Celeste
May 2021
President’s Welcome
Welcome to this, and likely my last, edition of Celeste! The EUBC Committee and myself do wish you and your families well, and we hope you are safe and well following the most recent chapter of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Since our last edition, where we optimistically looked at the approaching academic year, we welcomed new members in September, training resumed both in the Dame Katherine Grainger Rowing Gym and on the canal, and then we saw yet another lockdown, and our athletes moved back to training hard from home, whether that be in their kitchens, garages or living rooms. Now, as restrictions begin to lift following the successful UK Vaccination programme, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, with a summer of sport on the horizon! Whilst it may be slightly different to usual, we still greatly look forward to smashing it out on the water and showing what EUBC is made of!
I hope you enjoy this edition of Celeste and that we see you at an event soon!
Dan Baillache, President 2019-21
EUBC’s Return to Rowing
This Lockdown has provided some unique challenges for our squads. With training restricted to the individual level, the coaches handed out the club’s rowing machines to members of the senior squads. From there the squads have excelled at staying motivated and on task and have succeeded in staying in top shape. More recently, the Union canal has been open to use for single scullers and members have been enjoying that access. Some trialling athletes were granted special permission to travel to Auchinstarry and Strathclyde for some training in singles and doubles. Overall, the squad is looking in excellent shape for the proper return to the water later this month.
Head of Rowing’s View
‘Our need will be our real creator’
Or, ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’, if we are to take the popular modern proverb born from Plato’s original writings. I don’t think there can ever have been a more stark demonstration than the fantastic speed with which scientists have brought vaccines to fruition, and provided a way out of the situation under which we have lived for over a year now.
We have all made significant changes to the way we do things. This has certainly been the case as we have looked to keep the Boat Club afloat.
No crew boats? No problem. Our decision to maintain a healthy fleet of single sculls, in contrast to most University clubs, has seen many more people turn their hand to a skill that really should be fundamental to all, and will undoubtedly benefit their future performance and enjoyment.
Can’t travel? No problem. Many old hands will be delighted to hear of the relative revival of Senior activity on the Union Canal. Whilst we continue to plan much of our future activity at Strathclyde Park, the benefits of our own little strip of glass have become more apparent. Many more students have now experienced the pleasure of a sunrise scull to start their day.
No racing? No problem. Last month we hosted the inaugural ‘Head of the Union Canal’. More than 50 scullers from local clubs racing over the ‘down and back’ course over the duration of a morning. A test of watermanship probably unrivalled across the UK, and the very peak of ‘constraints led learning’…
No gym? No problem. Like much social and business activity, our sessions have shifted online and it has been great to see that people can still derive a sense of support and motivation from the other side of a screen. In fact, we have seen a large number of personal bests on the ergometer, despite them being performed in a variety of garages and gardens.
No beginners? Not a chance. It would have been easy to deem it too difficult to recruit and develop beginners in the current environment. However, under the leadership of Mike Hughes, we have a squad of 16 competent beginner scullers, ensuring our proud history of introducing people to the sport continues unbroken.
And while the racing calendar starts to fill up, and we eagerly anticipate putting the longest winter training in history to the test, we can also reflect on the racing that is happening.
We were delighted to have three members on the GB team at the European Championships. Polly Swann returning to the top step of the podium in the pair with Helen Glover, Maddie Arlett finishing 5th in the Lightweight Women’s Single, and Lucy Glover making a medal winning senior debut with Silver in the Women’s Quad.
That Maddie and Polly took their first ever strokes in the sport on the Union Canal, and that Lucy (still an undergrad) achieved the ergometer scores that forced her into the senior reckoning from her parents garage, should serve as further motivation that the conditions that have been placed upon us do not limit us.
Colin Williamson, Head of Rowing, University of Edinburgh
GB Team Success at the 2021 European Champs
Four EUBC athletes were selected to race for Great Britain at the European Rowing Championships, held at Varese. Alumni, Polly Swann, Maddie Artlett and Oliver Wilkes were selected to race in the W2-, the LW1x and the M2- Spare races respectively. Current final year student, Lucy Glover, was selected to make her GB Team debut, in the W4x!
The GB Team had an incredibly successful regatta, their first since 2019, taking home medals across the squads. The EUBC contingent were no different, with Polly becoming European Champion in the W2-, Lucy winning a Silver in the 4x and Maddie finishing 5th in the LW1x.
We now look forward to the upcoming World Cup Regattas at Lucerne at the end of May and to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games later this summer.
GB Senior and U23 Trials
EUBC has several triallists this year looking for GB selection. At the recent invitational Senior/U23 Closed Trials held at Eton Dorney over the Bank Holiday we saw some strong results!
Jack Burns won the M1x event, with Dale Flockhart finishing 11th (5th U23) and Cameron Kemp in 16th (9th U23).
Jane Hardie finished 8th in W1x (2nd U23), and sadly Perri McCluskey had to withdraw ill.
We look forward to seeing how the selection process progresses in the coming months for these athletes, with some further athletes taking part in the Open Trials later this month.
Blues and Colours
For the 2019/20 season, ten members of EUBC have been awarded Blues and Colours by The University of Edinburgh at a virtual edition of the annual ceremony!
Blues:
India Somerside
Jane Hardie
Laura McDonald
Euan Dickerson
Half-Blues:
Tara Grimsley-Moore
Sarah Riches
Immy Wolsencroft
Bella O’Hara
Lizzie Dickinson
Colours:
Dan Baillache
EUBC Committee 2021-22
At the end of February 2021, EUBC held its annual AGM virtually for the first time. After presentations on the club’s past year and current future plans going forward, the committee for 2021-22 was elected as follows:
President - Euan Dickerson
Vice President - Cameron Bradley
Treasurer - Beltrán Field
Secretary - Ben Dickens
Senior Men’s Captain - Harry Guy
Senior Women’s Captain - India Mattocks
Beginner Captain - Euan Ravenscroft
Club Rowing Captains - Niamh Rigby and Dilraj Mankoo
Coxing Captain - Lizzie Dickinson
Kit and Publicity Officer - Albert Doyle
Wellbeing Officer - Esther Follis
Sponsorship Officer - Florence Hockaday
Social Secretaries - Felix Stewart and Henry Pooley
Alumni Officer - Alice Ives
Ordinary Member - Jane Hardie
Lockdown Records Smashed!
During training at home, whether in Edinburgh or up-and-down the UK with their families, athletes have been
training hard.
Several different club, and national, records have been broken!
Lucy Glover, current Senior Woman, broke the club’s 2000 and 5000 metre erg records for women, at 6:48.8 and 18:03.4 respectively. Numerous other squad members have also taken spots in the top 10, showing the strength and depth in the current squad.
Mike Simpson, current Senior Man, who is currently recovering from injury, has been training using the Concept2 SkiErg, and took the 5000m British Record for the 19-29 age category on April 10th, and the half-marathon British Record a week later!
EUBC Awards 2019/20
At the AGM in February, Club President, Dan Baillache awarded the annual Boat Club Awards to club members for performances in the 19/20 season:
Male Athlete of the Year
Hugh Reilly and Harry Guy - for breaking the lightweight erg record during
lockdown
Female Athlete of the Year
Jane Hardie - for coming back from injury and training her way back to the top during the lockdowns
Club Rowing Member of the Year
Niamh Rigby - for organising events and bringing the club squad
together
Volunteer of the Year
Zoe Horne and Rowena Hutchison - for services to the Beginner Rowing
programme
Success at SU Ball Awards 2020
With the annual SU Ball being yet another casualty of the pandemic the Sports Union Ball Awards were moved online.
EUBC was nominated for several awards, and won the Ian Stevens Award for outstanding Alumni relations, and current President Dan Baillache was recognised with an Executive Award for services to the SU.
Scottish Rowing Top 10
Scottish Rowing gave a run-down of their top 10 moments of the last decade. Of the Top 10 moments (which can be found on their social media channels), EUBC, or our alumni featured in 7!
Of course the top moment was the epic London 2012 Gold Medal for DKG!
Club Rowing Squad Report
As well as the Senior Squads, our recreational, ‘Club Rowing’ squad has been training through the current restrictions. Former squad captain, Lindsay Evans reviews what they have been up to;
“Though lockdown has been a bit of a rollercoaster over the past year, we’ve made it this far while maintaining a strong sense of camaraderie and connection in the squad. For training, the past year has included Zoom sessions for yoga, circuits, and even the occasional Zumba class, just for kicks. We also created a Strava group for the squad and run an on-going competition in it, seeing who can complete the most training time each week. It’s pushed the squad to do more running and cycling while we’re off the water and out of the erg room, giving us new ways to both train and keep up that competitive streak (while also, of course, keeping it fun).
On top of this, we also now have a training plan that includes options for everyone, from those with full equipment available to no equipment at all. On the social side, we have had to find new ways of spending time together, which often comes in the form of a weekly virtual pub quiz, along with some other weekly virtual games and competitions.
So while lockdown has been hard, the captains and the squad have made it easier to handle, and we’re still managing to balance that training/social ratio even when we’re not together.”
Thank You Alumni!
Thanks to your donations to the Alumni Fund throughout the years the club has successfully refurbished two of our coxed fours from our canal fleet, Livy II and Zebedee, which returned from Hudson, who carried out the repairs! Sadly they haven’t yet taken to the water, as current restrictions mean crew boats can’t currently train!
Further to these refurbishments, the club was recently given the opportunity from British Rowing to purchase one of their former GB Start Janousek doubles at a significantly reduced price! Given the high amount of sculling that the beginners are doing at present, we leaped at the chance, and used £1,350 from the Alumni Fund to purchase this double, which will benefit canal-based crews into the future!
In the coming months the club will seek to finance further refurbishments of both a 4x and an 8+ from the beginner/recreational fleet from the Alumni Fund, to further improve the quality and longevity of the fleet.
As always, the club could not afford these improvement projects without the kindness and generosity of you, our alumni!
So a huge thank you!
If you are not already, can we take this opportunity to encourage you to consider making donations to our Alumni Fund through D&A, to support future projects.
Alexandra Boat Club
Alexandra Boat Club, the Alumni Club of EUBC, is seeking new members for its committee for the coming years.
The current committee comprised of President (Dot Roberts), Vice-Presidents (Katherine Grainger, Ben Helm and Stan Livy), Treasurer (Tim Lees), Secretary (Callum Lewis-Smith) and Social and Communications Officer (Ru Clements) would like to encourage those interested in supporting the club and bringing our alumni community together to put yourselves forward!
Should you be interested in getting involved in our alumni committee, and helping to support the EUBC committee, then please do send an email torowing.alumni@ed.ac.uk to register your interest by June 30th. We will then seek to form a new committee as soon as possible!
Alumni LinkedIn Group
The Club has created a LinkedIn Group to facilitate connections between members of the wider Edinburgh University Boat Club Family - and to attempt to foster an environment where current students who are about to graduate will be able to gain advice and potential opportunities from club alumni about their career journeys!
The group can be found at:
Alumni of Edinburgh University Boat Club
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9050073/
Please do join us!
From the archive...
Thanks to all alumni who have contributed to our ongoing collection of memories and history!
In this edition we would like to feature two of our previous Tideway Head Crews.
The first is the 1979 HoRR Crew, which finished in 90th place (photo provided by Jeff Slack). The second is one of the 1996 WeHORR crews, which finished in 36th place, and features a well known alumna in the 5-seat (photo found in the boathouse)!
If you have photos, memories, or key club events that you would like to add to the archive (which we hope to share on our website soon) - please send them in to us at rowing.alumni@ed.ac.uk!
Beginner Programme Report
Despite the ongoing pandemic, our 2020/21 beginner squad have developed into an army of scullers, where many other university novice programmes have faltered. Other than when the canal was frozen earlier this year, they have been getting on the water in singles multiple times a week. The amount of water time available has been greatly down to the recent refurbishment of 5 singles.
When possible due to restrictions they have been making use of the Dame Katherine Grainger Rowing Gym, and during the closures they were all loaned an erg. Homes and student flats became places for sleeping, studying, and suffering. Following a tough programme whilst training individually is hard for even experienced athletes, so their dedication to training has been inspiring.
When asked what rowing has given them, most responded that it has helped make new friends in the difficult time of the pandemic, has provided structure to their days of online learning and assisted with academic performance, as Mia puts it “Rowing kept me from going insane in the past year. Even when everything was closed, I had a reason to leave the house every morning” and Josh adds, “rowing has allowed me to meet new people and form good friendships, and I've really enjoyed the supportive and also competitive atmosphere between team mates”.
We are all looking forward to seeing them rowing in crew boats, visiting water other than the Union Canal and most importantly, getting to race and show off all their hard work.
Sara Johnston, Beginner Squad Volunteer Coach
Key Dates
With the summer season looking promising in a few months, please see these (provisional) dates for races!
24-26/6/21
BUCs Regatta, NWSC, Nottingham
2-4/7/21
Henley Women’s Regatta, Henley-On-Thames
7-11/7/21
U23 World Championships, Racice, Czech Republic
23-31/7/21
Olympic Games Regatta, Tokyo, Japan
23-25/7/21
Scottish Championships, Strathclyde Park
11-15/8/21
Henley Royal Regatta, Henley-On-Thames
4-5/9/21
European U23 Championships, Kruszwica, Poland