On Saturday the 28th May the club celebrated the successes of the season and took the opportunity to recognise the time and energy of all those people who have voluntarily contributed to help achieve them at the Annual Presentation Night.
Whilst our Head of Rowing, Tim Evans hosted the night, members and friends enjoyed dinner and a few celebratory drinks. It was great to see representatives from all the squads acknowledge the efforts of all the volunteers who have given so much yet again to help.
The highlight of the evening was the presentation of the Annual Club awards to the best rowers and cox based upon number of regattas attended, wins and time trial entries.
The John Sawyer award for best female rower was once again won by Geraldine Goss who was part of our one Victorian states winning crew, the WB4X+. Throughout the year she has represented the club at multiple regattas both in the club and masters season and ended the season rowing in the Victorian State quad at National Masters.
The Mal Scott award for the best Male Rower was won by Jon Roberts who was overseas and unfortunately unable to attend on the night but whose prize was accepted in his absence by the joint runners up who promised to look after and pass it on (I trust you Matt and Allan!). Jon competed right through the head racing season, sprint and masters competitions with wins all around the state.
The Don Edwards award for best coxswain went to one of our newer members, Christine Sullivan, who since transferring from Latrobe University Rowing Club has been a great addition to our womens rowing squad and a skilful and successful coxswain, always happy to jump in a help out.
Congratulations to all our winners and the runners up with the top five for each category listed at the bottom of this blog.
It was my great pleasure on the night to present the President’s award to a very worthy recipient who has devoted so much time and energy into the club over many years but specifically in the last season. Catherine Bower (or Cat Hardie as some of you may remember her before her recent wedding), has not only been working tirelessly in her role as fundraising co-ordinator this season on the committee but she has been the driving force behind a great group of rowers who completed the learn to row course at the club in 2015 and formed our very successful development squad for this past season. The organised and inclusive manner in which this was achieved and the great culture and positive atmosphere that was generated primarily by Cat is a perfect example of the values that make Richmond Rowing Club so special. I know that many people have dedicated time and helped to develop this group and this was so eloquently described on the night by the squad themselves in their thanks to the coaches. The achievements of this whole group and the comradery that they displayed is a great reflection on both Cat and the club as a whole and was the major reason for my pride in presenting this award.
Also presented were the annual RRC time trial winners awards where both male and female crews competed in our faithful regulation (tub) boats. With the single scull course being from the club to Swan Street Bridge and back and the Quad Scull event from the club, around Herring Island and back. The winners were:
Female Single (Time – 9:15) Sarah Houghton
Male Single (Time – 9:50) Jon Roberts
Female Quad (Time – 36:14) Stefanie Dudczig, Sarah Houghton, Erin Faulkner, Shern Timmins, David Micallef (cox)
Male Quad (Time – 35:08) Laurent Demay, Allan Randall, Matthew Ebbatson, Jon Roberts, Stefanie Dudczig (cox)
Finally the evening ended with a film/photo round up of the season. On the night it was shown on the big screen with a great accompanying soundtrack but unfortunately due to a few copyright laws the publicly available version that I have managed to upload to Utube does not include the soundtrack but you can watch the video here.
Congratulations to all for a great season and I just want to quickly thank everyone who helped with the set up and clear-up on night too. I really appreciated all the help.
Top 5 in all club awards
John Sawyer award – Best female rower
1st Geraldine Goss (30.5 points)
2nd Michelle Joy (29 points)
3rd Stefanie Dudczig (20 points)
3rd Shern Timmins (20 points)
5th Sarah Houghton (19 points)
Mal Scott award – Best Male Rower
1st Jon Roberts (28 points)
2nd Matthew Ebbatson (23 points)
2nd Allan Randall (23 points)
4th Leigh Sullivan (21.5 points)
5th Laurent Demay (20 points)
Don Edwards award – Best coxswain
1st Christine Sullivan (20 points)
2nd Derek Begg (16 points)
3rd Laurent Demay (10 points)
4th Michael Numa (9.5 points)
5th Sarah Houghton (8 points)