We rowed with a substitute for the whole of the week before the race at Avon. River condi- tions were particularly difficult, and the outing on Thursday was bad. The ratio and rhythm did not improve, and oarsmen tired quickly in pieces of hard work. Was this caused by illness? Maybe, but it seemed that the crew had forgot- ten that leg work must be accompanied by back connection. the legs were going doww fast enough, but the strokes were more and more sluggish. On the Friday, in the last few minutes of the outing, we tried to emphasise the opening up of body and leg angle, and this immediately led to a more lively stroke. The Saturday was a bleak, cold wet day. transport to the race was almost impossible, because the minibus was off the road and the Land Rover failed its MOT, and (not before time) is now on its way to the scrap heap or the REME Section of the CCF. Thanks to Philip Brown, whose Land Rover hauled two heavy trailers up from the Canal basin, we were able to se off, trailers being towed by JMB and BSM in their smart new under-powered cars. DRJ had to do a double journey in a rickety hired minibus. This did not help out chances of races properly, and contrib- uted to our loss to Bryanston by just over two seconds. The coach did not have time to brief the crew for more than a few moments, when 15 minutes would have been the normal time. However, the row was generally agreed to be more powerful than the Henley effort. It was scrappy down the last straight when it looked as if the crew had run out of steam. (Perhaps the work is set a bit too hard — this needs checking).

The good things were: Recovery of morale after a bad Thursday; Good rowing by sub. from Colts (Thankyou..); Better attack on the stroke; Better ratio; Good help with boat loading.

The bad things: Holding up the coach by not having quick lunch; Lack of proper briefing by the coach; Starting in a vacuum. Lack of a crew behind to push the crew on, and too great a distance behind Bryanston made the row feel more like a training outing than a race; Start interval should be about 10 seconds, even if marshalls try to make it longer. Scrappy blade- work, and sluggishness (still) in the water.