. I'll post again prior to (and hopefully after) that.

Cheers, Drew

The DRAW!

Good evening all,

(probably good morning actually...). It's Sunday evening over here and I'm outside savouring another long English summer evening after another perfect day - this is really turning my long-held and much-reinforced opinions of English weather on their head.

We had a long paddle as planned yesterday and got our first taste of the predicted Henley slop. There were massive numbers of crews out training on the course, which is really no wider than the Yarra, plus 40 or 50 motor craft of varying shapes, sizes, speeds and wakes ploughing up and down the transit lane. The floating barriers which line most of the course attenuate this wash to a surprising degree, but you still cop a real washing machine effect at certain points of the course, most significantly over the last 3 or 400 metres. So we definitely don't want to leave any attacking til this late in the race.

Fortunately though, we had really quite a good row, handling the poor water pretty well. The boat seems to cut through the slop with pretty minimal upset (in this regard at least, it seems better than our own Sykes boats). The crew are finding it easy to find a good platform regardless of water condition, although Nicole says the steering is still very touchy and very susceptible to any variation in oar pressures or even slight loss of balance - so we can't get too comfortable without a kick up the arse from her! Following the video session we have made a few small changes to our body psitions and timing, particularly off the start and these have paid dividends - we are certainly slicker out of the blocks than previously.

Despite the good rowing, it was a draining session, mostly mentally, so we made the decision to have a full day away from the river today and do some sight-seeing. Nic, Conrad, Cindy and I travelled down to Stonehenge, then up to Bath for the afternoon, very pleasant but I won't bore you with details here! Shane has gone to catch up with friends in London and Bingles found Tank World (sorry, Tankfest - that's tanks that move and shoot, not hold water) and unsurprisingly, made lots of new friends and got thrown out of the museum at closing time. He was unable to find the time to visit Monkey World, so is not entirely satisfied.

Following yesterdays paddle, we trekked up to Henley Town Hall for the Draw. Sure enough, there were the aged, distinguished and be-blazered Committee of the Henley Boat Club seated at the High Table with the ridiculously ornate Grand Challenge Cup placed front and centre. Each event was drawn one by one to much oohing and ahhing from the packed hall. Bingles has some video of our draw which we hope to upload to this site - it should give some insight into the atmosphere.

The relevant details of our draw are mostly good news. We meet Nottingham Union Boat Club first up at 5pm GMT on Wednesday. They qualified on Friday and according to our local form experts, are not travelling as well as they might be. Nevertheless, we will treat them with the greatest of respect, we hear they have a cracking start. Should we manage to get through Wednesday's race, we'll have a day off on Thursday and likely race Poplar/Blackwell on Friday assuming they win their first round. They are a seeded crew so will no doubt be very tough.

The really good news is that we are on the opposite side of the draw from the crew from Tideway Scullers School - one of the premier London clubs. Tideway are the form crew of the English season, yet to be beaten. Their crew contains a South African and an Australian, Al Taylor, from Mercantile, whom many of you may know. They are pretty well credentialled and are the deserved favourites for our event. But, we can't meet them before the final, should we get that far. Our UK and Irish contacts tell us that we couldn't really have hoped for a better draw, so there goes our last remaining excuse!

We move into Henley tomorrow (Monday), so my next post will be from there after our morning session.

Cheers, Drew

Getting better...

Another beautiful day has dawned and we're breakfasting in the sun again. Yesterday was our best session so far, we travelled over the full course at about 95% intensity, building to the finish. Our boat speed is much improved from our first couple of days and the mood in the crew is significantly better!

In the late afternoon, Annabella and Hugh arrived with a picnic dinner for us (they are amazing!) and we sat by the Thames and watched our competition qualify. A couple of handy crews in our event, but for the most part, they seem beatable if we are on our game. Of course, we have seen nothing of the other 8 crews that have also pre-qualified for our race and you would expect that this is where the serious challenges will come from.

A crowd of around 3 thousand lined the banks last night, just to watch qualifying. A taste of things to come. Following racing, there was a slightly subdued feel to the course as many non-qualified crews packed up and went home. The boat tent (pavilion really - it holds over 500 boat racks), having been full in the morning, is now 1/3 empty again. Presumably, this will continue over the course of the regatta.

This morning, Bingles and Shane have risen early for an appointment with a local boat builder who has fashioned a block for our stroke rigger. We've just had the phone call to say that their mission has been successful! So today we'll have our correct gearing and set up for the first time. The plan is for a long, low intensity row today, similar tomorrow, sharpening up on Monday.

All the crew sends their best to House, hope all is well in Oz, and our new prime minister (that was a shock getting off the plane!), is shaping up well.

Cheers, Drew

We're here!

Hi all,

Sorry about the delay in this first post, we've finally sorted internet access and settled in nicely. We have landed on our feet thanks to Rosemary Inglis and her contacts and are staying with our new friends, Annabella and Hugh who are unbelievably hospitable and have us well fed, rested and surrounded by dogs, chooks and beautiful English sunshine (no joke!). We are in Newbury, about 50miles west of London and only an hours drive from Henley and the rowing course.

We've taken possesion of our boat, a 2001 Empacher which may be a touch large for us (Nicole keeps disappearing into the bow), but is light, stiff and fast through the water, so no complaints. No-one will be surprised that its taken us 3 sessions so far to shake down all the problems - the boat is now almost right, we have a small rigger issue that is being sorted via Bingles and our many UK contacts as I write.

We have settled into a routine of train, eat, sleep that is probably the rowing geeks idea of heaven, certainly we're all content which I assume means we're all rowing geeks. We had our first row on Wednesday when we arrived, which surprisingly wasn't too bad, despite all the fatigue-related rigging errors (lefty loosy, righty tighty!) and Shane gearing himself appropriate for a 7 foot, 18 stone monster, needless to say his legs felt the strain.

The next morning we matched up with a US crew from Georgetown University who won the senior coxed four at Marlow regatta last weekend. They are favourites for the Prince Albert Cup, for U23 coxed fours, after recording a time of 6.24 over 2km at Marlow. We discovered the effects of jet-lag in no uncertain terms, beating Georgetown by a length on the first 4min peice, but subsequently being torched in peices 2 and 3. A handy wake-up call for us, so following that 16km session, we had a 10km evening row last night which was a much improved effort following more food and sleep. We're organising a return meeting with them in a couple of days - hopefully we'll give them a better run then.

Today has dawned bright and sunny again (I'm really not joking - the weather is brilliant) and we're having a late start. Just the one session planned for today, then we'll watch the qualifying for our event which starts at 6.30pm - very civilised. The course at Henley is nothing short of amazing - 2 fences run straight down the middle of the river, segregating the 2 racing crews from the other river traffic. The water is clear, cool and blue/green, the banks are alternately grassy or densely foliated, where they are not occupied by a country manor. Every available open space along the 2.1km course is steadily being filled with the most elaborate tents, marquees (we are talking steel framed monsters that cover hundreds of square metres), grandstands, bars, restaurants and even a shopping centre (again, I'm not kidding!). It all has the makings of the most incredible circus, reminding us all of nothing so much as the Melbourne Spring Carnival.

We'll be moving into our rented accommodation in Henley on Monday which will save us much travel time and traffic related woes. That's about it. When Bingles finally gets the video camera hooked up to the TV, we're about to do some video analysis of our last few sessions - Cindy has been busily filming kilometres of rowing (some of it even of our crew!).

Thanks again for all the messages of support, we're all busting to do well for House and all of you in Melbourne.

Cheers, Drew

Welcome

Hi all,

Welcome to the PHRC "Henley Crew" blog which will keep anyone interested up to date with how the crew fares in the quest for the Britannia Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta.

For those who don't already know, the crew consists of the following members...

Bow seat: Nick Inglis
2 seat: Drew Holman
3 seat: Conrad Tulloch
Stroke seat: Shane O'Connor-Smith
Cox: Nicole Grant
Team Manager: Cindy Plowman

As mentioned in a certain newspaper article recently, we are a little older than the average Henley challengers, averaging a spritely 38 years. We're hoping that our combined 100+ years of racing experience will overcome whatever damage has been done to the 'engine' in that time. Racing at Henley has been a dream for all of us for many years, to have this opportunity come up and be enabled and supported by the club is, literally, a dream come true.

The event, as mentioned above, is the Brittania Challenge Cup (or the 'Brit'), and is contested by club coxed fours. You are ineligible to compete in the 'Brit' if you have represented your country or if you have won at Henley before. The remainder of course, includes most of the rowing world, so we'll be up against some stiff competition.

Racing at Henley is an unusual format. All events are match races, i.e. 2 boats only. Win and you progress to the next round, lose and it's game over. Our particular event has 16 crews, so to claim the Cup, you need to win 4 times in succession. The event received 28 entries this year, so qualifying time trials will be held this coming Friday to bring the field down to 16. Fortunately, based on our results across the domestic season, we have been granted direct entry to the field and will not have to qualify - good news as we don't land at Heathrow until 7am Wednesday!

Our forward scout, Conrad, is already in the UK scoping out the competition who are all racing this weekend at the Marlow Regatta. He thinks there are at least half a dozen crews going 'quick', (hopefully not as quick as we will be...). Rad has taken possession of our boat (a 2001 Empacher) and is happy with the shell. He is less impressed with the oars however, so (airline cooperating) we will be transporting our own blades to race with.

I/we will endeavour to keep you all updated at least once a day, particularly with race results, etc.

We'd all like to take this opportunity to thank our supporters, friends and families for their overwhelming support and goodwill as we head for Henley. Our fundraiser was a great success and will enable us to put our best foot forward (and leave us with no excuses!). Thanks to all who came along and made the night and the auction such a great success. We'd specifically like to acknowledge the following people/organisations...

Power House Rowing Club Committee and Membership
Paul Weigard
Craig Cooper
John Hannan
Angelo Rizzardi
Jellis Craig Real Estate
Doug McManamny
Brendon Beattie
Brian & Jane Smith
Kirsten Chapman
Peter Benson
Jeff & Lynda Hills
Caitlin Ripper
John & Bernice Tulloch
The Inglis Family
Jane Robinson
Janet Earl
Bridgette Tulloch
Jim Petty
Bruce & Heidi Winnen
Simon Napthine
Bert Tan
Ben Woffenden
Jen Walter
Mike Taylor
Chris Bingles old Coach
Conrad's PE Teacher
Robert Freder
John O'Dowd
Catherine Park
...and anyone else who has donated anonomously!

We'd also like to recognise the superior efforts of Kirsten O'Connor-Smith, the chocolate mistress extraordinaire and her crew of "Chocolateers", primarily Kate Andrews, Elle Lazarus and Erin Carrigy for their superb efforts in producing so many high quality chockys for us to sell. Much gratitude is also extended to those who gave up their time and effort to sell said chocolates!

Lastly, we'd like to thank Greer Lamaro for her assistance in all matters financial and Nicholas Andreou for not only his efforts with the spit roast last Saturday, but also for agreeing to act as crew reserve in the event one of us was struck by illness/injury. This is a rare sacrifice from a true club man and we want to acknowledge his efforts publicly. Thanks Hatsy!

That's it for now, promise that later entries will be shorter!

Drew