I was glad to be at the river on Old Boys' Day in 1990; revisiting that barely navigable stretch of water made me realise what a natural handicap Monkton has in comparison with other schools and colleges in these days when rowing has become such a popular national sport.

I continue to be both surprised and gratified by your publication of my reminiscences but I feel the time has now come for me to sign off. If I may, however, I think I would like to conclude with one of the wisest and shortest pieces of advice I have ever heard given to a crew. It came from Roy Meldrum. At various stages rowing has had its famous 'gurus' - the legendary Dr. Warre, of Eton, Steve Fairbaim, H.R.N.Rickett and Dan Topolski, for example. Thirty to forty years ago Meldrum was a highly successful coach of Cambridge and L.M.B.C. and I heard he was coming to name a new eight for Nottingham University so I took some of my boys down to their boathouse and, after the ceremony, asked the great man if he could give them a few words of wisdom. He was a spare, fit-looking, middle-aged man in his shirtsleeves, wearing big, flaming-red L.M.B.C. cap, and he thought for a moment and then knelt down on the raft, put one finger on a stretcher in the beautiful new craft, and pushed it gently backwards and forwards. "See how easily it moves", he said. "Don't Stop it"