The Monkton rowing community can be rightly proud of its achievements over the past 125 years. It has been the rowing nursery for many internationals, both Junior and Senior, world champions and Olympic oarsmen whose examples of training, skill and dedication are ones that are worth following. But what about the 99% of rowers who never rise to such heights? We are not all given equal talent, and many happily participate in the sport at lower level. When the Bluefriars Trust was set up, we had to clarify our objectives, both to ourselves and the Charity Commission. We had wanted to include a reference to aiming for excellence, but this was firmly rejected as a charitable purpose. At first this may seem odd, as much of the point of rowing is to reach the finishing line first, having rowed excellently, after dedicated training during which physical skills and fitness are improved, and crew teamwork is built up. But rowing, like other team-based activities, is about far more than winning. Those who take part in an endeavour to which they contribute, and in which cooperation with others can lead to success or failure, are learning about more than winning and losing. Of course, those of us who are below Olympic level must have our aims, and mediocrity will never do, even at novice level; our own goals should be set around, and probably slightly beyond, the limit of our reach. So it is not only the most talented who benefit from taking part in rowing, even if all of us can share in their great successes. There is nothing to stop each and every one reaching and breaking through their own limits. So, long may Monkton Combe School Boat Club flourish and be a strong influence in the education of new generations of young people of many and varied talents who take to the water at Dundas and further afield. Please read this - it's important!
We are looking forward to the 125th Anniversary celebrations of Monkton Combe School Boat Club in 2003, and hope that this Newsletter will encourage a large contingent of the Monkton rowing family to come to the school and to the river at Dundas on the week-end of 21/22 June 2003. We hope that as many as possible will have short outings on the river on the Saturday afternoon. There will be tea at the river where families will of course be welcome. The speakers at dinner in the evening will be Rowley Douglas MBE (Olympic Gold Medallist in Sydney) and Steve Williams (Rowing World Champion in 2000 and 2001). Steve hopes to be with us for the day, but is still in the GB rowing team and may have training or racing commitments, The preacher at the OM Chapel service the following day will be Irving Steggles, who coached in the club for many years. Judging by the experience of a similar occasion when we celebrated the Centenary of the Boat Club in 1978, both the outings on the river and the dinner will be very popular, so if you want to be part of the occasion, and particularly if you want to row or come to the dinner, please complete and return the booking form which has been enclosed with this newsletter. Alternatively, complete the online version of the form which can be found at www.bluefriars.org.uk. If you want to link up with friends of similar age and fitness to form crews for the afternoon's rowing, do please make your plans and record them on booking forms as soon as possible. Places at the dinner will be limited, and as all friends of Bluefriars and the Boat Club have been asked, you are strongly advised to book early. We use this opportunity to record our continuing gratitude to the many OMs and other friends of Bluefriars who support us with regular donations. Many of these donors have been giving to Bluefriars for twenty or more years, and their support over all this time has been of huge encouragement as well as practical worth, enabling us to give a steady trickle of financial help to school rowing. For the past five years, this help has been boosted by the founding of the Monkton Bluefriars Charitable Trust, which has encouraged a small number of substantial gifts, as well as an increase in our regular income. The trickle of funding has become a fast flowing stream, so that our supporters now give an average of over £6,000 a year to support Monkton rowing. The Trust also receives donations from members of local rowing clubs, and we are happy to make grants to help them provide rowing facilities for their young members.