Signing off..

Hi all,

Just a very brief wash-up to fill in on the final results and the end of the regatta. Apologies for not doing this earlier, on Saturday afternoon I was in no mood to write, Saturday evening and Sunday I was in no condition to write. We then lost our Wi-Fi access and Cindy and I have just landed in a town in South Wales where the B&B finally has a connection that works.

Just in case you are interested, the Tideway Scullers crew that were the favourites for the event eventually did win, after a tough race, beating London by I think about 3/4 of a length in very tough headwind conditions. So at least one Aussie did get up. In the final analysis, we were very competitive, despite our miscalculation on the Saturday morning.

So it was worth the trip and was nevertheless a fabulous experience for us all. We turned plenty of heads, most of whom had never heard of Power House Rowing Club. There are any number of people keen to come for a visit and a a disturbing minority who want an Australian cox, all for their very own!

One interesting stat that Bingles found was a tipping competition for all the events in the Regatta. Tideway got over 65% of the vote for the Britannia Challenge Cup, London recieved about 27%. So clearly the tippers knew their stuff, except for one small detail, one of the other semi-finallists (you can guess who) got only 1% of the vote. :)

Saturday afternoon was spent in the very posh Stewards Enclosure, where much Pimms was found. I won't say much more about that. Sunday we watched the finals and said our goodbyes to our small Henley support crew. Conor had a great day, his UCD boys (Conor is club treasurer), won the Prince Albert, the first Henley win for UCD in many moons. So at least we were associated with some winners!

By Monday morning, Shane had already departed for London, and Bingles, Nic and Conrad bundled up the oars onto the roof of the Golf, and headed off to Heathrow bright and early. Already it feels like a hundred years ago. Henley is still the Holy Grail for club rowers, it just remains untouched by PHRC. It will have to be down to another group in another year. And wouldn't I just love to see it.

Thanks so much on behalf of the crew to all our supporters. Your thoughts, comments and good will have been with us all the way, much of our disappointment on Saturday was due to a sense we had let you all down. On reflection though, we would not have even been here if not for all your support and that of the club. So, THANKYOU!

Cheers, Drew