Saturday 3 May Chiswick Amateur Regatta

Calling all club members! We need volunteer helpers for Chiswick Regatta:

• crew marshals
• launch drivers
• radio contacts/spotters
• car park attendants
• programme sellers
• results recorders
• bar staff

If you would like to help for part of the day (or, even better, for the whole day) please contact Paul Gunn, the regatta secretary. His e-mail address is chiswickregatta@carbora.co.uk. In addition, various preparatory jobs need to be carried out in the afternoon and evening of the previous day and in the early morning of the regatta day. Any help with these jobs would be greatly appreciated. Please contact Paul to offer your services. Finally, offers of sponsorship at Chiswick Regatta are always welcome. The going rate is £100 to sponsor an eights event, £50 for a fours event, and £20 for a pairs or sculls event. If you are interested in sponsoring an event, please contact Paul. Many thanks to those of you who have already offered sponsorship.

Sunday 13 April The Bob Slade Sculling Handicap

This year's club sculling championship was raced  from the Pink House to Quintin on Sunday 13 April at approximately 11.00am.

The overall winner was our captain, Mark Chatwin, who keeps the Bob Slade Cup for the next twelve months. The winner of the sealed handicap and new holder of the Finlayson Cup was Miguel Llanos. Other notable results were from Geoff Potts and Tom Bishop, continuing their rivalry just one second apart from each other. For the full results click here.

Wednesday 9 April George Marshall RIP

It is with regret that we announce the death of George Marshall earlier today. George was until recently an active member of this club and a regular both rowing in and coxing the vice-presidents' crews until, at the age of 85, his doctor advised him to stop. He was a bomber navigator during the war, serving in Egypt, the Western Desert and over Germany, and it was in the RAF that he learned to row. Many years later he returned to rowing at Ibis Rowing Club (who occupied what is now Mortlake Anglian and Alpha's boathouse). George joined Quintin as one of the "free transfers" when Ibis Rowing Club became defunct, and so for many years prior to joining us had also been a close neighbour. He won his novices aged 60 and then was successful as a coach.  He was well liked in the club and on occasion would fascinate other members with tales of his exploits on the Berlin raids with Bomber Command. On giving up rowing, he moved to Somerset to live with his daughter and had become increasingly poorly in recent months. George will be sadly missed. The funeral is at 1pm on Wednesday, 16th April at Taunton Crematorium.  Family flowers only, but donations can be made to St Margaret's Hospice via the undertaker:  Grandfield & Son, Keenthorne, Nether Stowey, Bridgwater, Somerset TA5 1HZ.

Sunday 6 April The Thames Towpath Ten

Roy Davies very bravely took on the wintry weather and competed in the Thames Towpath Ten on Sunday, 6th April. The snow had scared off about 300 competitors but Roy was one of the 337 to complete the course, finishing a creditable 82nd in a time of 1 hour 13 min. 35 sec. Results here. Picture here.

Sunday 16 March The Vesta Veterans Head - cancelled

In contrast to the mild, sunny morning of the Head of the River, Sunday started extremely blustery and wet, and the conditions were such that the organisers were forced to cancel the event. The club had two men's crews entered, the Veteran Ds starting at No. 82 and the Veteran Fs starting at No. 117, but it was not to be.

Saturday 15 March The Head of the River Race

9:45 a.m. saw the start of the 2008 Head of the River Race, a race in which Quintin Boat Club is one of the few to have competed on every occasion. Contrary to earlier weather forecasts, the morning was dry, and by the time the race started, the sun was breaking through the clouds. There was a slight head breeze heading round the Dukes Meadows bend, but compared with last year's ocean the conditions were relatively placid and there were no sinkings. The Leander (mainly) under-23s won by a comfortable margin of 7 seconds over Imperial College, who had strengthened their eight with four Italian internationals. Leander's time was 17 min. 39.57 sec. compared with IC's 17 min. 46.61 sec. The club had two crews entered, starting 98th and 218th. QBC I, boating in the new wing-rigger Empacher (not yet Christened), finished 76th in 19 min. 4.77 sec. - our best result for some years. QBC II finished 161st in 19 min. 40.10 sec. See the photo gallery for pictures of QBC I and QBC II.

Full results here and full details of the start order here.

Leander I - winners of the 2008 HORR.

Sunday 2 March Hammersmith Head

The club had four crews entered for the Hammersmith Head (11:00 am on Sunday, 2nd March). The first men's crew. a Quintin/MAA composite, started 21st and finished 12th overall in 11 min 38.5 sec, the Vet D crew started No. 49 and finished 54th in 13 min 18.16 sec, the Vet E crew started No. 52 and finished 58th in 13 min 51.53 sec, and the women's novices composite with the University of Westminster started No. 64 and finished 61st (out of 61 starters) in 14 min 41.95 sec. Full details of the results here and the start order here.

Sunday 10 February Molesey Veterans' Head

The "Bar Flies" and the vice-presidents took to the water in eights to represent the club at the annual Molesey bash. The weather over the weekend was some of the most benign for the time of year - blue skies, warm and sunny, with little wind. It must have had a soporific effect on the "Bar Flies", who managed to maintain only a ten second margin over the vice-presidents. The "Bar Flies" finished 21st in 10:14.4 and the VPs were 23rd in 10:24.7. Full results here.

Friday 8 February Annual Dinner

The annual dinner was held on Friday, 8th February. Once again the venue was the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall, and some 60-plus members and guests (that's numbers rather than age, I think) turned up to toast the health of the club. The meal kicked off with smoked salmon and caper berries, followed by succulent rump of lamb. The principal guest was Steve Trapmore MBE, who gave us his unassuming account of the Sydney Olympic Games and how to stroke a crew to the gold medal in the blue riband eights event ("Row as hard as you can for the first five hundred, then row harder for the next five hundred; at the thousand row even harder, and, with five hundred metres to go, row harder still"). It works every time! Steve's talk culminated in a video re-run of the Sydney Eights final - and GB won again, earning a tremendous round of applause from all present. Unfortunately Steve had to leave the dinner early to keep a coaching appointment on Saturday morning in Lincolnshire and so he missed not only the excellent apple and blackberry tart with clotted cream but also the Captain's speech and Leif Jacobsen's dazzling act, which itself culminated in Leif promising to give us a speech next year, possibly to talk us through the Lightweight World Championships in when was it Leif? Sad to say, much beer and wine was consumed by all.

Saturday 26 January Quintin Head

The Quintin Head was again blessed by fair weather; a bright sunny day with a strong westerly wind. The following wind and torrential stream resulted in a record-breaking time of 10 min. 13.6 sec. for the University of Bristol, who came Head for the second year running. Imperial College also impressed, finishing second and third to take the Men's Senior 2 and Senior 3 pennants, whilst Westminster School retained their fourth position and the Men's J18 title. Another record broken was the number of entries; 88, with 82 actually racing, compared with 61 last year. Interest within the club was maintained by a Quintin/MAA composite finishing 10th and Dick Findlay's Veteran C crew assembled on the day finishing a creditable 16th, taking the Veteran C pennant - all the more creditable as they actually qualified as Veteran D! Full results are available here.

Quintin would like to thank all the officials and the clubs that helped with launches as well as all the competitors that took part in the event.

Check out the photo gallery for pictures of club interest (Nos 63-67).