Stan Nicholes, one of the most influential coaches in recent Australian rowing, passed away today, aged 91.
Stan was not a rowing coach, but a strength and conditioning coach. He was involved in strength and conditioning his entire life, and until the Australian and Victorian institutes of sport were established, he was the go-to strength coach for Australian crews in the 1970s and 1980s. Operating from city gyms and then his home in Caulfield, Stan trained many of our leading scullers and rowers including Peter Antonie. In turn, they have spread his methods and philosophy. The MUBC and Melbourne Rowing Club gyms (and indeed clubs) have been heavily influenced by Stan’s approach, as is now Essendon via Stan’s last formal assistant. Even in my schoolboy rowing days, our land training was heavily based on Stan’s work. Neville Smith at Melbourne Rowing Club trained with Stan for years, and incorporates this experience into his training.
Besides training rowers, Stan was perhaps even more famous for training tennis players and runners, including legends like Rod Laver and John Newcombe. He was very open to new ideas and even up until his 90s was still experimenting on us with different exercises, different sequences, different rest intervals and different approaches. As an example of his creativity, in the 1960s, the men of the Australian Ballet came to see him after feedback from the Bolshoi ballet’s female dancers that they weren’t good lifters – Stan had the insight to put weights into dummies to customise their training! Stan was also influential in the 1980s when AFL clubs began to take strength training seriously. He trained St Kilda and Richmond for several years.
Stan was a very strong man, holding several Australian records. He was never able to represent Australia at an Olympic or Empire Games, as he worked in a gym and was therefore seen to be a “professional” rather than an “amateur”. To give you some idea of his work ethic, one of the many photos in the gym was of him in the Air Force in on active service in New Guinea during World War II, doing weights with a set of railway carriage wheels.
The gym had a very inspiring collection of your predecessors, using the same equiptment we used. The most amazing photo of all was of Stan doing a bench press with a massive weight AND a person on the bar doing a hand stand!
Stan retired officially several times, but continued with a select band of clients even up to his death. Carolyn and I have been going to his gym classes for 10 years, and have so much to thank him for as a coach and mentor. Sally Nicholes, a former member of RRC and Stan’s granddaughter, introduced us when I was coaching her when she started rowing. When he first met Carolyn, he said that the only way to get a lightweight to be competitive was to build them up, or as he put it, to turn her from a four to an eight cylinder! Under Stan’s guidance, Carolyn has got to lifting international athlete-level weights.
Of all the coaches I have had, Stan has had a profound influence on me. Besides all the technical training about strength and conditioning, he emphasised development as an athlete – not just a rower. Qualities like determination, persistence, patience and actively seeking out hard work.
One of his common saying when we used to half heartedly complain about his latest exercise prescription was “Would you want it any other way?” and he was right. Stan’s rose bushes out the front of his house were famous for where athletes would vomit! Most recently, several English rowers out here for some challenge races used the bushes, not able to keep up with one of our 60 year old golfers! The guys were brought there by Paul Reedy, one of Stan’s long term disciples. Well known international tennis coach Bob Brett is also one of Stan’s long standing friends, and always used to bring out his players in Australia for the Australian Open.
Besides training people, Stan was also a national champion breeder of Yorkshire canaries, approaching this with the same thoroughness he did for the gym. Breeders from all over Australia came to seek his advice, and it was funny when the canary crowd occasionally met up with the gym crowd at his house!
With a wealth of experience, and an extremely good judge of athletic character, Stan had a knack of inspiring the best effort from people. He also treated everyone equally, from the Wimbledon stars we had at the gym to world champions to long term clients who had been coming to him for over 30 years.
He is survived by his partner Ann, his five children and many grand children and great-grand children.
Tom Appleby (Richmond Life Member, Coach, Rower and friend of Stan Nicholes)
ASF Tax Deductible Donations
Hi everyone,
It’s coming up to the annual tax deadline and is the traditional time for making some tax deductible donations. We are asking all members to make a donation before 30 June to support the club’s fundraising this year.
Through the Australian Sports Foundation Richmond Rowing Club has two registered projects that members are able to make tax deductible donations to:
Project no. 981861 for Fleet Renewal: This year we spent $22,000 on new fleet and over $12,000 on fleet maintenance. Fundraising is essential for the club to keep its fleet on the water.
Project no. 981860 for the Boathouse Redevelopment: The upcoming redevelopment will cost the club approximately $25,000 in architect and legal fees before our partner, MLC’s, funding for the actual building kicks in, plus we will need to purchase new racking systems for our boat bays.
It’s so easy you can do it now!
1. Go to http://3.25.77.84/policies-and-forms/
2. Print the form for the project you wish to support and fill it out
3. Post the form to the address shown on the form
Please ensure the form will be received by RRC as soon as possible and BEFORE 30 June otherwise your donation may be registered in next financial year.
Thank you in advance for supporting your club!
RRC Committee
Please note:
The Australian Sports Foundation Ltd. (ASF) was established by the Australian Government to assist organisations to raise funds through public & corporate donations for the development of sport in Australia. Pursuant to the ASF’s listing in the Income Tax Assessment Act (1997) (div 30, S 30-90), donations of $2 or more to the ASF are tax deductible.
Donors must contribute unconditionally to the ASF to claim a tax deduction, however the ASF’s structure makes it possible for a donor to nominate a registered project as the preferred beneficiary of their gift. Richmond Rowing Club Inc. – Boathouse Redevelopment Appeal, project no. 981860, is registered with and conducted under the charter of the ASF.
All claims are subject to being accepted by the Commissioner of Taxation. If either an individual or business is uncertain of their position they should seek their own professional advice.
It was 4 degrees in Melbourne this morning….I wonder what it was like in Bali
A few RRC notables headed to Bali last week to escape the winter blues and tune up their surf skills….this is how they are progressing:
Gray Matters looking for readership
Hi Team,
It’s kind of like the Emperor’s new clothes…..Next week we’ll have the Women’s Squad N*de maybe in the food court at Southbank, so tune in should be equally as exciting.
Recent statistics from the RPAA (Rowing Personal Assistant Association) show readership of my blog has for the first time slipped below the Melb Uni PA who seems to write only about Alumni dinners and bang on about their balcony, where as I on the other hand wear myself into the ground taking care of our extensive and demanding committee’s administrative duties in order to free up their faxing, pencil sharpening time which they can devote to You-Tube research to shape you guys to be world champions. I am GUTTED. All the time I have spent reminding you pansy’s about attending training and attending regattas and is it appreciated NO. It’s like Beverley Hills 90210 when everyone finally stopped watching and poor old Luke Perry went from Heart Throb to driving a Bus (maybe) or possibly doing porn.
We have a presentation night for those of you who give a d*mn we’re having a fr*ggin party. So if you’re not at an alumni dinner and you like your committee’s pencils sharpened then you had better show up.
PRESENTATION NIGHT RSVP:
If you consider yourself to be a rower or a club member, then CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK:
http://rrcmen.wordpress.com/rrc-presentation/
to either accept or decline attending presentation night ASAP.
The only reason to not click on this link is if you are a boat. If you can’t go, you plan on getting maggotted and picking a fight with Justin, You plan on eating your cutlery and tablecloth and not replacing them when asked, it’s your 3 week anniversary with your new love, you are hibernating for winter with Winnie and Eeyore, then click on the link and let us know you can’t make it on this occasion. Kapeesh? If you don’t click on the link I may well find myself looking for lawn mowing jobs in Mulgrave (those massive strips down the middle of all of those massive roads).
This is important so that we know who is coming and the committee can feel happy knowing that our blogs, website and communications are being read and followed. By clicking on the link you will make us feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
PRESENTATION NIGHT PHOTOS:
The response has been underwhelming and the slide show is one of the fun bits of presentation night.
Because Sam didn’t get any photos and is about the nick of to Bali (maybe you were to shy to send to Sam?) – Karen Doggett has volunteered to take over the presentation night photos, because scientists are really great with PowerPoint.
Please give her your photos in person, post them on the RRC facebook page or leave a burned cd in the RRC mailbox at the bottom of the stairs addressed to her.
But if no rowing photos are submitted, then Karen will be forced to pad out the presentation with microscope images of her fruit fly research!
Masters Nationals
The club had a very good regatta picking up five gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze medals. Not a bad haul considering we only had three rowers at the regatta (and no boats, kidding! I think we had boats). Probably the only ones who read the blog, both my parents and my brother I’d imagine.
Carolyn Manning was the star picking up three gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze medals. Geraldine Goss was also outstanding picking up 1 gold, 1 silver and 4 bronze. (So 5 readers)
Our only male competitor at the regatta 70 plus year old Ray Dennis club legend (6, yippee, good to see the older generation using the internet, though perhaps Carolyn or Geraldine mentioned it to him in passing and he did not read my blog), from the sixty’s who recently made a competitive comeback, capped off a great year winning two gold medals in the J-K and I division eights.
Challenge Races
Great racing in mixed quads and eights over the 250 metre boathouse straight. Three quads battled in out in a best of three races with Captain Splash’s crews taking the honours. Splash also featured in the winning eight taking only two races to clean up the opposition in the best of three races.
Guest of honour Nicole was splendid with her pot belly and a bit of makeup (and we thought she was a boy) and over 50 people turned up to bid her a fond farewell to motherhood.
TIME TRIALS & CHALLENGE RACES – CLOSED for 2010. The winner can look forward to bling on presentation night. Well done to all rowers and organisers – especially the awesome catering by the women’s squad and Mike Numa. (Simon, MNB, loved the brownies and the lasagne!).
Katie Gray – PANS
Two Gold medals to Ray Dennis at the Masters Nationals
Long time Richmond member Ray Dennis has won two gold medals in the men’s F – J eight and the men’s I eight at the Masters Nationals regatta in Perth.
In his return season after having a 10+ year break from competitive rowing, Ray teamed up with rowers from various clubs along boathouse drive to form composite crews to compete at the state and national championships.
The Richmond composite F-J crew won their race by almost 3 seconds in a time of 4 min 01 seconds and the Banks composite I crew won their race by 2.35 seconds in a time of 4 min 08 seconds on the new Champions Lake regatta centre in Perth.
Well done Ray and we look forward to seeing you down at the boat club soon.
Medals continue for the Richmond Masters girls
Conditions improved for the third day of competition at the Masters Nationals regatta in Perth. Less wind and back to held starts but still a challenging crosswind. The only event for Richmond rowers was the interstate race, won by NSW the last 3 years. It was an intense race and again saw NSW victorious, with the Victorian quad featuring Richmond rowers Carolyn Manning and Geraldine Goss taking a close third behind WA.
The fourth and final day of competition brought better weather, sunny but still breezy. First up was the D quad with Carolyn, Geraldine, and Robyn and Jenny from CGRC. After a convincing win in the second of the four heats another intense battle saw a virtual repeat of the interstate race, this time with a WA victory and bronze for the Victorian girls.
The D mixed doubles racing saw Carolyn pick up another gold with an Richard from Essendon, while Geraldine picked up a bronze rowing with Murray Ross from MRC.
The final event for Richmond was a C Quad Scull composite, this time Geraldine and Carolyn combining with Tamara from Essendon and Louise from Footscray RC.
After a solid win in the heat a great row in the final saw the quad take the national title and finish the regatta on the highest note imaginable! Exhausted by now from four days of intense rowing the girls are off to wash out the zooties and put their feet up and enjoy a lovely cup of tea.
Nationals 2011-lake Barrington!
Geraldine Goss (from Perth)
Richmond crews medal at the National Masters Championships in Perth
Day one of the Masters National Championships in Perth was held in perfect conditions. The course is similar design to Penrith and the Richmond contingent of Carolyn Manning and Geraldine Goss revelled in the conditions.
Racing started in the afternoon and Carolyn and Gerry were in event 7, the C division female double scull. After a solid win in the first of 4 heats the final was an intense battle with the Richmond double missing the bronze by less than 1 sec in a photo finish.
Carolyn not to be denied her chance to make the dais on the first day of competition picked up a gold in the mixed quad with Essendon/MUBC composite crew.
Day two of competition and the regatta was treated to awful weather conditions with high winds creating havoc at the start line.
Gerry competed in the d double with Jenny Dewar from CGRC. The heats were early in the day and the girls sat behind the start line shivering as the regatta became 30 min behind time before 9am! Held starts were abandoned and boats started the races on a 45 degree angle in a running start.
After a close second in the heat the double rowed another intense final, this time winning the silver, with the margin between first and second less than 1 sec.
The c single followed and in truly awful conditions, Carolyn won her heat to go through to the final, while Gerry was third in hers in a photo finish just missing a place in the final. Another intense battle saw Carolyn take the silver by 7 100th of a second sec in front of third place!
Tomorrow Carolyn and Gerry compete in the interstate quad race and with any luck the weather conditions will favour the rowers and make for some great racing.
Geraldine Goss
Crews set for this weekend's Challenge Races
Crews have been selected for the Richmond Rowing Club Challenge Races which will be held on the Yarra River this Sunday 6 June from 10:00 am.
Crews will race in mixed eights and quads over the 250 metre boat house drive course and the competition is expected to be tough with a number of the club’s top rowers putting in an appearance for what will be the final race of the 2009/10 season.
The day is being touted as a thank you to Head of Rowing Nicole Stupka who will be resigning as Head of Rowing at the end of the season to prepare for the arrival of her first child. Nicole has put in a tremendous effort over the past two seasons to grow the club’s active membership to a level not seen for a number of years.
Races will conclude with lunch at the club house. All members and their family’s are welcome to attend.
Look forward to seeing you all on Sunday for some fierce racing….
Crew’s for the races as follows:
| Race Series | Start Time | Boat | Name |
| Series 1 | 10:00 | Quad A | Edith Hamilton, Rochelle Stokes, Karen Doggett, Nick Schouten Cox: Derek Begg |
| Quad B | Leonie Cluse, Susie Ballantyne, Anthea Amos, Kirk Archibald Cox: Amelia Hagger |
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| Quad C | Julia Avis, Kate Dyball, Emma Catford, Sam Morrison Cox: Louise Roberts |
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| Series 2 | 10:45 | Eight A | Dennis Beck, Olivia Vines, Karin Bouvin, Charlie Burke, Michael Calvert, Charlie Catford, Mike O’Neil, Gareth Brodie Cox: Derek Begg |
| Eight B | Martin Foster, Emma Payne, Sally McArthur, Peter Schouten, Nigel Ainslie, Dave Micallef, Louise Roberts, Jonathan Downie Cox: Amelia Hagger |
Gray Matters polishing her bling ready for the presentation night
Hi Teamies,
1) Regattas are done and dusted for the year – the coaches, coxes and rowers are happy to have come to the end of a long and busy season (some are very busy polishing their bling – although there are a couple more chances for glory left before presentation night in June. That’s right if you want to have an early morning and use your spanner you’ll have to find some nerdy friends with meccano sets. If you are not weighed down polishing your bling (personally I think it’s all about taking part, not necessarily winning, sometimes it’s good to give the others a chance, and I may just be practicing for my 95th birthday song by gasping hip hip hooray to YET more winning crews after dragging part tub part cement mixer along the length of the Barwon / Yarra / Murray / Maribyrnong).
Sam Morrison has put his hand up to put together the slide show for presentation night on June 19th to torture the B team and various new DS members with on presentation night. If you have any good photo’s, quotes or any other stuff that could be used for the show, email Sam and sent it through (if you have too many photo’s, burn them onto a CD-rom and give it to Sam directly or get one of the guys to put it into his locker (that is the one with the burn’t Australian flag hanging from it after Australia scored a goal to win the world cup soccer friendly in the 94th minute).
2) A couple of serious notes about boats:
MLC boats: now that the Masters’ season and the Learn to Row course is done, please do not take out MLC boats unless you have spoken with Dennis Beck. Or if you are Cate Blanchett, the head maser of MLC, you’re romancing the MLC coach, or the rotten kids have left the change room really messy. Our own fleet should serve all rowers. When MLC lends us boats, they are being very generous, but the equipment belongs to the school not us. So please refrain from using their fleet for winter training.
Boat Booking Board: The boat booking board is up and running. Please check the board before taking a boat out or you will have an hopping mad zootie clad of angry rowers who have full access to the white board and blog to seek their revenge, if you are no longer using your booking remove it, there is NO need to book boats to remain on the racks, we have plenty of high up boats and ones with funny winchy things that do that all by themselves. If you notice boats being booked but not used, please contact Colonel Beck and Sergeant Stupka. On Thursday nights and Sunday Mornings at 10 am, all tub fours and the tub pair belong to Justin and his DS squad of rowers and coaches, if you take their boat, they will take a sleek yellow one and get wet. So, if training in that time use other fleet.
3) Chocolate, GIBE ME MOOOOOOORE
Chocolate Fundraising is in full swing (almost swung really) I now find it hard to read my book on the train in morning rush hour without a few crunchies to nibble on. Smooth Simon (MNB) sold a box of chocolates for a $67.80 profit….one box to go. (Think that might have been to a small child). Simon (MNB) has taken up running to work off the excess chocolate kg’s (anything to avoid another row).
4) Time Trials, get in QUICK
Time trials close at the end of the month….get a crew together and my PA ([email protected]) who when he is not booking in various disciplinary procedures for key staff members should be able to assist.
5) Winter Sculling – All those rowers interested in Winter Sculling need to contact Nicole ([email protected]) by this Sunday May 27. Please specify which boats you would like to use and which races you would like to see.
6) Presentation Night (19 June) – We are on enemy territory this year (University of Melbourne) and the Pres is planning a big night out. Cost is $50 (despite what was advertised on the blog previously) and dress code is evening attire and guys let’s see if we can get a few more clothes on this time round as jocks and a bow tie might be a bit cool this time of the year….click here for more information.
Katie Gray (YAPANS-WIS2BAM)
Richmond girls win State Selection after a short Masters season
The 2010 Victorian Masters rowing season was short and intense, culminating in the state championships in Nagambie on Saturday May 15.
The Richmond/CGRC composite crew won a very hard fought race in the quad scull, with a margin of 2 seconds over the Black Mountain crew from Canberra who looked exceedingly surprised and annoyed about being beaten. Carolyn and Gerry then had to fight hard to take out the double scull by 0.7 sec, again over the Canberra girls and Carolyn topped off a great regatta to take gold in the single, while Gerry took silver in the same event.
In other regattas held earlier in the season, the normally sedate Barwon regatta produced wild winds creating havoc with the journey to the start line (and perhaps a bit of assistance coming back again?). The small boats struggled, particularly in the transit lane, with the wind and the reeds and the grumpy officials!
It was great to see the Richmond women flying the flag competing in coxed fours, an eight and a quad scull, with a win in the quad scull crew of Susie Ballantyne, Rochelle Stokes, Anthea Amos and Rachel Button, coxed by Derek Begg.
The highs for the day were Carolyn and Gerry took first and second in the single respectively and had wins in the double scull and quad scull Richmond / CGRC composite crew and the lows were a distinct lack of atmosphere and a coffee cart. What the hell, even the school girls regatta at Barwon organise a coffee cart!
Next stop on the masters circuit was Carrum, and the rowers were greeted with superb rowing conditions but only Carolyn and Gerry attended for RRC, again taking first and second in the single and taking home bling for the double and composite quad.
Beautiful weather also blessed Albert Park, which again saw a big RRC contingent, even a couple of blokes this time! Sadly no other clubs dared to field a mixed eight against the might of Richmond and the event was cancelled.
Competition in other events was fierce however, especially in the novice categories but the coxed fours placed well in several races. Rachel Button took second in the AB single scull, while Gerry was third in the C-E. Gerry also collected some bling for the double scull with Jenny Dewar from CGRC, and in the mixed double scull with Murray Ross from MRC. At least there was some actual bling at this regatta, and even a bar, enabling tired Masters rowers to enjoy a quiet glass of bubbly or a beer. Now that’s more like it!
We all know that regattas don’t just happen, and club participation depends on people giving their time to submit entries, organise crews and boats as well as trailering, and performing BRO duties. Thanks to all those involved in all of these activities, we are lucky indeed to have the culture of volunteer effort that we enjoy at Richmond.
It was good to see a number of new crews competing for Richmond at Barwon and Albert Park and it will be exciting to see these crews develop in the seasons to come. It has certainly been the women’s squad who have carried the flag for Richmond in this Master’s season and congratulations to Geraldine and Carolyn for a great season and we look forward to June when they head to Perth for the Nationals.
Geraldine Goss (with Simon Crunden)