The season really began in a police station near Bristol in December. The 3rd Form had tried rowing as part of Rangers during the rugby term and it had been possible to select an eight to train at Saltford on the last Sunday of term. In a small year group only fifteen boys chose to row and the average weight of each crew member was just over eight stone. Only two of them had played regularly for the rugby XV. But good technique and a willingness to train means so much at this level and it was a clear advantage that nearly all the crew were from set one. They listened well and asked lots of questions about the skills they were practising. With such a long attention span it was not uncommon for the crew to spend all afternoon on the river. Such was their enthusiasm it was difficult to keep them off the water as they switched into fours and sculling boats after outings. It is so easy to write young people off but the commitment that these ones showed was outstanding. How easy it was to coach them. The police station? Our boat was on the trailer seized by the police as unsafe the night before on the way back from Wycliffe small boats head race.

The early preparation and good weather which meant we were never kept off the water helped the crew progress rapidly during the head race season. All our races were in an ordinary eight, but in the regatta term we also raced in the new octuple scull, Hex, as well as in quads and sculling boats. Hence we didn't just train in one boat but switched around whenever boredom with exercises crept in. We did a timed piece from the downstream end of the landing stage to three trees and back once a week to give some focus to our outings. At this level, development is quick. One week before Henley the total time was 14m 55s, but two weeks earlier it has been 16m 14s. The fastest time we ever reached was in Hex just before NSR when the time was 13m 41s. That time was later equalled but never surpassed. To anyone bored with the usual circuit of venues for school sport repeated across rugby, hockey and cricket, rowing offers a much grander list of places. First on the list is Henley. We were the only J14 eight, with other schools opting for quads, but we beat our girls' 1st VIII by just 2 seconds. I had been used to running alongside my crew but I realised I could no longer keep up. 'This is the most exciting thing I have ever done', one person remarked on crossing the line. If a sport can inspire one to say that, it really must be worth it. We beat the girls again by 29s at Avon County, but lost to Canford. I shall remember that Head Race for our B Quad which was holed by an eight at the start and had to be towed back without racing. The Lent Term reached its grand finale on the Thames over part of the Boat Race course. Nothing I have coached in school sport compared with the excitement of that day. I remember being nervous about rowing on the Tideway the previous November in the Fours Head, but these oarsmen were only fourteen. We went for a walk along Putney High Street, bought lots of food from a baker's shop, got diverted away from the line of deepest water in front of Fulham Football ground, but still came 7th out of 17, beating Abingdon, Emanuel and the City of London School by a few seconds. I wrote in my diary that morale was very high. Within a week, the Captain resigned and the crew refused to go out. I was reading The Yanks at Oxford, an account of the 1987 mutiny at the time. One moment I had a good crew, the next I had nothing. How much I had to learn about the psychology of sport and the need to relax. I had been competing for Minerva Bath R.C. all this time too, and this helped me as a coach. Apart from the obvious ideas for exercises it helped foster a mutual respect between us and it seemed easier to ask them to do another 500m piece when you were going to do some later in the day. It also helped me to appreciate them in their own right for what they were trying to achieve without living my own sport through them. I think I had forgotten that last point. We survived the mutiny, but I learnt to listen to them more. If the last head race in London was exciting, the next regatta (after a wet Avon County one was cancelled after one round) was even more fun. Nothing much happened in the first half of the summer term though we did row on the Sharpness Canal to Gloucester and were passed by the GB yacht sponsored by British Steel. She glided effortlessly past us and though we tried to catch her, she got further and further away. We had switched to rowing the octuple sculling boat Hex, newly built in our own workshop by BSM and AJG in order to compete in the first ever final involving boats of its kind at the NSR at Nottingham. They had set their record on home waters in it just before leaving for the regatta and watching them practise late on Friday evening at Holme Pierrepont I thought they were now rowing the best they had ever done. We stayed with the 1st VIII in Derby and there seemed to be an inner confidence about them that night.

Races are only won on the day, and it is the last stroke that counts, but we felt that night that we would win a medal. When the race was over, we had come fourth - the loneliest position to come when there are medals for the first three. It mattered not that a seat had got stuck, and that only seven were rowing for much of the race, nor that that they had stormed back from last to get that position. We were so upset - those who know left us well alone to compose ourselves. The gap between dream and reality can be cruel. Do you learn more from defeat than from victory? Though young memories are short, that defeat stayed with us until Bridgnorth Regatta. We felt confident again warming up before getting in the boat, but as they rowed up to the start of their final against Shrewsbury, I deserted them and took part in the ergo contest. I couldn't face seeing them coming round the corner in last place. When I returned to the river bank, I saw the climax of the race. Neck and neck all the way with the lead changing hands many times. But we crossed the line first, winning it with the last stroke by one foot. A foot after a thousand metres! The ghost of Nottingham had been laid to rest and they were experiencing that unique feeling of crossing the line first. For all the euphoria, afterwards, for all the belief deep down beneath the doubts that afflict every competitor, you cannot express the sensation of winning. 'It defies words', said Pinsent after winning the coxless pairs at Barcelona. We returned to the upper Severn for the two-day regatta at Ironbridge where we camped for a gloriously sunny week-end. It was the first time where the crew and I were competing at the same event. The competition was tough as the J14 and J15 events were combined, though we rowed well in the quad final against a crew of J15s. They did see Minerva Bath get to the semi-final on the Sunday, even if it did interfere with lunch arrangements. The season ended with a crew dinner at the Rockery and Guns 'n' Roses T-shirts for the best oarsman (R.Ferguson) and the most improved crew member (A.Prince). We said a sad farewell to 3 (R.Jackson) who is moving to Kent, so bringing an end to this crew as an eight.

There was so much to learn from our first season together. The coach can expect to feed his crew (whatever happened to school tea?) and to wash their kit (J14s don't arrange things in advance). The arrival of the girls at Easter, far from acting as a distraction, seemed to add to concentration and effort whenever they came down to row too. Finally, the individual oarsmen will find out what a team game rowing is. Unless everyone is having a good day, the team will not win. Each person will learn to rely on and have confidence in the performance of others in the boat. Whenever we reached a low point it was helpful to remember something said by that legendary Welsh full- back, JPR. 'We could cope with winning or losing, we couldn't cope with people giving less than 100%. To give less than your best, nobody could live with that.' This crew gave 100%. It had one free day between January and June.