Due to a procedural error, nominations for the 2010-2011 (148th) Management Committee of the Richmond Rowing Club Incorporated will be accepted at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of 31 July 2010.
This means that members that wish to nominate for a position on the Management Committee can do so at the AGM.
Full explanation & relevant parts of the Rules of Association can be found here:
Canvas Photo Prints – Limited Offer from Kev
Fancy a canvas print of your greatest moment in rowing or any other photo that you would like converted into a piece of art that would look great on the wall at home? If so
then contact Kev Burrows and organise one at a never to be repeated price for RRC Club Members, family and friends.
Presentation Night – Oh what a night….
Oh what a night…late December 1963…oh, sorry, mid July 2010. I was just having a flash back to my Uni days of awards dinners and late night dancing…good times
What a difference a month makes!
Having braved the cold night and wandered (or tottered for those of us in heels) up Swanston street in search of Gate 6 at Melbourne Uni, we were rewarded with Emma’s warm greeting and the very welcoming bar staff at Tsubu. And who knew just how glamorous our club could be….75 Richmond Rowers left the lycra (and woolly knits) at home and showed that it is not just the Men’s crew who know how to strut their fashion sense (or bulging biceps).
Having finally recognised all the members of my squad (sorry about that Kelly), remembered just how tall Tams, Em and Karen are even without 4 inch heels and given/received a great round of hugs from the long lost non-winter rowers, tables were selected and we all settled in. And the Japanese food extravaganza began. Oysters, sushi and gyoza, were all demolished in record time and then it was onto the main stage for the whole point of the shindig…presentations.
The first presentations were made to the Club Time Trial Winners.
Rachel Button took out the women’s tub scull
Sam Morrison the men’s tub scull
Geraldine Goss and Susie B the women’s tub pair
Martin Foster and Dennis Beck in the men’s tub pair
Half of Franzi’s boys lead by Charlie took out the Men’s tub 4
Rochelle Stokes, Anthea Amos, Karen Doggett, Susie Ballentyne (Mike Numa) took out the Women’s tub 4
The DS led the charge on the coaches presents with Denise Castro presenting wine and to Justin and Comedy Room tickets to the squad of coaches who have been supporting him over the last few months and la Plonketts making a special award to Kev.
With everyone duly celebrating and exclamations made over how we would have done better time trials if we had only just sorted out a crew and actually done the race, it was on to main course. Wagu, wine, wagu, beer, chicken, potatoes, wagu, beer, did I mention the wagu? It was obvious the Men’s squad had influenced the menu and we loved their work! Fabulous!
As the meat coma settled in it was time for the rest of the coaches’ presents. While Barry and Simon scored night passes to Mens Meatfest 2010 at La Luna (date still to be confirmed), Kev got a chunk of GPS, while Derek and Mike got some beautifully wrapped items (code for the beer was now adding to the meat coma).
Now the club has some big awards they make every year for people who have made significant contributions over the year both in rowing and other activities to support the club.
Big awards for the night
Simon highlighted the amazing achievements of club members in the last year presenting a series of new photographs commemorating this year’s achievements to grace the club walls;
Geraldine Goss, Carolyn Manning and Ray Dennis for their achievements at the 2010 Australian Masters Championships;
Team Richmond and their achievements at the 2009 World Master’s Games in Sydney;
Laura Schouten for her brilliant row in the single scull at the NSW Club Championships in Sydney; and
Emma Catford, Dennis Beck, Martin Foster and Nicole Stupka for their two year reign as Australian Masters Champions in the mixed quad scull (2007/08)
The major club awards were then presented to:
Don Edwards Trophy (Coxes): Derek Begg
John Sawyer Trophy (Womens’ Trophy): Geraldine Goss – was there anything she didn’t compete in this season?
Having been warned by Simon a few months ago that there was serious competition for the Mal Scott, in the end it was a three way (be still my beating heart!) between Barry Campbell, Sam Morrison and Dennis Beck
President’s Award: Simon Crunden
Then it was on to the year in photos. Collated by Karen Doggett, she had carefully pulled out all the shots where our rowing was less glamorous and focusing instead on all of the champagne rowing moments both on and off the water.
With the formal celebrations over, the camp seems to split in two, those whose only aim was to find a bed (any bed) and those who were set on dancing (or at least talking) the night away. While we missed out on the bands, we got the best of Melbourne’s lane way bars culminating in what I understand to be a RRC tradition, KFC at 3am and the long walk home. When are the bunk beds going to be installed in the sheds?
In closing I would like to propose a new post-presentation night award for bravery and sheer hardcore attitude. For while many of us were nursing hangovers or still walking home, Franzi’s Men’s 8 were out training on Sunday morning – and she isn’t even in the country! Well done boys, we expect to be celebrating your great regatta triumphs next presentation night!
To Emma and everyone who attended the evening, thanks so much for a fantastic night and see you all at camp in October!
Please note: no responsibility is taken by the author for any factual inaccuracies, it is how presentation night happened on her world, your world may have experienced a slight time shift or altered reality on the night in question.
PS – Jim is an awesome MC if you are thinking of getting married at some stage soon.
Sally McArthur
Winter Training @ Richmond
Head of Rowing Nicole Stupka has posted an update on Winter Training for members and potential new members looking to join the club.
Plenty of
activity happening at the moment so to find out more click on the following link, sign up and get involved:
RRC Metro Men
The men of Richmond have ‘slipped into preppy v-necks, new look wind cheaters and knits so chunky you could eat them’ according to the Herald Sun’s weekend magazine.
Johno Downie, Nick Schouten, Martin Foster, Andrew Smith and Sam Morrison looked very much the part modeling a ‘stylish’ range of winter wears for designers Kosi Kosi, Jack London, Leopold, Britten and Trimapee.
The article quotes all of the lads with Andrew stating that his jumper was slightly strange – ‘I’m not sure of the reaction I get in the clubrooms – but it’s warm and comfortable. Something I could think about wearing after rowing’ he said.
The opening paragraph sets the scene on the Yarra on a cold winters night:
‘Backs straining and biceps bulging, the power down the Yarra on a winter’s night. And when their oars finally come to a rest on the river’s edge and they haul themselves out of their boats, members of the Richmond Rowing Club rug up fast in winter jumpers.’
Oarsome…
Vale Stan Nicholes
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.