Half term is upon us and our students are now well and truly into the swing of things. All 8 schools are up and rowing or should I be politically correct and say sculling. The list below is the status of our school leads in terms of rowing experience.

Sir Thomas Boteler   Kerry        RYA Powerboat       BR Session Coach

Bridgewater                Mark          RYA Powerboat       BR Session Coach

U A W                             Matt            RYA Powerboat

Natalie        RYA Powerboat

Penketh                        Ryan           RYA Powerboat

Culcheth                       Rachael                                          BR Session Coach

Active member of Agecroft

Birchwood                  Ralph        RYA Powerboat       BR Session Coach

Paula         RYA Powerboat       BR Session Coach

Just joined Warrington Rowing Cub

Beamont                      Rachel      RYA Powerboat       BR Session Coach

Cardinal Newman    Scott         RYA Powerboat       BR Session Coach

There are a number of gaps but the individuals are keen to get the qualifications as soon as possible. My personal view is that this show of dedication to the cause is fantastic and will enable us to move forward and add sustainability to the project. WYR would like to thank all the schools for your help, with this part of the project.

Head Teachers? It’s your turn now to pop along and see what we are up to. Misia at UAW and Andy at Beamont have been along for a trip in our coaching launches, watching their students. You are all most welcome and it is a great way to get a flavour of our scheme. You can also experience the beauty of The River Mersey, one of Warrington’s best kept secrets.

Over the last two weeks we have been putting our young rowers through a swimming test and capsize drill. All 8 schools have now had a session in the pool at Broomfields. We put the pupils through a controlled capsize drill and for some of them it was a very stressful experience but they all survived! We also did a swimming test and I was very saddened to see that there was only one possibly two pupils that were good swimmers. The rest were poor at best or non-swimmers. Frighteningly lots of them said they could swim and they blatantly couldn’t. In view of this we will be permanently using Buoyancy Aids for all pupils.

On the water we are starting to get going and we are slowly developing the rowing stroke. There are a number of youngsters that are catching the eye and I will be extending invites for them to try out for Warrington Rowing Club.

Hopefully we will be on the water more this winter, we lost December to February last winter due to the cold conditions. This did mean that we could work a lot in the gym but we would much prefer to be out on the water. This will hopefully improve the student’s technique in the boat and on the indoor ergometer.

Don’t forget the Indoor Rowing Competition on Wednesday 30th January 2019 the best of the rowers will be invited to represent Warrington Youth Rowing at The National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships. This event is on Friday 15th March at The Copper Box in London, train tickets are already booked!

We are looking forward to seeing everybody in the new rowing kit. I think all the schools have gone for the package. As it gets wetter we are probably going to need wellies as well. There are usually plenty of them at WRC for the rowers to borrow.

Invoices went out last week and with my Warrington Rowing club hat on could I ask that you expedite them as efficiently as possible.

Lastly a quick reminder about our fund raising event. Friday 16 November at Mere Court. The profit goes directly to paying for the London trip. If you are interested please contact me.

Have a good break and see you all soon.

Cheers

Richard