At the time of writing this article I have now been at Monkton Combe School as Director of Rowing for eleven weeks. Despite rowing not officially being a major sport in the Michaelmas Term, it has still been a hectic time for me. As well as getting to grips with the general running of a boat club in a boarding school, I have also had to get used to teaching five different subjects in a lot more than five different rooms! It is true to say that because of time constraints the thought of writing this article did not appeal to me greatly, but it has forced me to reflect on how events have gone so far, which must be a good thing!
Joining up with Monkton at the West Country weekend, the Bluefriars Dinner and the Henley Picnic as well as all being highly enjoyable, also allowed me to meet up with some of the pupils, their parents and their coaches. I was very impressed with the sheer determination showed by the First VIII in their final at Hereford Regatta, though this appeared to be helped somewhat by an undisguised, albeit temporary, dislike of Oxford Brookes! I am very grateful to the Mumfords for their kind hospitality in putting up with yet another lodger over that Bank Holiday weekend and I am grateful to GWB and JMB for making me feel so welcome.
My family and I moved to the village in July enabling us to see something of the local area and to meet a few people before school started in September. It also gave me the chance to take a closer look at the boathouses and the river on which my future rôle was going to be based. There are unlikely to be many places in Britain with a more scenic stretch of river to row on and on those warm sunny days the views were breathtaking. However, the reality of the water for training purposes soon became apparent. The Thames has plenty of pleasure boats churning up the water and like the Avon, it has its fair share of fishermen. However, unlike the stretch at Dundas, it is not extremely narrow and highly bendy and it does not have banks of weeds and reeds spanning its width! Nevertheless we are lucky that we have our own facilities and that they are within easy reach of the school.
I thought that moving to a boarding school where pupils are on site all the time would make the organisation of training sessions easier. In fact it has turned out to be even harder than at a day school owing to all the other commitments the pupils have! I am looking forward to January when the full squad of rowers will be available, but it is frustrating to think that many of those joining us will be technically quite a way behind those who have been rowing this term. One of my aims will be to try and get those pupils who play rugby or hockey during the Michaelmas Term training on the river on a more regular basis. I am certain that this is vital in the quest to improve on performances at the major events.
I am very grateful for the help, support and commitment from all the rowing staff and with their continued enthusiasm I hope we will have an exciting year ahead. I am especially grateful to GWB on whom I rely heavily for advice on all sorts of matters and for his gentle reminders about things that need planning well in advance!
I am thoroughly enjoying the challenge of my new post and I am encouraged to see such a keen group of oarsmen and oarswomen willing to put the work into both training and racing. I will always remember Halliford School Boat Club as a small band of keen rowers with an immense amount of club spirit and camaraderie. I am pleased to see that at Monkton Combe School Boat Club the same attributes apply but on an even larger scale.