1989: a year to remember or to forget? For most I hope it will be the former, as a wealth of experience was gained which should stand them in good stead in the future; but even they will forget, or at least wish to, some of the trials and tribulations that hampered the attaining of the results that were expected and usually deserved. So what did happen to Monkton Combe Second VIII during 1989?

The crew came together after the First VIII trials had finished and they looked good; there were no weak links and given fitness, technique and a crew spirit they seemed set fair to conquer all. The only possible problem was that there were to be no reserves and so everyone had to stay healthy. As to the other requisites, it was soon very apparent to all, except the crew, that their technique was easily their strongest point and would in no way hold them back. It almost certainly explained their triumphs in earlier years.

The improvement in fitness required of the crew was to call for great dedication. Not only were they not fit enough to start with; but, they would eventually have to be even fitter than other similar crews with a higher average weight as we were not a heavy crew. Unhappily, and here I, as the Coach, must accept responsibility, the facts that fitness needed improving and that technique was no problem never really got through to all nine crew-members at the same time. Thus there was never a time when they were all thinking as one and so a 'crew' never emerged, only a boat with nine highly proficient people in it; and it is a well-known fact that in rowing this will not work as well as nine less proficient members who are working together as a crew.

However the training continued and, there were signs of the goal being reached: the achievment of a unified whole and thence a crew. Unfortunately this was to be postponed as the training took its toll and James Brown had to drop out. This was within sight of the Schools' Head and The Head of the River, so what were we to do? As it happened we found the perfect reserve in Patrick Bamber, morale was raised and, though time was short, we aimed for the Heads. These arrived and spirits lifted especially when Patrick's parents allowed the whole crew to stay with them in London for the Heads. This did more for the crew than anything else at that point, and we would like to thank them very much. The results at the Heads were acceptable, in fact good, given the problems, and we were ready for the Summer. With the school play over we looked forward to the return of some more good oarsmen to fill our spare place as Patrick could not stay for ever.

The Summer Term came and it trans .fired that the ninth man would be difficult to find as the ending of the work involved in the play did not produce its expected oarsman. Instead Patrick and Andy agreed to take each Regatta in turns and so two Second VIIIs were born. Each was to be good but neither was to have quite the cohesion that a crew requires and neither was to be fit enough as this would have required more training during the previous winter. However, things were improving and the results were 'almost' in each regatta, such as at Avon Schools' where we came just second in our class. Thus we were aiming towards National Schools', something that few Monkton Second VIIIs have achieved. IS had taken over as coach for the last fortnight's push and things were going well, when the First VIII had problems and we suddenly had to produce a substitute for them, so Toby left us and we were again a man short. Happily though this was not to be as catastrophic as usual because both Andy and Patrick rallied round and the nine went to Nottingham where they did reasonably well, though, as they had the worst of the draw, they did not make the final. After half term we had neither Patrick nor Andy and, though Jo and James joined us, the impending Examinations and the lack of a 'crew' meant that the nine never believed in themselves and instead blamed each other for problems rather than working together to solve them. This was a sad end for a great set of oarsmen: Peter (captain), Robin, Nick (cox), Stuart, Johnny (stroke), Ben (electrician!), Philip, and all those mentioned above. My thanks and good wishes to all involved!