Yet again another year has gone by and Mr. B has performed his usual. "Alex now remember you must write everything down at Worlds so that you can write a good article for the Bluefriars Newsletter." So as usual I did not, because it is one of the most exciting and tense moments of my life, and generally in these situations I tend not to write things down.
So here I am struggling to find something interesting to write about my experience this summer, and all I want to write about was how glad I was to row at Monkton Combe School. I have been privileged to row at one of the most supporting institutes of rowing in my opinion in the whole country. All the time that one is at the place, with the cobwebbed boathouse, a river that most schools would not deem fit to have kayak club on, a senior squad that consists of your entire boat club, and a minibus that has a maximum speed of forty on a good day - and that is with a strong following wind - every day you wonder whether it is all worth it. Will we ever really be able to achieve anything? These are thoughts which often entered into my mind, but year after year in some way, the job is done. Medals are won, smiles on faces of the boys whose hearts and souls have been poured into the rigorous weights sessions and countless ergo's. That is what rowing at Monkton Combe is all about, and this is only made possible by the men who run it. Without people like Mr. Conington, Mr. B, Barry Taylor, and BSM, none of this would ever happen.
I never thought about it on the day, there I was on the start of the Junior World Championship final of the men's coxless fours. I had been building up to this all year - Italy, Australia, Ukraine, Germany, and Slovenia, or as I thought of them the other five. The uncontrollable butterflies in my stomach, this was it we are going to do it. Nothing will stop us. The start, the first 500m, the race plan in action, the last 750m and something is wrong. Where are they, where is that yellow and green. It‘s supposed to be level now where are they? Come on boys, lets go! 500 to go and I still cannot see them, where are they? The pain is creeping in now. That uncontrollable burn in legs, lungs, and the vision is beginning to go now, but the thing you have been doing all year - the countless strokes of low rate perfection - supports the effort. All those coaches, and their different ways of telling me how to do it, Mr B‘s It must be beautiful.• BSM‘s quiet words to me in Nantes as Mr B. directs the rest of the crew over my head, Mr Conington‘s watchful eye and expression when I know I‘m getting it right. The countless hilarious comments from Donald Legget, and the numerous repetitive exercises and analysis from our final coach Mark Banks. My body is now a machine that will carry on moving in a way that most do not when in agonising pain. This is it - I can see them now, 300m to go, "Come on Bas, take us home". Nothing left but to put your head down and go.
It‘s all over now and the result is in the past. It is something that will never change until next time. But it is now that I learn and appreciate the value of what I have been given at the Monkton Combe Boat Club. The amazing and always present steak dinners at Mr B‘s. The time devoted to taking one to the most unattractive and coldest places to do a trial or training weekend. This might not be a behind the scenes look of the junior world championships, but it is the behind the scenes work, that helped me to get there, and to get where I eventually want to go. I cannot adequately thank Mr Conington, Mr.B, BSM, and all the other coaches that I have had that fuelled my enthusiasm for the sport of rowing, and it is because of these people that oarsmen will never give up their goals, big or small. So if you are reading this and you row at Monkton and it is one of those cold winter days. The only thing you want to do is go in and get warm. I have been able to stand on two different medal podiums, at two different Junior World Championships, precisely because of the cold winter days, and because certain coaches made me stay out there and row.
Alex Partridge