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7th March 2004 - ANA Challenge Cup beginners regatta.  See below for full details.......

 

             Catch up on what's happening or check out the old news from - 2000,  2001 ,  2002,  2003

The ANA Rowing Club AGM will be held on Sunday the 8th of February at the ANA clubrooms commencing at 10am.

The entries are starting to come in, but there's still plenty of spots still available for crews in this years Challenge Cup.  Spaces are available for both men's and women's crews so if you haven't organised your crew yet, please get out there and get one.

For those of you who have started coaching are are looking for a few tips, download our easy 5 lesson plan for coaching a Challenge Cup crew.  It's guaranteed to have you winning races in no time !!

Back for 2004 is the tenth running of the annual ANA Challenge Cup beginners regatta.  The regatta is open to people with little or no previous rowing experience who would like to give rowing a try.  Work, social and sporting groups get together to form crews of four people and are taken through five supervised training sessions, before racing in a knockout style regatta over 500m to be held on Sunday the 7th of March.

The emphasis of this event is definitely on having a good time, doing something different and experiencing racing against other crews.  Last year there were over 50 crews and 200 competitors so if you'd like to give it a go, don't delay.  You can download the information flyer for full details of the event and also the official regatta entry form.  Training sessions run from Saturday the 24th of January onwards.

For our club members, with the new year comes new challenges and high on the list is finding the money to pay for another big year of equipment purchases.  With that in mind, the 2004 Challenge Cup looms large on the fundraising calendar as our biggest annual event.  We need as many club members as possible to find crews as well as to assist with coaching and helping on regatta day.  Please pitch in and help as we all benefit from the proceeds of this event.  Click here for more details on how you can help out.

The club has just released some information packs containing (amongst other things) membership details and equipment usage guidelines.  They are available for both racing members and for recreational members.  Please download a copy that relates to you and have a read. 

ANA Rowing Club will have four top class Australian representatives holding a rowing masterclass at the ANA shed in Bayswater early in the new year.  The ROWING TALENT PROGRAM is designed for individuals wanting to improve their rowing technique, ergo scores and to pick up some great tips to assist in challenging for a spot in the 1st VIII or competing at the nationals.

It is open to all young men and women with some rowing experience who want to get that edge above their competitors, and you don't even have to belong to a club

Coaching for the whole day will be current Australian rep's Stuart Reside, Dave Dennis, Sally Robbins and Ben Cureton.  They will take groups through a 'round robin' of small boats, crewed boats and ergo technique with plenty of hints and ideas they have picked up from their international rowing careers.  Each session will be filmed and played back at random breaks in the day for further analysis and advice.

Cost per person is $30 which includes lunch and a 'ROWING TALENT PROGRAM' cap or t-shirt.  The day will run from 08:30 to 2:30 and dont forget to bring a blank video tape with you.  To register your interest, email direct to Richard Wheatcroft or Michelle Blake.  

From the desk of the Grim Reaper comes the latest club equipment update:

"The more observant of our members who have been in the Gym lately will notice that the Club has increased its pool of model C ergos to five in addition to the old model B's.  This has been done to ensure the junior rowers fringing on the Rowing Australia Sub-elite Program have a bank of ergos upon which to train and undertake their testing and to provide better training alternatives for our club crews.  Four of the machines have currently been financed by the Treasurer's own funds to ensure that sufficient machines are in place for the WAIS testing pending receipt of funds from 2003 season debtors.  So if you still owe fees watch out as he is likely to be pursuing you with some vigour.

Arrangements have been made to bring the ex Australian Sykes heavyweight coxless quad/four recently purchased by the club back to Perth following the selection regatta at Penrith in mid December.  This boat will complement the Penrith Cup boat as a heavyweight equivalent.  ANA has also finalised the purchase of a secondhand Sykes kevlar lightweight men/heavyweight womens eight which will be available in January next year.  This will provide a much needed more competitive eight for the women.  These two boats will provide the senior racing squads with a full range of eights, fours and pair/doubles in both the heavyweight mens range (85-100kg) and that of lightweight men/hwt women (70-80kg).

Also arriving in late December will be a further set of secondhand 287cm quad blades and another pair of 286cm blades geared to our younger racing members.  The club is also planning to purchase two lightweight singles when they become available in the first quarter of 2004.  This will allow some flow down of the older Howells for use by experienced recreational members.  The club continues to look for single skin fibreglass doubles to expand the recreational fleet."

Well, a couple of Sunday's ago we got the answer to the question that was on everyone's lips when the ANA old buggers took on a rather slick looking K4 crewed by the boys from next door.  Eye witness JW gives his exclusive roundup (yeah, i pinched it off the message board...)

"Due to injury to Glyn and dodgy planning by me, the club's honour was upheld by Ian Zenmam Hilton, Chris Dragqueen Hayes, Craig Slowhand Dempsey and Pete The Hat Zappa.  The race was run on Saturday morning in front of an enthusiastic crowd of about 20 kayakers, over 1500 metres at Bayswater. The K4 took an early lead of about 3 lengths at the start and held on to win by that amount in a fast time. Well it looked pretty quick to me. ANA honour was not tarnished and the club crew put up a very creditable performance. The event was very well received and we really should do it again and beat them next time. Well done the old blokes."

Below is a quick roundup of last months Veteran regatta from co-ordinator Nick Suess:

The second ANA Veteran Sprint Regatta was held on Saturday 18th October, in weather much more favourable than that at the previous regatta held earlier this year, although a cool fresh south westerly ruffled the water considerably and made the 550 metre course feel a lot longer. 85 rowers took part in 71 crews, competing in 25 events. It proved to be both an interstate and international event, as four rowers and a cox from Hawthorn Rowing Club in Melbourne travelled to Perth to compete, and three members of Norwich Rowing Club in the UK who were visiting Perth at the time were found seats in ANA crews.

It would be hard to single out the most notable ANA performance, but our oldest rower, Darrall Simpson at 78, competed in both double and quad scull events, unfortunately without recording a victory in either. The race between the ANA Old Farts eight and Lambsy’s Young Guns was a desperately close one, and there have since been countless questions and intense media speculation over the correct application of the 7-second FISA standard age handicap. As this matter is now sub-judice before the FISA international disputes tribunal sitting in Switzerland, it would be inappropriate for us to comment further. In the main event of the day, the City of Bayswater Trophy for mixed D (over 50 average age) eights was retained by Swannies.

The Mayor of Bayswater, Lou Magro, presented the prizes, and spoke of this auguring well for a great long term relationship between City and Club, with the improvement of facilities at the Hinds Reserve site a major objective.

There can be no doubt that our stretch of water has now become established as the premier venue for veteran rowing competition in WA.  Meanwhile the State Masters and Indian Ocean Masters regattas will be taking place in Albany and Geraldton respectively in April & May 2004, and we hope to repeat the success of this regatta again in late October.

The draw for Saturday's Veterans Sprint Regatta which is being kindly sponsored by Steve Lay Real Estate, can be downloaded here.

Full results for the 2003 State Championships are available for both Saturday and Sunday.  Click on the day to see the results.

Please note that entries for the second ANA Veteran's Sprint Regatta will be closing on Monday the 6th of October.  Late entries may be accepted after that date (provided they can be fitted into the regatta program) but they will carry a $2 surchage.  

Just a reminder that entries are $10 per seat (with no nomination charge) and races are open to competitors over the age of 27.  Click here to download the entry form.

Fresh from her recent accent to the rank of Vice Captain and Racing Captain, Michelle Blake has now taken over the reigns as Club Captain for the rest of the year.  Keep up the good work Michelle.

Click here to download the first Rowing Australia information bulletin for the 2004 Nationals at Lake Nagambie.  Note that accommodation is already tight so if you're thinking of attending, start looking now.  You can also click here to download a site map of the Lake Nagambie site (Acrobat reader required).

Better late than never, some recent regatta roundups from the desk of the club racing captain Michelle Blake (the lateness was my fault, not hers !). 

Bunbury 23-24th Aug'.  A pretty poor show by racing members due to various reasons, although it appeared to be across the board with the biggest showing by Curtin and Bunbury (obviously).  A jovial (spurred on by Crash) laid back day for ANA however with a good atmosphere and weather from all clubs. Highlights for ANA included the Hayes/Baigent double winning the FN2X-,  Ian Hilton with line honors and JT's ladies with the fasted novice time for the headrace on Sunday.

Fremantle 6th September.  Another quiet regatta, which was not well attended by the clubs but again, it was a beautiful day and the atmosphere was extremely relaxed. If we had some palm trees …!!!  Anyhow, the highlights were again due to the novice girls making it to both the A (Alex & Miranda) and B (Georgie & Freya) finals of the FO2X-.  The latter crew wining the B final by a 2-3 boat margin.  Catherine Timms closing the gap in the field again to 4th place in the FM1X which considering the competition is an excellent result and the MN4X+ in the open event got the fasted time for a novice crew, which was a great crack.  Exciting FOB8+ with not quite the right result but a good benchmark of what needs to be achieved for the Championships.

Bunbury 13th September.  A high pressure event for the SJ's, novices and vets due to all the heats and semi finals. Well done to the Subjuniors who performed superbly but due to unforeseen circumstances, missed entering their final races in which there was no doubt they would have had some excellent wins. Still the Championships will sort out any questions on that score.  Alex made it to the finals in the FNX1- and we had the fathers (Greg, Craig & Chris) making a good push on the younger guys.  Watch this space at the Champs folks.  Good efforts by all topped of with an easy win by Thom and Chris Morris (we're still waiting for that rocket single win though Thom) in the FN2X-. Crash has reentered the novice realms and performing with the usual Zen gusto. Excellent participation folks and good luck in the Champs !

With the end of the season fast approaching, there's several club functions on the horizon.  Check the list of upcoming events above to make sure you don't miss out.  It's also only four weeks until the ANA Veterans sprint regatta which will be held on the 18th of October.  Click here for full details.

Below is the current pennant points table following the FRC regatta on the 6th September.  Congratulations to Bunbury who are leading the overall tally with one of the smaller racing squads going around.

 
Club Novice/SJ scull Novice/SJ all Open Veteran Other Total
ANARC 795 935 1548 10 1331 3824
BRC 1650 1995 2806 1665 1213 7679
CUBC 0 0 160 0 0 160
ECUP 30 30 130 45 293 498
FRC 320 400 235 90 1342 2067
MURC 345 535 231 0 808 1574
SRRC 430 570 3695 810 1490 6841
UWABC 130 440 4154 30 2555 7179
WARC 125 340 527 293 949 2109

Application forms for state teams for both the Youth Cup in October and the Nationals next march are now available.  They must be returned to Pierre Pougnault at Rowing WA by the 15th  and 30th of September respectively.  Expression of interest forms for coaches are also available and can be downloaded below.

Expressions of interest - Coaches.     

Expressions of interest - State team.     

Expressions of interest - Youth Cup.

The Second ANA Veteran Sprint Regatta is now confirmed as taking place on Saturday the 18th of October.  The event is based on FISA age categories which are different to those used for local pennant regattas and all rowers born in or before 1976 are eligible to compete.  Full details including costs and who to contact are available on the entry form which can be downloaded here.

Can be downloaded here.

Breath a sigh of relief, it's over again for another year.  Congratulations to Michelle and Siok for a great job in organising the club effort and also to the many members who turned up and carried boats or served food and drinks.  The large number of volunteers certainly made this year one of the smoothest ever.  The return of the 3:30 pm cutoff at Middle Swan was a welcome return with the last competitor coming in around 5:15  and the club being packed up and away by 6:30.  

John W has received the following email from Kushlani de Soyza, who is the assistant coach with Oregon State University's women's rowing program.

"I am a women's rowing coach at Oregon State University in the United States.  I am hoping your organisation can help me contact secondary school rowing coaches and/or athletes in WA and elsewhere in Australia. Our university women's rowing program is interested in learning more about any of your athletes who may be interested in attending university in the United States, as Oregon State University can offer full athletic scholarships to talented rowers who want to study abroad.  Please let me know whom I should contact to find out more about youth rowing in your region."

If anyone would like to contact Kushlani directly they can do so via email at kushd@oregonstate.edu    Oregon State University's website can be found at www.oregonstate.edu or their women's rowing program at http://osubeavers.ocsn.com/sports/w-crew  

The club will take delivery of three second hand, single skin fibreglass fours at the end of August.  Two of these boats are restricted hull shapes (the same hull shape as the Drok but much newer) - one rigged as a four and the other a quad.  The third boat is a similar boat to the McCormick (and a little younger) but rigged as a quad.  Being standard Sykes boats, the riggers should be interchangeable between the boats and also with our other Sykes single skin boats which will provide some additional flexibility as to how the boats are rigged.

Click here to access the draw for this Saturday's regatta.

For those interested in rowing mid week during the day, Laurie is down coaching on Monday and Wednesday morning's from 9:30am until midday.  Everybody is welcome, especially beginners.

Volunteers are still required for the Avon descent, even if it means bringing down a basket of muffins !  All efforts are appreciated.  Real requirements to date include:

1)  Food donations on the day (cakes, muffins, fruit, did I mention cakes ?)
2)  4 more people for catering
3)  6 more people for boat retrieval

If you need any further details on times and dates you can email Michelle Blake on m.blake@ecqc.com or just have a look on the notice board in the shed. 

From the desk of the Captain of Vice, Michelle Blake, comes all the news from last Saturday's WARC regatta.

An unexpected sunny day was had by all and it was capped off by some extremely exciting racing led by ANA crews.  ANA pulled off some beautiful wins which included:

Racing Highlights.  Tom did his usual heart stopping 250m (6th to 2nd place I believe) singles sprint, which had us all at the edge of our seats.  Pam Coe, in her very first singles race coming in 3rd in the women's novice final against what looked like a fairly hefty opposition from Bunbury was inspiring, unlike the s-bend route taken by the FN2X- crew, which was a decent lesson on how not to steer a boat unless you want everyone onshore to know who the idiot was who did it !

I have to say what looked to be the extremely painful looking exercise of the day, was watching the MO4+ go past at the 1000m mark rating at some insane number about three boat lengths in front of the field.  A good thing they won otherwise i'm sure there would have been a lynching.  The only thing missing from the day as far as I could gather was the G&T's in the hands of a few parents.  They leisurely sunned themselves in what looked to be an idyllic day on the shores of Barbados (its okay - next time I'll supply the Gin and Vicky will bring the glassware).  The Wilson crew seemed to have the same beach theme by spending a good couple of hours protecting their sandy patch at the 1000m start line and pretending to be part of the Applecross Shire Police.  All a bit dodgie guys !

After the regatta:  Excellent turnout for boat loading/unloading this week.  The threat of $20 fines may have been the cause, although i'd like to think the added people involved in co-ordinating allocated crews (Morris, Walton, Lambsy, JT, JW and Laurie) was the true reason.  However, hiccups with communications did occur with regards to racing lineups and boat allocations. Steps will be taken to rectify the situation for the next regatta and includes clarification and earlier postings of boat allocations in conjunction with the final draw.

Cheers, Michelle.

The draw for this Saturday's regatta can be downloaded here.  Please note that boat loading will be at 5:30pm on Friday and unloading at 4:30pm on Sunday afternoon.  As usual, half of your crew is required at both loading and unloading.

Below are the pennant points totals and the number of registered rowers for each club as at the end of June.

 
Club Pennant Points Registered Rowers
BRC 3573 50
UWABC 3188 96
SRRC 3021 85
ANARC 2340 74
FRC 1486 59
WARC 1185 45
MURC 1068 47
ECUPRC 313 43
CUBC 0 7

Also, the men's Open B8 eight from last Sunday's regatta has been classified as the first novice boat.  Whoever is attending this Tuesday's draw can pick up their trophies from Bill.

It seems like half the club is overseas at the moment with everyone's travel plans making for interesting reading.  Mahoney has been partying her way through various part of Europe and will be getting together with Shona who's just left Qld, to watch Phil and the rest of the WA eight race at Henley.  Shona then heads off to Canada 'til next year.  Glyn and Cath' have been meeting up with Tony I and seem to be doing a walking pub crawl through the Cumbrian hills before flying off to Rio and other such dodgy South American countries, while Georgie appears to be living underwater and dissecting squid somewhere near Florida (possibly sailing away to Key Largo ?).  Not quite at the exotic end of the scale (but possibly safer than Glyn's trip to Peru ?) is Golden spending the next few months at site in PNG.  Melissa has also been working up there for the last couple of months and is apparently negotiating for a Concept 2 ergo to be brought in over the Kakoda track strapped to the back of a mule.

If  i've left you out, get on the message board and make us jealous !

For those of you who don't already know, Lambsy has decided to step aside as vice captain in the hope that a) he may actually get to row in a boat himself one day and b) remember where he lives and what Jen and Ben actually look like !  Richard has put in a mammoth effort in the racing and regatta organisation department this season and his talents will be missed.  Luckily, Michelle Blake has agreed to step into the breach and she will no doubt keep up the good work (although it's no more Mr nice guy ok !!).  

Please assist Michelle as much as you possibly can both with boat loading (actually turning up is a good start) and also on regatta days.

Australian team members and coaches from the men's senior eight, U/23 lightweight coxless four, U/23 lightweight pair, and junior women's pair will be down at the ANA rowing shed this Saturday from 12:30 onwards.  This is an excellent chance for club members both racing and recreational to have a chat with rowers at the pinnacle of our sport and find out some tricks of the trade (apparently 13 training sessions a week does make you go faster, who would've thought).  If John W has anything to do with it, there'll also be some cake and biscuits on the table to munch on.  Please make sure you come down and give the guys and girls a good turnout. 

To download the full draw for Sunday's Canning regatta, click here.   It's a very tight schedule so all crews please read, absorb and plan you regatta day.  Note that planning your regatta day does not mean simply deciding who you're going to ask what time your next race is.

The Mettam LD race saw a couple of good performances from ANA crews as well as one minor disaster.  On the plus side of the ledger was the ANA senior eight who won the 5km sprint from Uni', Wests  and ANA 2.  The crew of Vicki (cox), Russell Thomas (str), Rhys, Kris, Tom, Rob, Phil Jurjevich, Simon K and Daniel P had a lively row with Phil flogging them verbally the whole way (on ya Phil !) and a couple of 'touches' with Wests. Well done to Russell who stroked the eight for the first time and thanks also to Swans for lending us an eight in place of our 'on-loan' Boxing Kangaroo.  Michelle and Sharon won the 3km Novice double (easily they said !) in quite choppy water which was an excellent result.  Not so lucky were the open women's four who were looking on course for a good win when disaster struck and some huge wash from an uncaring boatie forced an oar handle inside the boat and cracked the fibreglass and bent the rigger, forcing them to retire.  Well done also to the first time crew of  Pam and the ladies in the women's novice quad, Jennie and Susan in the novice double, Joel and Nick for a good race holding off the panting steamroller pair of Denis and Tim and Julie and partner in the other novice double. Good stuff and very promising for the Canning regatta series starting on June 29th.

Crews please remember that due to our trailer being used for a schoolgirls regatta this Saturday, boat loading for Sunday's Canning regatta will not take place until Saturday afternoon.  Watch the message board for the exact time.

On the club scene, well done to Chris Mo for welding up the steps which were getting a bit shakey and also for replacing the track at the bottom of the sliding door in the first bay.  Well done also to Sharon for taking on the onerous of cleaning out the changerooms and to Michelle and the shed cleaning team for their recent efforts.

Farewell to Shona who flies out on Monday to begin her eight month party in the Northern Hemisphere.  First stop will be Henley (rah rah rah, we're going to smash the oiks) to watch Phil in action in the men's eight and to make sure Mahoney doesn't drink the beer tent dry before Shona can get to it.  Following that is apparently the mother of all post Henley pub crawls before setting of to Spain and Canada to recover.  For anyone who wants to contact Shona while she's away try shona_calvert@hotmail.com  We want regular updates Shona !

Well done to Western Australian rowing stalwart Bill Cooper, who was recently honoured with the Order of Australia medal in the Queens Birthday Honours list.  Bill has been bringing order to the chaos that is regatta draws and race day umpiring for longer than most of us can remember.  Congratulations Bill.  Read all about this and more in the latest copy of Oar Talk.

Rowing WA will be running a Level 2 Coaching course over the following weekends- 5/6 July, 13th July and 19/20 July.  Download the Application and Enrollment forms for further details.  All qualified level 1 Coaches are encouraged to complete at least some of the modules.  Please let Pierre from RWA know ASAP as numbers are limited.  

Further to this and forming part of the level 2 technique module, Noel Donaldson (Australian men's head coach) will be in Perth this week and has kindly agreed to give a presentation on technique on Thursday the 19th starting at 7pm.  RWA apologises for the lateness of notice, but it has only just been confirmed that he will be in Perth to spend some time with the Australian Team.  Click here for further details.

SRRC's Natalie Bale & Annika Naughton are holding a couple of fundraisers to fund their trip to the Junior World Championships, which will be held in Athens from August 6th - 9th.  First up is a wine and cheese night to be held at the ARAWA Rowing Clubhouse, 2 The Esplanade, Mt Pleasant between 7 p.m. & 8.30 pm on Friday, 20th June, 2003 (opposite Raffles Hotel).  Meet and hear from the winemakers and sample some of Perth's finest wines.  Orders can be taken on the night.  Tickets are $10.00 and please phone Pat or Brett on 9310 2970 for further details.

Also, there will be a movie night on Sunday the 6th of July held at the Cygnet cinema in Como.  Click here for further details.

All rowing folk are invited to a curry night at Lucy Bourne's place on Wed, June 11th, from 8pm onwards (i.e. as soon as she's had time to put her oars away and get home to let everyone in).  As well as being a general catch-up, this is will also be an opportunity to wish Shona bon voyage, as she leaves for her round-the-world trip a few days later.

Food:  Please could everyone do their usual wonderful stuff with curries etc.  How to get there:  43 Central Avenue (East),  Maylands.   Go down Guildford road towards the city.  Turn left into Peninsula Road, and immediately fork right into Central Avenue.  It's the second house along in the first block of houses on the right.  The telephone is 9271 9138 if you get hopelessly lost.

This Friday the 13th, the Curtin Henley crew is having drinks and a fundraiser to send the first ever WA crew over to the Royal Henley Regatta.  This is their only fundraising event and they would appreciate having you and your friends attend to support the crew.  There will be entertainment, light snacks provided and an auction of some fantastic rowing memorabilia.  Drinks can be purchased from the bar.

The venue will be the UWA boatshed in Hackett drive, Crawley.  The event starts at 7pm and entry is $15.

Well done to everyone who pitched in with the running of Saturday's regatta.  From all accounts, the regatta ran very smoothly and there were some good performances on the water including wins to the following crews:

 
Women's novice double Freya and Chloe Great effort in their first novice event even though they are still subjuniors.
Men's novice single Tom Nelligan Storming 'come from behind' win.
Women's subjunior single  Josephine Mamo Great win in her first ever regatta.
Men's open coxed four Cade, Rhys, Russell and Simon. Lookin' good fellas.

The Men's open A eight were also unlucky to miss out on a win after running into trouble at the 500m while holding down the lead.   

Click here to see the full draw for this Saturday's regatta.  It's in pdf format so you'll need Acrobat reader to view it.  Yes, I know it's upside down but for some reason it wont save the right way up.  There's an icon in the toolbar of Acrobat reader that will rotate the image so you can view it right way up.  Failing that, print it out and turn it around !  While you're at it, note that the races are only 3 mins apart so you'll need to be aware of when your next race is.

First race is at 10am and setting up for the regatta starts at 07:30.  Everyone racing on the day and as many volunteers as possible are required to share the load.  Also, please help out Lucy and Polly with the raffle which can be done by placing your contribution (chocolate and alcohol are always a good choice) in the box near the back door of the shed before 9am Saturday.  

If you're a current ANA racing member, click here to view your status for both sweep and scull.  If it says 'form required' next to your name, see Lambsy asap.

The Australian Men's Eight will be training in WA for the month of June and have negotiated the use of our very own Boxing Kangaroo for this period.  As part of the deal, Antonio will be bringing the guys down to ANA to meet the members and to chat about how they reached the level they are at.  We are also hoping they will give an exhibition row down at the club.  Unfortunately, we currently don't have the kitchen or gym facilities they require (just the best stretch of water in the state) so they will be training down at Canning, but who knows what we might be able to offer them in the future.

Two WAIS Junior rowers, Natalie Bale and Annika Naughton, were recently selected to represent Australia at the Junior World Rowing Championships to be held in Athens from August 6th - 9th.  However this now means that each athlete has to find the money for the trip, within 6 weeks!  As a result they have organised several fundraising activities and any support you can offer will be greatly appreciated. The first event is as follows:

Movie Night 1:
The life of David Gale, (starring Kevin Spacey & Kate Winslet)
8:30pm, Saturday 31st May.  Cygnet Theatre, Preston St, Como
Tickets $10 each available at the door.  Contact Natalie Bale 9310-2970 or Annika Naughton 9367-7451

The website now has a dedicated photos page.  It's a bit rough and ready at the moment but expect more pictures and a bit more polish shortly.  Click here to check out some shots from Bunbury courtesy of Dave Hogan.

It was a weekend of great results and the odd disaster at the first Bunbury regatta for the year.  The intended early Saturday morning departure of the trailer didn't eventuate due to a major shortage of boat ties and chain shackles on the trailer (if you've got them, please return them) which saw lots of frantic running around by Lambsy and Dave.  Once that was finally sorted out the trailer got underway, although perhaps we should've taken the hint and left it in the shed.  About 50k's out from Bunbury, the transmission on the towing vehicle finally cried enough and promptly blew the rear seal.  Yes, that's a bad thing.  Luckily the cavalry in the form of John W's Prado was bringing up the year and he was able to take the trailer the rest of the way to Bunbury.  After numerous phone calls and a long wait as the towing vehicle first went to Harvey (hey, it sounds like Bunbury, they both end in y !), one very dead Falcon was dispatched back to Perth and Rob Bell made a mercy dash to pick up the stranded towing team.  Many thanks also to Steve Monk who co-ordinated meeting the car at the Perth end once it got there.

Once the racing started though, things were on the up and up.  Saturday saw early heat wins to the Gentleman's/Old buggers four as well as the subjuniors, followed by wins in the finals for Jan in the open single scull and Cade, Jan, Lambsy and Simon and the open quad.  Add to that the fact that Catherine the Loud was well and truly into her 40 hour vow of silence and the day just got better as it went on (sorry Cat' !).  Saturday night was pretty quiet for Bunbury with a large group heading out for Georgie's birthday, Cat' dragging Cade, Vicki and Jenny to see The Hours (good flick huh Cade ?) and the rest trying to stay awake long enough to watch the FA cup.  The latter group's night was livened up somewhat by big Russ giving an edited highlights version of what really did go on at the Nationals - no, not the boring rowing stuff, the partying.  Did I notice a few more grey hairs when you came back from Tassie Glyn !  Best one liner of the night well and truly goers to Chris Morris but this being a family website, it'll have to stay a secret.

Sunday saw even better results on the water with Chloe and Freya taking out the sub junior double final, and Chloe, Freya, Joel and Beau winning the sub junior quad.  Jan and Cade easily cleaned up in the men's open double before the two big wins of the day with ANA taking out both the men's and women's open eights.  That's the first time for many years we've had such a broad spread of wins at open level and well done especially to the girls open eight for all the hard work they've been putting in recently.  At exactly midday, a massive sonic boom spread out from it's epicenter at the 1000m start line setting off every car alarm within a 5km radius.  Yes, the 40 hour time limit had expired and Cat was back !  Well done to everyone who competed on the weekend and also a special thanks to Georgie's dad (Mike I think ?) for getting us out of a bind by towing the trailer home and Chris Hayes for riding shotgun on the way back.  Check out some photos from the weekend here.

This year's Australian team contains the biggest ever representation of Western Australian members with 18 rowers and 3 coaches being selected.  Click here to view who had made it and into which crews.  Congratulations to everyone who achieved selection.

Greenough River Rowing Club are holding a social row on the weekend of the 7th and 8th of June.  For those of you who don't know, Greenough is about 30mins south of Geraldton and a very nice spot.  Pierre from Rowing WA is co-ordinating the weekend for people traveling from Perth as follows:

"I have arranged for 2 Buses which will leave Canning at 6.30am on Saturday 7th June 2003, arriving mid to late morning at Greenough.  People will organise their own lunch before having a paddle in the afternoon up the Greenough river at your own pace.  In the evening, Greenough River Rowing club will have a social function at their Club rooms including a BBQ dinner.  Accommodation has been booked at the Greenough River Caravan Park which is a short walk from the rowing club."

"Sunday morning will include a cooked breakfast at the rowing club and and another leisure row.  We will return home Sunday afternoon arriving back in Perth at approx 5.00pm.  Cost will be $50.00 per head but may be less depending on numbers.  This includes transport , accommodation and evening and morning meals."

Pierre needs to know numbers asap so either email Pierre direct or Captain John Tomczak.

Courtesy of Dave (man the pumps, we're going down) Hogan, here's a few shots from Sunday's race.  I'm just waiting on the shots showing the whitecaps and wild weather that sent the eight to a watery grave !  I particularly like the shot of Ian and Jan looking smug in the knowledge that sculls don't sink.

Ian ready to rock.    Which way is Freo again ?    Nice and peaceful.    Yep, sculls don't sink !!!

They say you've never really experienced rowing until you've sunk an eight in the Perth to Freo and now the club has a whole new generation of members who can lay claim to swallowing that salty pill of despair as the gap between the gunwhales and the water grows ever smaller both inside and outside the boat.  Yes, despite millpond conditions, the men's eight managed to trial the club's latest Collins class coxed eight on Sunday !  However, they were in good company with the the Murdoch and Curtin/Henley crews also heading for a watery grave.  After a refreshing 15 min swim, the boys managed to get the McGoffin into shore, empty it out and almost sink again just before the finish line !  Good effort though to not take the easy way out and actually re-boat and finish the race.

Sadly for the girls, they will just have to seek consolation in being the fastest women's eight and also the first eight over the line !  They walked away with a trophy almost as big as their smiles.  Well done ladies, let's hope it's the first of many wins this season.  Also having a win on the day was Jan in the men's single scull with the fastest time for a single and also first boat over the line.  In fact, Jan was going that well, he missed seeing the finish line and was well and truly down into the harbour end of the river before Marine and Harbours pulled him up (probably for exceeding 8 knots).  Ian Hilton also completed yet another 16k marathon and may well have rowed the race with his eyes closed given he probably knows the course that well.

Pinched straight from the message board and into N&E for a bit of posterity are comments from Glyn and Phil on the 2003 Australian Nationals.

Glyn:  

This has got to be the club's most successful nationals campaign for over 20 years since Geoff Mitchell and Wayne. The club was involved in four separate gold medal winning crews and believe me it is extremely competitive to even make semis and finals let alone win a medal of any colour.  Whilst Cade picked up two gold in some pretty hot times, the silent performer was the big man of Rhys Grant who showed a lot of heart to almost picked up a bronze in the J17 single and also showed that he is 14th fastest in schoolboys (up to age 19 in the East) as well as his gold in the double.  Russ whilst missing out on both the J17 final and the Schoolboys semis should not be overlooked as he was only a few seconds behind Rhys and would have qualified if drawn in almost any other heat or repercharge.

Victoria can proudly show off her gold medal in the women's youth eight and cast aside any self doubt as to why she was picked as a state cox.  Whilst not all of our crews shared in medals, all showed grit in their racing and impressed more than a few coaches, officials and spectators to such an extent that people were hunting us out to ask who ANA was.  A special thanks should go to Phil who provided the race plans and guidance to allow the crews to perform as well as they did.  The briefings, race preparation and post race analysis were handled professionally and left crews knowing what had to be done to get on into the medals.

Victoria's Kings Cup eight and especially the Tassie lightweight four also demonstrated how much drive certain individuals can have on a crew when the chips are down.  We may end up with a few other members as well having shown that we can field competitive ANA crews.

Phil:  

Thanks to everyone at the club, especially, the Johns, Shona, Lambsy, Laurie and Dave.  A very big thanks to Glyn who was a great co-coach and kept it calm, even when his wallet, camera and sunnies looked lost and he could see mountains but had to wait to climb them.

The athletes were brave, in their approach to racing and preparing.  Doing the hard stuff is not comfortable but there were no complaints.  I am very impressed with them all !  They all performed above expectations at some stage.  I will go through individually where each person needs to improve face to face.  Thanks to all the parents, the support we have received has been far beyond what I expected and shows the source of the youngsters character.

Rhett, Jason and Antonio ( WAIS) have been very supportive and appreciative of the efforts of the club and Clark, Quinny, Milney, Ric and Pierre all helped and worked as a state team should, sharing boats, transport and cheering.  Congratulations to Swans, ECU and Uni, who all had some success and the army of WA Officials who were the first to congratulate any success and made the whole thing run - Brett, Craig, Lynn, Bill, Berry, Geoff, Nashy, Grant, ( I think that's everyone, I will check my program and add if needed, there were lots of them).

I have asked the youngsters to have a break as they have been under stress but want to point out that for this season, as athletes, coaches or club members the Nationals people need to add to the club by helping (with consideration for school). This is how clubs get strong, with a good competitive end that adds to the club providing coaching down the track.  I have been very impressed with all the club support, we now need to set the tone for the regatta season with crews forming and working not leaving it to the regulars to load trailers, move boats and coach new members.

Congratulations to Rhys and Russell who are National champions after winning gold in the final of the U/17 men's double !  They led all the way to win in the fast time of 7:26.  Well done to both the crew and coaches for all the hard work that's been put in.  

Another fantastic result also for Cade who will be coming home with two gold medals in his pocket after a win in the U/19 men's coxed eight.  The ANA/SRRC/UWABC crew won by just under 1 sec' in a time of 6:02.  Congratulations to Cade and the entire crew.  Cade also placed 6th in his final of the U/19 men's double.  That event was won in a time of 6:50 so there were some quick times going down over there.

Just when we thought all the good news was over, Victoria will be returning home with a gold medal round her neck as cox of the winning WA women's youth eight. They won by 3 sec's in a time of 6:29. Congratulations Victoria and to the whole crew.  Rhys also placed fourth in the second final of the schoolboys single scull.

In some other ANA related news, Christ Church won the final of the schoolboys U/17 coxed eight. These guys should form the nucleus of Christ Church's first eight for next year's Head of the River, so any odd's on Laurie going for a threepeat as coach !  Finally, it sounds like it was an awesome race to end the Nationals with the Kings Cup going to Victoria again by a margin of 0.09 sec's over WA. For some impressive numbers, the winning time was 5:34 and that's James Tonkins 15th Kings Cup victory.

Congratulations to all ANA members who went across and competed in Tasmania.  Regardless of whether you came home with a medal or not, you all did the club proud by racing at the highest level.  Well done also to both Phil and Glyn on their efforts in getting the squad ready for the Nationals and spending many early mornings in the speedy. Good coaches are the key to any success the club will have on the national scene.

After four days of racing at the 2003 Nationals, ANA has picked up it's first gold medal for quite a few years with Cade Zulsdorf winning in the Men's U/19 quad.  The full crew of Cade and SRRC's Steve Fletcher, David Kelly and John Polinelli progressed through to the final after winning their heat.  They won the final by under two seconds in a time of 6:14.  Congratulations to all members of the crew on a great effort.

Other finals action on Thursday saw Rhys scoring a fourth place in the final of the U/17 men's single and just missing out on a medal by 1 sec. That's a great effort in a field of 30 entrants.  Jess and Miranda also made it through to the final of the U/19 women's pair where they finished in 7th. That event was won by the Swan's/ECU combination of Anna Szczarowski and Karolina Hayes.  Jerome King's composite ANA/UWABC crew placed 4th in the final of the U/23 men's coxed four.

Phil and his doubles partner Glen Walter picked up a bronze medal in the Adaptive Men's double final.  A photo was required at the finish to separate 2nd and 3rd places so it must've been close. The Bunbury/ECU combination of John Seroka/Wayne Carmenolla won the event, with Glyn/Oliver in 6th place.

In the day's other racing, Rhys and Russell continued their good form in the U/17 double, to win their semi final by a comfortable 7 secs in a time of 7:05.  They'll start from lane 5 in Saturdays final.  Cade and SRRC's Steve Fletcher placed second in their U/19 men's double semi final with a fast time of 6:52 and they will start from lane 3 in Saturday's final.

Today sees a late start to racing due to the ANZAC day services with Rhys and Russell racing in schoolboys events and Miranda and Cat' racing in the schoolgirls.  Well done to all ANA members who have raced and good luck to everyone who still have some racing to go.

For full details regarding the 2003 Australian Masters regatta, click here.  Please note that regatta entries must be submitted by 6:00pm on Friday, 2nd of May 2003 and entry fees lodged with Rowing Victoria no later than Friday, 9th of May 2003.  Also don't forget, the venue has been changed from Lake Wendouree to Lake Nagambie.

Rowing WA are conducting a Coxswains course at the Canning Bridge Rowing Center on Sunday the 11th May.  The course will run from 10am to midday and is free of charge.  Would all those interested in attending this course, please contact Pierre at Rowing WA on 9364 3905 by the 30th of April.  ANA members are requested to also please advise John Tomczak if they are attending.

After two days of racing at the 2003 Nationals, there's been some great results for ANA members.  Rhys won his heat of the U/17 mens single scull and then teamed up with Russell to win their U/17 double scull heat and be the fastest qualifier.  Cade has had a third in his heat and second in the repechage of the U/19 single to progress through to the semi final along with a win in his heat of the U/19 quad, second in his U/19 double scull heat and second fastest qualifier in the U/19 coxed 8 with a slick time of 5:59.

Cat gained a second place in her U/17 single scull repecharge and will progress through to the semi final while Jess and Miranda also placed second in their U/19 coxless pair repechage thanks to a strong second 1000m.  Mahoney and Miranda placed fifth in their U/19 double heat and will head to Wednesday's repechage.

The ANA members competing at this years Nationals flew out for Tasmania on Saturday morning.  The squad consists of Cade, Jess, Miranda, Mahoney, Cathryn, Rhys, Russell, Victoria and Jerome, accompanied by Glyn and Phil.  You can keep up to date on their progress through Rowing Australia's 2003 National Championships website.  Competition starts on Monday morning, with several ANA members in action on that day.  The listed events for each ANA member are as follows:
Cade Zulsdorf U/19 M1X U/19 M2X U/19 M4X- U/19 M8+
Rhys Grant U/17 M1X U/17 M2X School Boys 1X
Russell Thomas U/17 M1X U/17 M2X School Boys 1X
Jerome King U/23 M1X
Jess Wright U/19 W1X U/19 W4X- U/19 W2-
Miranda Demspey U/19 W2X U/19 W2- School Girls 1X U/19 W4X-
Mahoney Taylor U/19 W1X U/19 W2X U/19 W4X-
Cathryn Timms U/17 W1X U/19 W4X- School Girls 1X
Glyn Heath Adaptive Men's 2X
Phil Jurevich Adaptive Men's 2X

Victoria Felles will also be in action as cox of the state Women's Youth 8+ (and doubtless several other crews throughout the week) while Cade and Jess are reserves for the men's and women's youth 8+'s.  Good luck to all ANA and Western Australian crews for the coming week.

Times for all crews from Sundays race can be found here.  Note:  They are not sorted in fastest crew order.

Falling firmly in the 'better late than never' category, you can find details of how every crew performed at this year's Challenge Cup by clicking here.

For anyone thinking of attending the above regatta, please note the following.

The venue for the Australian Masters Regatta which is to be held on the 30th May - 1st June, has been changed from Lake Wendouree (Ballarat) to Lake Nagambie.  The reason is due to low water level concerns at Wendouree.  Accommodation in Nagambie is tight, so it is recommended that bookings be made asap.  For information on available accommodation in the region, phone 1800 444 647.  A detailed information bulletin including entry and payment details, will be circulated shortly and be posted on www.rowingvictoria.asn.au

Race numbers for ANA crews in Sunday's Guildford to Bayswater long distance race are as follows:
8)        MO4X-        S. Bourne
12)      WO8+          MC
18)      MM4+          Thomas
19)      MM4+          Morris
24)      WO4X-        Timms
26)      WN4X+        Dicks
27)      WN4X+        L. Bourne

The first crew is off at 9am and crews will follow at approximately 20sec intervals.  You will need to leave the shore in front of the ANA shed no later than 8:15 to make it up to the start in time.  Please note that all crews must be in proper racing uniform.  Either beg, borrow or steal a singlet or zooty but don't expect to get away with a white or black t-shirt.  RWA have made it clear that crews not properly turned out in race uniform will be fined and the club wont be paying that fine for you.

Congratulations to club coach Phil Yurevich, who'll be tying the knot down south this weekend. 

When Jan (the frighteningly fit Czech) was asked if he was going to be long finishing with one of the ergo's during the week, he replied that he was just going to do 6000m and he would try to finish "as quickly as possible".  I guess that's why he preceded to sit on 1:43 for the entire distance with the lever set on position 7.  Some people just go out of their way not to inconvenience others ! 

Speaking of strange happenings, none other than steering legend Glyn was spied during the week fighting off the reeds on the far side of the bank.  Excuses of being squeezed into the bank by a (to remain nameless) men's pair shall of course be regarded as completely baseless.

Next Wednesday night the 9th of April, we're having another food night in the clubrooms.  It's the last food fundraiser for the Nationals, so it would be great if you could all come along to support the juniors.

It will be an international food night, so there'll be all sorts of food.  Mexican tacos/nachos/burritos, Asian noodles, American burgers, Japanese sushi, Greek salads & lamb kebabs, Italian pizza/pasta, Indian curries etc etc. Shona C is looking for people to donate a dish so email her if you can help. Also, if you have gas cooktops/rice cookers, let her know. Your help will be much appreciated.

Fliers are up around the shed. It Starts at 7.30pm, so you can go for a row first if you're keen. It's $10 per head.

Congratulations to Christ Church on their Head of the River win and to their coach Laurie Anderson.

Next time you're down the shed, you'll probably notice that all of the 4 and 8 racks have been converted to roller racks.  This will make a huge difference to the ease with which crews can get boats in and out of the shed and should significantly reduce the amount of boat damage, which has been a serious problem and expense for the club in recent times.  

This was a major operation that involved a large amount of preparation and design work, before cutting away all the existing racks and fabrication of the new ones.  Big thanks and well done to the team of Steve B, Golden, Glyn, Chris Morris and Sharon Walton who put in an all day effort (9am 'til late) to make this happen.  Well done also to Lambsy, Siok and Davo for shorter stints throughout the day and to everyone who assisted in carrying over 20 boats and dozens of oars out of the shed and then back in at the end of the day.  Special mention should go to Golden for doing an excellent job on the design and engineering work on these racks and along with Alan Yeo, sourcing all the parts for their assembly, as well as to Steve Bourne who put in in excess of 40 hours work drilling and cutting the material to plan prior to installation and getting it spot on.  Being able to do this sort of work "in house" once again represents a major cost saving for the club and congratulations should go out to the main group who gave up a large part of their weekend (both Saturday and Sunday) to do the work.

Finally for crews using the new racks, the best approach seems to be to walk your boat into the shed next to the racks, but to leave the roller racks pushed in until you have the boat lined up with the rack.  Then, simply roll the racks out and slide it underneath the boat as you're holding it in place before resting the boat on the racks and rolling it in.

The long awaited movement of some of the club's older boats down to Augusta has finally taken place.  The Warrigal (finally !), Carlin, Tranby (quad tub), an old single scull, the Jim Rogers (wooden double/pair) and the Molly Murphy (very old tub pair) now have a new home on Molloy Island.  For those of you who don't know the story, former club member Tony (the doctor) Shapkaris relocated down to Augusta a few years ago and is looking to get the Augusta Rowing Club off the ground.  Good luck Tony !

Thanks to Alan Yeo for enduring the long and slow drive to Augusta and back with the club's boat trailer to make delivery of the boats.

The next Level 1 Coaching course will be held on the 24th and 25th of May 2003.  The application form can be downloaded here.  These courses are a great source of information to both coaches and rowers alike, covering areas such as technique, boat rigging, injury preventation and diet to name a few.  There's only 30 spots available so if you're interested, contact Rowing WA's Executive Officer Pierre Pougnault on 9364 3905.

The movie "Going for Gold" will actually be screened on Wednesday the 26th and not on the 28th.  It's a four year video diary covering the preparation of Steve Redgrave's crew leading up to their gold medal winning performance in Sydney.  Cost will be $5 and it will start around 6:30pm.

People need to advise asap if they would like to attend this years Olive Farm social row.  It's scheduled for Sunday the 23rd of March, with crews leaving the club around 11am for a 5k row up to Olive farm winery.  The only cost involved is what you decide eat and drink from the winery's restaurant and when lunch is over, it's back in the boat for a lazy row back.  Please email Richard if you're interested as soon as possible.

To help raise funds for our Nationals bound squad, there'll be another movie night held on Friday, the 28th of March.  Once again it will be screened in the second bay, which last time turned out to be a great venue.

This time it's going to have a bit more of a rowing theme, with the movie following the preparation of five times gold medal winner Steve Redgrave and his crew leading up to the Sydney Olympics.  From all accounts, it's a great insight into arguably the greatest rower to ever pull on an oar and both racing and recreational members will find it very entertaining.  See Shona Z for details

As drawn from the names entered in the boat use logbook, this month's winner of a bottle of quality red is Tracey Watts.  Remember, log your boats out when you use them and win.

Despite 38c temperatures, plenty of wind and even a capsized four, another successful Challenge Cup regatta has been run and won.  Congratulations to FOSL Mk 2 who took out the Men's division thanks to (despite ?!) the coaching genius of Brett Dellar and to MC who took the Vetwest Wetvests to victory in the Women's division.  Congratulations also to the organising committee for putting in a lot of hours to make the event run smoothly and to all the club members who turned up on the day to help out.

There'll be a longer write up shortly so stay tuned.

For all rowers and spectators, take a quick look at what to expect on the day.  It'll tell you what's going to be available and what to bring with you.  For all you coaches and coxes out there, take a look at the coxing instructions for race day.  It'll tell you how to get up to the start and what to expect once you get there.

The full draw and race times for this years Challenge Cup regatta can be found here.  It's in Excel spreadsheet format and there's a separate workbook for both men's and women's categories.  Grab a copy and make sure you know when your first race is on the day.  A copy will also be posted on the notice board in the boat shed.

A crew briefing will be held on regatta day at 10am and all crews are requested to ensure they have at least one member present.  Immediately after the briefing is completed, competitors in the first three races will be called so for those crews, please be ready to go !

Volunteers are needed for the Challenge Cup regatta on the 9th of March to assist with setting up, performing jobs during the day and packing up when it's all over.  If you're coaching a crew, you've probably already received an email asking for your help.  

There's a signup sheet down in the boatshed listing the times people are needed.  Please put your name down for whichever time slot you are able to help out in or email dhaines@mail.com 

Please note that there will be no rowing on Sunday the 9th of March due to the Challenge Cup regatta.  The entry to both bays will be blocked soon after 8am so even if people do happen to take a boat out, they're going to have a lot of trouble getting it back in.

Three additional navigation markers have been added to the stretch of river between 1000m and 1500m upstream of the Club on the Ascot side, about 30 meters from the bank.   They are fairly substantial yellow buoys marking the horse swimming area and they will require a significant adjustment to our traffic rules.  The buoys bisect the space between the existing spit posts marking this area and the bank.

Keep your eyes peeled once you pass the Ascot jetty when heading upstream to make sure you don't tangle with any of them.  The committee is currently investigating where these buoys have come from and how long they're going to be there.

Regatta dates for the 2003 season can now be found on the membership page.

With 52 crews confirmed for the event, entries for this years Challenge Cup have now closed as that's about as many as we can handle without running the risk of finishing in the dark.  Thanks to all club members both past and present, who have recruited and are currently coaching crews.  There'll be plenty of volunteers needed on the day and we're hoping to split into two groups to handle the load.  One group will get down early to help with setup and they'll be able to go as soon as their crews have finished rowing and one group to get down later and help with the cleanup after the event.

Volunteer signup sheets will be going up shortly in the shed so please sign up for whichever shift you can help out with.  Siok and Pam will also be looking for volunteers to help out with the catering on the day.

Click here to download the club's membership form for 2003.  On it you'll find the fees for all categories of membership.  Remember, pay by April the 1st to receive your membership discount !  A full list of fees for 2003 can also be found on the membership page.

With only three weeks to go, I hope everyone's crews are out there training hard.  The number of official entries has cracked 50 so it's going to be another big event and of course, that means lots of volunteers will be required on the day.  Sign up forms will be going up in the shed shortly, so please put your name down if you can help out with setting up in the morning,  manning a post during the day or cleaning up when it's all over.  Siok and Pam will also be looking for people to assist with the catering operation on the day.  As always, we'll be desperate for volunteers so if you can help out, please do.  It'll be much appreciated.

No, we're not talking about a big Sunday session at the Quokka Arms.  Rather, there's a group of club members who have been furiously hammering up and down their local pools in preparation for this Sunday's swim to Rotto.  Lambsy, MC, Golden and Toto will be forming one team and they'll be out to hold off the opposition of Glyn, Michelle, Adie and one of Michelle's friends, who was called in as a late notice replacement after the loss of Rob Bell to work commitments.  Both teams have been ably coached by resident club swimming legend Pete (Fabio) Zappa, who will also be doing the swim in a two person team.  Good luck to everyone making the crossing and maybe that big Sunday session will be happening after all.

As mentioned on the message board, the Dept' of Planning has a lot of information on their website about the proposed rowing centre development at Champion Lakes.  Click here to check it out but be warned, a lot of the documents on this page are very large and unless you have access to a high speed internet link, it'll take a while to download them.  For those of you who don't know, Champion Lakes is being proposed as a purpose built, land locked rowing facility down in the Armadale region.

Shona C is organising a curry night next Wednesday the 19th at the club, to help raise money for the juniors going to the Nationals.   Posters have been put up around the shed, but please also help spread the word to as many members as you can.  Cost will be $10 per head and it starts at 7.30.  A few keen curry makers are needed to donate a curry, or bring along a rice cooker/ gas camping stove/electric pan to keep the curries warm.  If you're able to help, please let Shona know asap.

With the Annual General Meeting being held on Sunday, please welcome the club's new committee for 2003.

Captain:                          John Tomczak.
Vice Captain:                  Richard Wheatcroft.
President:                        John Westall.
Vice President:               Steve Bourne.
                                         Laurie Anderson
Treasurer:                      Glyn Heath.
Assistant Treasurer:      Siok Cheng.
Secretary:                       Tony Lalor.
Assistant Secretary:       Michelle Blake.
General Committee:       Peter Zappa.
                                         David Haines.
                                         Chris Marinelli.

Congratulations to the above committee members and also to Denys Warren and Glyn Heath, who were elected as Life Members due to their outstanding contributions to the club.  More information such as fees and regatta dates for 2003 will be coming shortly.

The Nationals are fast approaching in April and the club has around 10 members making the trip across to Tassie.  However, representing the club on the national stage doesn't come cheap, with the cost to each rower totaling around $1,700 for airfare and accommodation and all of the group either students, or still at school.  Several fundraisers have been planned to help raise some much needed funds and it's hoped as many members as possible will get behind their efforts.

First up, there'll be a dinner and movie night held down the club on Friday the 28th of Feb' from 6pm onwards.  Full details can be found here.

Shona Z has also negotiated a deal to provide marshals for a women's triathlon down at Matida Bay on Sunday the 30th of March.  40 volunteers are required and it wont cost you a cent to help out.  Click here for more info'.  All junior rowers please take special note of this one and download a copy.

Lastly (for the time being), Jess's mum has made a fantastic ANA quilt which is being raffled off at $1 per ticket or three for $2 and there will also be a raffle of some deluxe wines (kindly donated by Cat's long suffering family - just kidding Cat' !) which will also be auctioned shortly.  So, when the troops come round armed with raffle books, please dig deep.  Also, if you happen to get the munchies before or after your row, there's biscuits for sale in the shed.

Please get behind our members and give them your help !

How would you like to win a bottle of quality red wine, just for the effort of writing down which boat you're taking out on the water ?  Well, thanks to our roving ANA ambassador and bon vivant Simon Cook, you can.  Simon has kindly donated a dozen bottles of Coonawarra Cab' Sav', with one bottle to be awarded each month to a lucky winner who will selected from the list of names recorded in the boat use logbook.  Captain John will be performing the draw, with the winner being announced at each committee meeting.  So, make sure you log out your boats and log them back in when you're finished.

Well, perhaps something more along the lines of splutter splutter.  Thanks to the efforts (and subsequent unwise confession !) of a local club identity, it can now be confirmed that there is exactly enough petrol in a speedy's fuel line to get you up to the gazebo - but not back.  Unfortunately, said fuel line was missing a certain petrol tank, which was cutting a rather lonely figure on the end of the jetty as the speedy roared away !

This came through from our neighbours up the road at Ascot Kayak Club and although we're unlikely to see it around our way, please keep an eye out.  One of their members had a kayak fitting the following description stolen:  Black, carbon fibre Cleaver X kayak (K1), with a Davenwoods sticker behind the cockpit and a Cleaver X sticker on the front left hand side.  If you happen to see a dodgy looking character trying to shift a hot kayak, please email c-roll@iexpress.net.au

On that subject, there has apparently been a steady stream of kayaks being stolen lately in Perth so if you happen to go into the kayak bay on any rowing club related business, please don't assume the kayakers will lock up after you and make sure it's locked up tight when you leave.

Don't forget, the club's Annual General Meeting will be held this Sunday, 10am at the Bayswater clubrooms.  It's vital as many members as possible attend to have their say on how the club is run.  For those unable to be there, your proxy voting form for the election of office bearers must be submitted by 5pm this Friday.  If you didn't receive your form in the mail, please contact the Club President asap.

The Claisebrook Sprint Regatta will be held this year on Sunday the 6th of April (the same day as Westies Lord Mayor's Cup).  For more details, download the flyer.  You can also check out the nomination form for a full list of what categories of crews will be raced on the day, but please co-ordinate your entries through the club in the usual manner.  This is always a pretty good event and a fun way to kick off the season, so get your crews organised.

ANA Rowing Club had nine of our youngsters competing in the WAIS time trials over the Australia Day long weekend.  Whilst the more sensible of the club's members were tucked up in bed these guys were up before the crack of dawn on both Saturday and Sunday to compete on the wonderful Canning water.  Doing a 5.1km followed by a 3 km time trial on Saturday and 2km and 1km match racing on Sunday.

Full results for all competitors over both Saturday and Sunday can be found here.

Cade was once again our standout performer at 87% prognostic over the 5.1km course on the Saturday, followed by Russel on 84%, Jess on 81% and Charmaine on 80% just ahead of Clare and Catherine around 79%, Miranda 76% and Dom and Jerome on 73% in the pair.  Claire was the big improver in the 3km race which followed (after swapping use of Glyn's boat with Jess from the first race) moving up to 83% to be the second fastest women's junior crew.

The Sunday racing confirmed Cade's standing amongst his rivals at WAIS and Catherine showed she has what it takes by leading all of the WAIS coached subjunior women despite rating a casual 22 over the 2km (84% prognostic).  Claire and Jess showed that they are consistently around the top eight junior women when it comes to Youth Eight selection with Miranda marginally further back.  Charmaine did not have a good 2km race, but recovered in the 1km.  Jerome and Dom had better performances than the Saturday but have some way to go to reach the level of some of their fellow men's Youth Eight aspirants.

Special thanks to Glyn, Phil and Craig Dempsey without which the boats would not have arrived.

We need coaches to look after crews and we need plenty of them.  Even if you can only take one crew, please email dhaines@mail.com and advise what day and time you can coach.  

Those of you old enough to remember Craig 'Mumbles' Ryan, will be amazed to know that he's finally made the big decision to settle down.  Well, as much as Mumbles will ever settle down.  Craig will be getting married to a lovely Scottish lass by the name of Bernadette around the start of March, before settling into the peaceful surroundings of Humpty Doo (about 50k's outside of Darwin, hasn't everyone heard of it ?).  Darwin itself remains peaceful as long as Mumbles doesn't run into John Kirwan in the pub for the odd beer or ten.  Congratulations on the impending big day Craig and Bernadette and i'm told that no, Manuel will not be the best man !

Well done to ANA members Charmaine Baran and Cade Zulsdorf for a fine performance at the Sydney Youth Olympics.  Charmaine and Cade made it into the WA squad the hard way, having to do a lot of their training away from the main group based at Canning Bridge.  Both rowed in three crews over the two day event with Cade earning two bronze medals on Saturday in the Men's 8+ (in a slick time of 6:05:52) and the Men's Quad.  Those two performances were especially impressive considering that Cade is a lightweight rowing in heavy weight crews.  Well done to both Charmaine and Cade and also to all the Western Australian squad members on their performances.

Equally impressive was the performance of Ray Baran (Charmain's dad) and Ray Polinelli (father of John from Swan's) in towing the trailer across to Sydney for the event.  That's 4000k each way with a trailer of 14 boats that wont go much over 80k's per hour.  Click on this link for a story on the Rowing Australia website that show's just how much the two Ray's are prepared to put in for their kids sporting careers.  Well done fellas.

All members please note:

Nomination forms for office bearers for the 2003 committee are in the boatshed next to the boat booking out book.  It is important that you take the time to complete one of these if you want to have a say in how your club is run in 2003.  Either nominate a willing member or put yourself down for a job on the committee and above all else, make sure you're there at this years AGM to cast your vote and have your say.  If you don't vote, don't even think about critising the elected committee.

The first ever ANA Veterans Sprint Regatta will be held on Saturday the 12th of April, 2003.  Racing will be over 500 metres on the best water in WA, with a category for every type of boat and veteran age group. The City of Bayswater is supporting the event and the Mayor of Bayswater has agreed to present the prizes. If this event is successful, it will be staged every second year, alternating with the State Masters down in Albany.  This is a great opportunity for veteran rowers to get another event up and running, so please support it.  For more information, download the invitation letter below as well as entry forms for individuals and crews.

Invitation Letter            Individual Nomination Form            Crew Nomination Form

Yes, quite.  As you may have already seen on the message board, Hale School will be conducting a couple of rowing camps out of our shed in late January and early March.  To be exact, they'll be in the shed from the 22nd of Jan' until the 1st of Feb' and again from the 1st 'til the 3rd of March.

This generally means we'll free up a lot of  space in (probably) the second bay and have the mobile scull racks squeezed into the first bay to accommodate their boats.  Yes it's going to be tight, but this has been happening for a few years now so we should be able to work around it without too many problems.  If it all gets too much, take a deep breath !  Hale help us out big time every year by lending boats for the Challenge Cup, so please make everyone welcome in the shed.

Yes, it's back again.  The club's biggest annual fundraiser, the Challenge Cup Beginners Regatta, is back for it's 9th running and is once again approaching rapidly.  Start getting your friends and workmates together to form a crew or two as before you know it, it'll be time to start training.  This years regatta will be held on Sunday, the 9th of March 2003 and we need as many club members as possible involved with coaching crews and helping out on the day.  Please download the following documents which will tell you everything you need to know.

Promotional Flyer           Entry Form            Training Tips for Coaches            Letter to Club Members

Yes, it's been another big year for ANA Rowing Club and congratulations to everyone who helped make it happen both on and off the water.  The club's final event of the year was the traditional Boxing Day get together down at the clubroom's and fittingly, it was attended by some of the club's more notable/notorious past members.  John and Peter Kirwin, Mal Janes and Mike Winslade dropped in the check out some of the changes from their days such as the relative lack of wooden boats, the vastly improved size of the beer fridge (still not big enough...) and the fact that you can now stand in our boat shed and not touch both walls at the same time with outstretched arms (you really had to row out of the old Canning shed to appreciate that one).

On the fun side, Shona proved she can swing a mean cricket bat and Glyn showed his worthiness for a spot in the English team by dropping everything that came his way !  A cruisy day was had by all.  Click on the photos for a bigger picture.

Peter, Mike and John  Glyn and Ben !  Mike, John and Peter again !

Who can believe it, another year gone.  Well, nothing for it but to get on with this one and make it bigger and better than last year.  If you feel like looking back on the year that was, check out all the news around the club from 2002 here.

 

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