Monkton Bluefriars Small Boat Head Race
This article is being written before the 1997 race, but if all goes well, and there are no floods or other disasters, the 25th race in the series will take place on 22nd November. The first race was in 1971, and in the intervening years, two races have been lost because of floods.
The race has always been held over the same course of between 3000 and 3500 metres at Saltford, with the start just below the railway bridge above Newbridge, and the finish at the downstream end of the now derelict boathouse at the end of the Saltford straight. In early years, regatta Headquarters were in Sheppard's Boatyard below the finish, where hot drinks and a good supply of mince pies and sausage rolls was made available to competitors. Since then we have moved the centre of operations to Avon County RC, who kindly lay on catering facilities far grander than any we used to have.
Timing of Head Races is critical, and when it goes wrong, competitors can become justifiably upset. They have travelled a long way, paid an entry fee, and have every right to expect good service. It can now be revealed, a quarter of a century later that the first two or three races were timed with the best stop watches available at the time, which were not always reliable, and by an old brass ships clock (which will be on exhibition at this year's race), which lost several seconds an hour. An occasional nudge of the second hand, when no-one was looking, kept it more or less accurate, and after it had been compared with several other watches, it is unlikely that times were very far out. In the days of clockwork stopwatches, which were not at all accurate if left on for the whole day, the custom was to set them all going at the start, then drive half of them down to the finish in the Range Rover, to arrive before any boats. There was no problem most years, but when the road at Saltford was up for repairs, the headlights went on, the traffic lights were disobeyed and the Range Rover had to pretent to be a police car. All that was missing was the blue light. In later years, Mark Jabalé, then Master i/c Rowing at Belmont Abbey, and a rising star in the National coaching scene, used to time his crews off the start, then get down to the finish to take the time again. It was somewhat un-nerving for the official timekeeper, but to my recollection we never disagreed by more than half a second.
For many years, we have used electronic watches, all highly accurate if started together and not stopped in error, but these have now been supplemented with radio controlled clocks with which all the other clocks are synchronised. Foolproof, one would think! But two years ago, on a particularly cold day, all the stopwatches stopped when their batteries cooled down and lost the will to work. Yet another lesson learnt!
There was no mains electricity at Saltford until 1996, so last year's race was the first at which a computer was used on the day. All the background paperwork has been computerised ever since the first race, but we have always relied on filing cards on which to record times and with which to shuffle them into order. The masters at arithmetic for many years were Geoffrey Randall and Peter Chorley, who were regular helpers, even though they were not oarsmen. [Readers will be sorry to learn that Peter died in late October.] It was sometimes very difficult to get times sorted out after a cold wet day, in the near dark with electric torches! Have you ever tried to subtract hh:mm:ss from hh:mm:ss quickly and accurately in a steamy car, with poor light and anxious competititors demanding results every two minutes? It's easier now, but we still keep the cards ready for emergencies.
Safety is a primary concern nowadays. In early years, we always had one safety boat to follow races, now we have three; then we had a starter and a few helpers at Newbridge; an umprire at the middle bridge, and timekeepers at the finish. Now we have people with mobile phones lining the bank, the St John's Ambulance both on land and on the water, a Race Committee, Police traffic control, more rules and regulations, and even Portaloos for the very large number of people attending. Many years ago, Laurie Fraser of Bristol was taking part in the race as usual, at the age of over 80. There was a following wind up to the start, but when he turned he could make no progress downstream. He was brought back safely by car, and his boat was rowed back by one of the helpers at the start, who had an unexpected race. Last year, two people fell in - one near the middle of the race, who was rescued quickly by launch, and the other (a Monktonian), who fell in just short of the finish, but was not rescued, as he was determined to climb back in the boat again and row the last few strokes.
We have aways given small prizes away, but have tried to give them to as many people as possible. All the young competitors (J13 and below) get them. For this 25th race, all competitors and helpers will receive a special edition coffee mug.
Monkton Bluefriars Small Boat Head Race
This article is being written before the 1997 race, but if all goes well, and there are no floods or other disasters, the 25th race in the series will take place on 22nd November. The first race was in 1971, and in the intervening years, two races have been lost because of floods.
The race has always been held over the same course of between 3000 and 3500 metres at Saltford, with the start just below the railway bridge above Newbridge, and the finish at the downstream end of the now derelict boathouse at the end of the Saltford straight. In early years, regatta Headquarters were in Sheppard's Boatyard below the finish, where hot drinks and a good supply of mince pies and sausage rolls was made available to competitors. Since then we have moved the centre of operations to Avon County RC, who kindly lay on catering facilities far grander than any we used to have.
Timing of Head Races is critical, and when it goes wrong, competitors can become justifiably upset. They have travelled a long way, paid an entry fee, and have every right to expect good service. It can now be revealed, a quarter of a century later that the first two or three races were timed with the best stop watches available at the time, which were not always reliable, and by an old brass ships clock (which will be on exhibition at this year's race), which lost several seconds an hour. An occasional nudge of the second hand, when no-one was looking, kept it more or less accurate, and after it had been compared with several other watches, it is unlikely that times were very far out. In the days of clockwork stopwatches, which were not at all accurate if left on for the whole day, the custom was to set them all going at the start, then drive half of them down to the finish in the Range Rover, to arrive before any boats. There was no problem most years, but when the road at Saltford was up for repairs, the headlights went on, the traffic lights were disobeyed and the Range Rover had to pretent to be a police car. All that was missing was the blue light. In later years, Mark Jabalé, then Master i/c Rowing at Belmont Abbey, and a rising star in the National coaching scene, used to time his crews off the start, then get down to the finish to take the time again. It was somewhat un-nerving for the official timekeeper, but to my recollection we never disagreed by more than half a second.
For many years, we have used electronic watches, all highly accurate if started together and not stopped in error, but these have now been supplemented with radio controlled clocks with which all the other clocks are synchronised. Foolproof, one would think! But two years ago, on a particularly cold day, all the stopwatches stopped when their batteries cooled down and lost the will to work. Yet another lesson learnt!
There was no mains electricity at Saltford until 1996, so last year's race was the first at which a computer was used on the day. All the background paperwork has been computerised ever since the first race, but we have always relied on filing cards on which to record times and with which to shuffle them into order. The masters at arithmetic for many years were Geoffrey Randall and Peter Chorley, who were regular helpers, even though they were not oarsmen. [Readers will be sorry to learn that Peter died in late October.] It was sometimes very difficult to get times sorted out after a cold wet day, in the near dark with electric torches! Have you ever tried to subtract hh:mm:ss from hh:mm:ss quickly and accurately in a steamy car, with poor light and anxious competititors demanding results every two minutes? It's easier now, but we still keep the cards ready for emergencies.
Safety is a primary concern nowadays. In early years, we always had one safety boat to follow races, now we have three; then we had a starter and a few helpers at Newbridge; an umprire at the middle bridge, and timekeepers at the finish. Now we have people with mobile phones lining the bank, the St John's Ambulance both on land and on the water, a Race Committee, Police traffic control, more rules and regulations, and even Portaloos for the very large number of people attending. Many years ago, Laurie Fraser of Bristol was taking part in the race as usual, at the age of over 80. There was a following wind up to the start, but when he turned he could make no progress downstream. He was brought back safely by car, and his boat was rowed back by one of the helpers at the start, who had an unexpected race. Last year, two people fell in - one near the middle of the race, who was rescued quickly by launch, and the other (a Monktonian), who fell in just short of the finish, but was not rescued, as he was determined to climb back in the boat again and row the last few strokes.
We have aways given small prizes away, but have tried to give them to as many people as possible. All the young competitors (J13 and below) get them. For this 25th race, all competitors and helpers will receive a special edition coffee mug.