News

This is the second year that we have won the Club of the Year award in recognition of our achievements both on and off the water, the last time was in 2013 after our cross channel row. Winning this has a massively positive effect in terms of raising the profile of our Club to attract more rowers as well as more funding from sponsors and grants, so we should be very proud of this!

The individual awards that we have received are for Lou for Volunteer of the Year and for Masters Awards for sporting achievement, won by Karen and Paula

Lou is without a doubt the person that puts the most effort into our club. As chair of the committee she spends a huge amount of time supporting absolutely everyone. If you are a captain, an officer, a team leader, or hold any other position in the club, you know how much she has helped you - multiply that by the number of other positions and you can imagine how much time it takes. If you do hold a position, it was also probably her that asked you to do it in the first place. We have a brilliant team of dozens of people running our club, and we do a lot amazing things, which is down to everyone on that team. The fact that we have such a brilliant team in the first place is down to Lou.

Some of the things she does you don't see, but a lot of them you do. You have seen our new men's 8, our two new pairs/doubles, and our big new pontoon. These were all paid for by grants needing very long and convicing applications written, all of which Lou did. We would not have them without her.

On top of all this, she somehow finds time to be one of the best rowers in the women's squad, win British Rowing Masters Championship gold medals, get to finals at Henley, and win the club's first ever tideway medals.

So next time you see her, as well as congratulating her on her award, please remember to thank her for all the work she does for us.

Karen and Paula train as hard as anyone in the club, and harder than most of us! This year they won gold with Lou and Heidi at the British Rowing Masters Championships, and then decided that British events weren't big enough for them, and that the other two were just holding them back, so they entered a pair at the World Masters Championships in Belgium.

Despite having done very little rowing in a pair before, they weren't afraid to get stuck in (or to fall in!), and put in a huge number of training hours together over the summer. All their hard work paid off, and they won very convincing and very well deserved World Masters Championships gold medals. These awards are for that achievement.

Karen and Paula are role models for every rower in the club, and also deserve our congratulations.