It was only during the process of putting this Newsletter together that I remembered that I had failed to write a few notes about the senior novices in time for inclusion in the Monktonian. At this stage of the year - late October - my few remaining memory cells cannot recall much of the season, but I have been rescued to some extent by notes which were written as the season progressed, much in the form of a coach's log book. This year, for the first time, these notes were published for all to see on the internet, sometimes within hours of particular events happening. They are still available at www.bluefriars.org.uk, but will be deleted at some stage. There are still many advantages to the printed word, so here are a few extracts, to whet your appetite:

Thursday Jan 11 : The four started the term as an eight with one or two spares, but the first 'outing' saw a decrease of potential members to half a dozen, while the non-showers went off to do general fitness training or other activities, or they said they were simply too busy to be committed to not very much training.

Thursday Jan 18 : The four went out. Paddling was tentative, particularly for the raw novices, but there were plenty of positive vibes, and everyone came off the water enthusiastic about the job in hand. The big men found the rig very uncomfortable, but there was no time to change during the very short session available - squeezed between lunch-time and tea-time commitments. The crew realised that it will be essential to be better organised if they are to make use of the fewer sessions that are now available for rowing. We arranged to start early on Saturday, and get the rig changed so we could get a proper outing.

Saturday Jan 20 : A very pleasant day on the river. Cold, out of the sun, but the water was in its best state for months. The big men in the boat were much happier with higher rig, and lowering of some shoes, and they were able to add some power to strokes, even if there was a simultaneous risk of crabs and scarey tipping from side to side.

The outing had to finish on the early side because of yet another rowing meeting for the coach. But it was encouraging that the crew were not champing at the bit to leave early for shopping or whatever.

Tuesday Jan 30 : I thought we had settled at six oarsmen, but another raw novice turned up today. Not possible to fit him in a boat, so he came in the launch. (Ergo was fixed for later, but there turned out to be no time.) Apart from him, there are six oarsmen for four places; the J16s have a few spares as well, so we put three fours out between seniors and J16, so that as many as possible could get some experience. One oarsman was commandeered to cox, though he could not fit in the seat, and would not have comfortably survived a long outing.

We finally got afloat at about 3 pm, after people got to the river as soon as possible after lunchtime commitments, and some had further activities at 4.15 pm, so the outing was limited to well under an hour. The newcomers are gradually getting more comfortable in the boat, though the large discrepancy in build, from giant to midget doesn't make things easy! The two coxes had great difficulty in steering at all reliably, so a lot of time was wasted wrapped round trees and each other - not all blame to the coxes, because the crews were not pulling at all evenly.

We met the girls at the bottom, and their coach (BT) was visibly low in the water in his launch, and appeared to be doing a Titanic. He set off for the ¾ mile up to the boathouse, so the two boys' fours had an ideal opportunity to race with the girls up to the boathouse. The girls started in the middle, and off we went. It was apparent after not very far that the girls were slightly faster than the boys, and the armada progressed upstream with several forays into trees and each other. One clash between the boats left the girls irretrievably up the bank, so they came last by the time we got to the mile post. But the girls had the moral victory. It was the first experience of unfriendly endeavour for some of the boys, and they in fact did quite well. The usual novice problems came to the surface - tightly gripped oars, leading to wrist and arm cramp, and nearly as much air being pushed in strokes as water. Much more practice is needed. (Incidentally, BT's launch did indeed sink as it reached the raft.)

Wycliffe Head Race : The coach was reminded of trying to produce a play with neither fixed cast nor fixed understudies. The crew was cobbled together from those available while the boat was being put together in the Wycliffe car park. It turned out to be a combination that had never rowed together before. Illness is causing havoc!

After going out in the newly refurbished boat on the previous day, and finding it too small (but really just rowing badly in it), we were allowed to use Godfrey Bishop, the newest four in the club. This was no easier than the other boat, and the race was not a success. The crew came back none too pleased with their performance. At least they knew and admitted that it had been bad! The same outing a few weeks ago would have been treated as normal, new and exciting.

Summer Term : We lost some who went off to cricket after just one term of rowing. A motley gang of 4th to 6th form pupils arrived on the first day. Only a four could get out, so the others went sculling, mostly not coached. About 8 outings before half term - mostly very short and usually one trip only, which was regarded as quite a long way!

No NSR, and training just before half term lacked a sense of purpose. The week before Stratford, the boat finally got moving on the Tuesday, with about 20 seconds being knocked off the time for 500m. So the outlook for the regatta looked good. Then (with only one training outing to go) two members of the crew pulled out, saying that they had too much packing to do before leaving school after the week-end. Was it just that they didn't want to come? What about crew loyalty? Substitute oarsmen were found, as well as a cox, from the Colts IV, which had to miss the regatta for disciplinary reasons.

So there was a quick outing with the new line-up on the Thursday before the regatta.

The result was inevitable. The crew was beaten by Lincoln, Oxford (and they probably would have been anyway, even with the regular complement), but more importantly, the Monkton four failed to achieve any graceful or accurate movement whatever in the race, looking uncomfortable in the extreme. Their performance on the water was not a good advertisement for the club, and cannot have been an enjoyable experience for those taking part. It could be said that they should not have gone to the regatta at all, because their training had been far less than is necessary to make any useful progress; it is this lack of preparation, and acceptance of very low standards over the whole season, which are of more fundamental concern than the loss of a particular race against a college crew.

There was less than a handful of outings by the group after the Summer half-term break, and not once did the same crew venture onto the water. Hardly a recipe for success, or, dare one say, even sufficient to have the minimum of exercise which would help to keep both body and mind alert during the important examination season.

Julian Bewick