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The advance party of Charlie, Robin & Barry headed off to Hamilton with boats and enough spare riggers to make a tub quad as a typo had led to both female D4s being entered in the D quad.  Some hasty entry shuffling by Martin & Nicole saved the day. The advanced party dropped of the boats and hit the town sampling the local atmosphere and decided that the place to go was the Cally for dinner Saturday night.
Race day dawned and as I had cleverly left my laptop charger at home I was unable to check the running order, luckily I had plenty of time to get the C-grade women’s quad rigged and on the water for the Second event of the day.  Finishing a hard fought 2nd in the heat & a win in the B-Final.
The untried and “who’s stroking this boat,  where do I sit” mixed 8 finished 2nd on day one and thought we nearly had it in the bag on Sunday until a fast moving Hamilton/Alexandra College composite mowed us down after clashing blades and crabbing.
The girls jumped back in the boat and headed off to row the A grade 8 on Saturday finishing a really hard fought 2nd by not much more than a bow ball.  Sunday was another hard fought effort with a convincing win in the heat and a 2nd in the a-final.
Karin Astrid & Emma headed out on Saturday in the tub pair final and finished hard for a 2nd.  Despite being mocked at the start for the age of our beloved tub pair Laura & Robin rowed well and finished a flying 1st in their heat & a 2nd in the tub pair A-Final as well on Sunday.
Rachel, Charlie & Barry headed out in the much maligned D-tub pair on Saturday finished first in their heat once we wound the pair up to full steam by the 500 mark and were well beaten by a slippery Bendigo pair in the A-Final.  Sunday we had a 2nd in our heat and a win in the B-Final.
Thanks to the aforementioned crew swapping we were able to slip the girls into a C-grade four and loan of a Prime racing bow-loader from Hamilton (although Derek did not like the coxes sling rather than seat).  Robin, Karin, Rochelle & Susie aced their Heat and fought off some fast finishing crews to win the bling in the C-grade four.
The rest of the Girls jumped in a D-Coxed four for Saturday and very nearly came away with bling missing out by a very close margin again.
Laura, Geri, Susie & Rochelle our D quad lost out to Corio Bay in a really hot apparently ‘not’ racing kind of tub quad kindly loaned by Hamilton College by .4 of a second and then we saw they were coached by Jeff Sykes. (is he someone famous?)
Due to some tight turnarounds the girls managed to have about 6 races in the last half of the program and the C-grade four on Sunday finished a well placed first in their heat and a creditable 2nd in the A-Final.
Mike, Charlie Barry and Dave headed out for the D-grade four on Saturday with Rachel in the coxes seat.  While heading to the start Barry remembered he can’t actually he’s never actually rowed as stroke of a stoke side boat and a mid course swap was required.  This left out competitors in fits of laughter enabling us to run away winners on the day.  Sunday we headed out with Derek as Cox minus mid course swap we again took away the Bling.
Geraldine Goss besides jumping in various fours quads and eights sculled her way to wins both days in the Female masters Single and 2nd on Saturday in both heat and final in the B-Grade Single and an emphatic win in the B-Grade Single First & final Sunday.
Big thanks to Derek, Rachel,  Mike and Karin for coxing, Kevin for the booming voiced support and pictures. Charlie for towing the Boats.  Everyone who came for making it a fun regatta and putting up with me rousting them out of bed each day.
Barry Campbell

Rowing Victoria have come up with a great plan to run a Victorian Sprint Series during the 2009-10 regatta season.
The series run over three seperate regattas, will feature eights and fours over the Rutherglen weekend, quads at Henley on the Murry and Single Scull at the Footsray.
The category of races will be male and female A Grade and medals will be awarded to the winning crew at each regatta.
The club that accumulates the most points for each event for each event is awarded the Victorian Sprint Series Premiership. Points are based on participation and crews get bonus points winning or placing in each final at each regatta.
It will no doubt make for some interesting racing during the part of next year.

Head of the Yarra has lived up to its reputation as being one of the most competitive races on the rowing calendar and despite all our crews competing well, Richmond found the going tough in this year’s race.
The best result the club achieved in this year’s race was a third place by the Women’s D Eight stroked by Laura Schouten who finished the 8.6km race in a respectable time of 36 min 37 sec, 1 min 11 sec behind winner Yarra Yarra.
In possibly the most competitive division of this year’s race, the Richmond Women’s C Eight, stroked by Frances Crotty finished fourth in a time of 34 min 12 sec, 28 seconds adrift of first placed crew Powerhouse.
A mere 43 seconds was all that separated the first five places in this division making for some exciting duels on the winding Yarra River course.
The Mixed Masters D crew, stroked by Sally Allen finished 15th out of a field of 19 starters in an adjusted time of 36 min 30 sec in their first ever Head of The Yarra. The crew, coached by Head of Rowing Nicole Stupka, were extremely pleased with their preparation and their row.  Four seat Julie Hope was quoted as saying that she was glad the race was over and was very pleased to have completed such a gruelling race.
The men’s eight, stroked by Tim Foster rowed gallantly in the Men’s B Division to finish last in a field of six crews recording a time of 31 min 1 sec, 3 min 40 sec behind winner Melbourne University (27 min 21 sec).
The men’s crew, originally entered as a C Division crew, were a bit unfortunate as they had to compete in a higher division in this year’s race due to having to work around a clash in the program with the Richmond mixed master’s crew.
The time recorded by the men’s crew would have placed them equal forth (with Melbourne) in the C Division eights behind Melbourne University (27 min 29 sec), Torrens (SA) and Mercantile. The men’s eight coach and crew were extremely pleased with the result, as it demonstrates the crew is on track against their peers heading into the second half of the season.
Melbourne University again dominated this year’s event with the Melbourne University Open eight winning the much heralded University Challenge against interstate challengers Sydney and Queensland University’s. Melbourne University crews also won all of the men’s club divisions in fine style with their B and C division men’s crews recording the fifth and sixth overall fastest times for the regatta.
After the race, the Richmond tradition of donning outrageous costumes continued with the women’s crew resplendent in their fluro feather scarves while the men’s crew dressed decidedly down rowing back to the sheds in speedo’s and bow ties much to the delight of spectators along the bank.
The after party was again a major highlight with a strong Richmond contingent making to trip upstream to Powerhouse to celebrate the conclusion of another Head of the Yarra. As far as party’s go, the night was superb, with Alex Playsted’s sublime DJ skills keeping the crowd entertained well into the wee hours of the morning.
Well done to all crews and their coaches and thanks Peter Schouten for assisting with the towing of the trailer and to the organisers of the after party who put on a great night.
Simon Crunden

Podcast interview with Richmond Rowing Club Head of Rowing – Nicole Stupka,  previewing the Richmond crews competing in this years Head of the Yarra.
Link to Podcast

Race starts at 11:00 am and Richmond crews start times as follows (times are approximate):
Female D Eight (Schouten) – 11:06 am
Female C Eight (Crotty) – 11:22 am
Mixed D Masters (Hope) – 12:02 pm
Male B Eight (Foster) – 2:32 pm

Richmond Rowing Club had a great day at the Melbourne Head regatta picking up five wins in eight events the club entered.
The race – held on the Yarra River over 4.5 kilometres starting at Big Bend and finishing at the city boat sheds in front of Mercantile Rowing Club – was held in near perfect conditions with 138 crews battling it out for a wins in a range of divisions and boat classes.
The first win for the day was Caroline Manning, coached by Tom Appleby, in the Women’s Division A/B Single Scull. Caroline was elated to have won her race by defeating Melbourne University sculler Jen Bailey by the narrowest of margins of one second.
Richmond’s Women’s C Eight stroked by Frances Crotty and contained World Masters Games gold and bronze medallists Annalise Gehling and Geraldine Goss and coached by Mike Numa – one of two Richmond women’s eights competing in the event – defeated six other crews to take out the Women’s C/D eights in one of the most competitive events of the regatta.
The Mixed Masters Eight, stroked by club President Emma Catford, came out on top in a field of nine boats narrowly beating Head of the Yarra mixed eight aspirants Melbourne Rowing Club by a mere two seconds in a great display of controlled and consistent rowing.
Richmond also won two races in row over’s, with Sam Morrison taking out the Men’s A/B Division Single Scull and the Men’s Coxed B Quad Scull stroked by Martin Foster.
In other results, the Mixed Masters Eight stroked by Sally Allen showed great improvement to perform well in their race as did the Men’s Division D Coxed Four who were out gunned racing in a tub four against other crews who raced in racing boats in the Men’s Coxed Four C/D division. Richmond also had three Women’s D Division Coxed Fours make their racing debut for the club.
Richmond Head of Rowing Nicole Stupka was pleased with the results, and in particular the women’s eights who will have no doubt gained a significant confidence boost in time for next week’s Head of the Yarra.
Richmond has four crews entered in next week’s the big race that will feature 206 eights from clubs throughout the country.
Richmond is joint hosting the HOTY After Party with rival club Powerhouse and details or the event and what Richmond crews will feature in the race are available on the club blog site.
Simon Crunden