In May 1991, the club held a dinner at Leander Club. Our guests were Pauline and Bernard Churcher, who are long-serving officers of the Head of the River Race. After an excellent dinner, with good food and interesting conversation amongst the 25 diners, Pauline gave us a few insights into the running of the HORR. I then took the opportunity to say a few words about Bluefriars, and where we might be heading next. The club was founded in about 1964 by Charles Grimwade, who was Master i/c Rowing at the time. The object was to keep OM oarsmen in touch with each other, and to give them a name under whose flag to rhow together sometimes, without interfering with their own club rowing. We used to enter OM crews for the Head of the River Race, and I remember rowing in one myself when someone else failed to materialise in time to launch to the strict timetable imposed by the race= School crews became keener to row in this event, and OM crews found no time to train (or even practise for a couple of outings), so it was with regret that they had to be asked not to race. Perhaps times have changed now? There are young OM oarsmen rowing at a high level in various clubs, and maybe they should get together to race against the 1st VIII - on OM day, or at Bedford after the end of the Summer Term?

Another change of emphasis for the club in recent years has been a steadily increasing income, which has been used to help school rowing. The contribution by the club in the last year has been over 3,500, which is a very fine achievement. Roughly half of this came from regular contributions, and the other half from money raised by the Bluefriars Head Race, the selling of aqueduct prints, etc. My guess is that, in years to come, this method of funding rowing at school will become more and more important. I know that present members of the club are (or should be=) extremely grateful to their predecessors for the support they give.

Another idea I mentioned at the Leander Dinner was the the hope that we would see more involvement by parents in the club. Of course some find it difficult to support their children by coming to regattas, but others enjoy following our armada to various river banks.

Over the years, we have been profoundly grateful to mothers (and some fathers) who have provided food, accommodation and encouragement not only to their own children but often to whole crews. It may be that other parents would like to become more involved with our enterprise by watching training (they are always welcome at the river), or by becoming part of the support team which is so much appreciated at regattas. They can be assured of a welcome and probably a lot of fun and satisfaction as well.