Tyne United

On the afternoon of Thursday 24/6/10 Tyne United was supported by the Gateshead School Sport Partnership to hold a unique event on the Tyne. Local schools who had benefited from the water based coaching at TURC in the preceding months were invited to bring their aspiring rowers to the club to engage in a “Schools Regatta”.
Although run under the BR rules of racing, and Rowsafe, the emphasis was very much on enjoyable participation. The children were supported by members of school staff and a number of parents, and were taking great delight in showing off their prowess.

The 3 schools involved were Ryton, Whickham and St. Thomas Moore, and each school entered 2 crews of 4, with coxes provided by TURC. As all the rowers were very inexperienced (except for a few familiar club faces who managed to find seats in various boats) the racing took place in the C class quads, with the boats staying on the water and the crews changing. Although it was a lovely day, there was a bit of a westerly blowing downstream, making the river a bit faster than usual, and as a result the regatta was lucky to stay on time for as long as it did; which was approximately 10 minutes, the time it took to boat the first crew!

To be fair, the delays were due in some part to the competitive nature of the father and son coxes, as each seemed to be spending more and more time coaching their crews before races, with the boats drifting back downstream whenever they stopped to give instructions. Ah well, we certainly encourage competitiveness at this club, and we sympathise with the older cox’s “need to win” in such circumstances.  As it happens, the competitiveness rubbed off on the crews whose excitable chatter even got parents involved, with some trying to explain how the losing crew were now racing again in a B competition, whilst keeping 1 eye on the race control table in a desperate search for confirmation.

At the end of a very enjoyable day, it was the 2 Ryton crews who battled it out for the Shield, due in no small part to the involvement of some of our club juniors in the early rounds.

School staff, parents and children alike all had a great time, and there was a lot of talk of parents coming to a Learn 2 Row soon…. We’ll see.  Although no-one left at the advertised finish time of 5.30, preferring to call home and put the dinner on hold, even school staff stayed to see the final and prize giving at about 6.45pm.  That is a great result for rowing and for TURC.

These events don’t just happen without a lot of effort beforehand, and we are all very grateful to the organisers, particularly Chris, for their planning and organising, and management on the day. Well done to all.

The final word goes to Alex Perkins,  School Sport Development Officer at the Gateshead/Whickham School Sport Partnership, “Never before have we received so much help, support and commitment of time/resources. The event was extremely successful and very worthwhile.  I have spoken to several members of staff and the feedback has been very positive.  I have very rarely seen so much excitement and enthusiasm from staff and pupils alike!”

Thanks for your support Alex, hope you find some photos for us to post

One event that was overlooked by our otherwise keen eyed, on-the-spot reporter at Talkin Tarn regatta was the WJ15 2X second heat, featuring Clare and Caitlin. Inspired by the effort of Bianca and Hannah in the first heat our girls got away to an explosive start in a 3 lane race. This was more of a surprise to them than anyone else, having suffered ‘technical difficulties’ on so many start lines this season. The ambition here was to row cleanly and to see how good they could be (next year?). With 2 crews qualifying for the final, St Leonards were targeted as the crew to beat, as the St Peters crew was known to have championship experience. As expected, St Peters dominated from the start, but the race between St Leonards and Tyne United was close and ‘competitive’ throughout.

As the boats came close together in mid race, one of the St Leonards girls shouted “move over Tyne”, suggesting that Clare had perhaps steered off course!; Clare was having none of it and responded quite correctly with “Shove off, your in our lane!!!”. Caitlin decided to keep a low profile from this point on, but was a little excited by this new turn of events. perhaps there was more to rowing than she had previously realised!

From this point on, every call from St Leonards for a ‘push for 10’ was matched by our girls, and followed by Clare’s “and Kick!”. They battled all the way to the line before getting entangled in a web of blades as St Leonards cut across again (allegedly) after the finish. This distraction may (or may not) have caused the girls to run aground (a new club tradition maybe?) ; and the fact that a St Leonards rower abandoned ship and helped TURC to get moving again might suggest guilt to some people, but for us impartial reporters it was seen as a smoothing of the waves, so the competitors could now become Facebook friends.

So no final for TURC this time, and Caitlin summed it up with – “before the race we didn’t expect to come anywhere near qualifying, but we rowed the course very well and are happy with our performance”.
COOL

It should be noted that the on site reporter was so ‘keen eyed’ that he didn’t even see his son race. (ed.)

A big pat on the back for all the older rowers in the club, as from today they are to be recognised as MASTERS of their sport, rather than veterans. This is good, because to be fair the  veteran label  simply meant that someone had been doing it a long time, without referencing their skills at all. Unless, like me, you are still very new to the sport, in which case veteran simply means old!

Apparently not that old though, because you used to be a veteran at the age 31; (i think my trainers are older than that!). So not particularly old, and not necessarily experienced, this was a label that was crying out to be redefined.
Now I am a master, which makes even less sense on the face of it. However I can now reveal that this is a cunning piece of sports psychology. As my favourite Shaolin priest from the 70s Kung Fu TV series might have said, “to defeat the enemy, first you must become like the enemy”.

A TURC master typically instructing his apprentice in the ways of the water

So by officially recognising us oldies as true masters of our sport, we instantly feel 2 inches taller and 20 years younger, both of which will certainly improve my splits next winter. So thanks for that, BR, I will repay you for this recognition with some masterful performances in regatta season. although I might wait for Gav to tell me its OK to take the stabilisers off first!
Oh no, I’ve just spotted the date: what a fool I’ve been. well done BR, you really got me.

It seems a long time now since we first sowed the seeds of future comfort at TURC. Long ago, before the biting cold winds of February, even before the long snows of January; indeed, many had forgotten about the promises of warmth, shelter and comfort that would come to us, starting to believe the old superstitions of this area instead: that those who don’t work hard on the Ergo cannot sit back and enjoy the view. Could it really be true that there was no new growth because the vets (sorry, masters) hadn’t improved their splits???

But then we saw it. That first glimmer of a shiny bolt attached to steel girders, and we could now almost feel the firm, concrete foundations under our wellies. Surely the roof and walls would soon follow, with the windows just a stone’s throw away.

The Tyne United rowers came out of their cold, dark sheds and they gazed in wonder at the newcomer, and as one they called her

“CLUBHOUSE”.

The new clubhouse is now expected to be completed by the first week of June. Hooray!

Rowers across the North of England will be assured of a fair deal this summer as a number of TURC members take up their new positions as trainee umpires.

There has been a lot of head scratching in recent weeks as the trainees, with varying degrees of experience, have got to grips with the theory side, busily memorising essential elements of the Rules of Racing.  Soon, it will be time to unleash this knowledge on innocent rowers, as the TURC influence spreads.

Umpires are generally in short supply, and the Northern Regional Umpires Commission have developed a training program that is suitable for anyone with an interest in rowing, competition and fair play! Tyne United are happy to support this initiative with enthusiasm, so that the umpires who currently trail across the country every weekend, whatever the weather, will realise that their efforts are always appreciated in one little corner of Tyneside.  We are also excited about the prospect of a big yellow umpire jacket, a flag and a bell. What fun!

Warning: your umpires may not look exactly like the illustration; may contain nuts.