Henley Royal Regatta


Photos 73 - 88 out of 88 | Back to Albums
The women's squad was out in force which was fantastic! These are the launches that follow each race. It's kind of funny actually, you take two reps from each club racing - usually the coach and president or something like that - and put them side by side in the launch, with the umpire and some other officials. You follow the race the whole way down, you are not allowed to yell support, coach or do anything untoward from the boat. Then at the end, even though you hate the other club with a passion, you are forced to shake hands with their representatives and be very civil and polite the whole way back to shore. It's very old-school and gentlemanly. Ben Melham - the ex PTRC Captain turned bar fly. Rumour has it he's making a comeback this year? :)
Hey, it's Lucy and Sean! Lucy is the Women's Captain, and Sean is, well very good at holding the bar up ;) Big Aussie Ben, great to see you came out mate! Big Dave. Big.
What is going on? It's the pink shirt brigade!? Timbo - fair dinkum we are drinking by the river and he drops a bombshell. "Boys, oh yeah, I'm getting married to Leanne next week. I was gonna tell you but I forgot about it!" Gary! Thea!! Not in front of the President, please!
James joins us and cuts loose which is good to see. Hard worker - he deserves his champanagne! This is the Putney Town RC launch. A lot of clubs bring their traditional wooden boats out to Henley in an effort to 'fly the flag' for their club. They are great because you can fit a couple of ladies in up the back and take them out on the river for a row. Hmm, we are evidently back to PTGRC.
The sun starts to set, and we are getting into party mode very quickly. Tonights entertainment is 'Rockaoke' which is basically Karaoke but with a live band. I can't wait, and at the first opportunity I put my name down for a song. It's gonna be a while though, there are lots of people in front of me. Hmm, one of the pink shit brigade is either: a) Throwing up b) Looking for a beer at the bottom c) Stuck Where did they get their space hoppers from?
Great group photo! Goal reached - the entire men's squad is mullered. A funny story to finish on - the Rockaoke eventually did come about. 4 hours later I'm totally pissed standing by the river bank, when US Matt comes and taps me on the shoulder and slurs... " Matt, they're calling for you, they want Matt from Putney Town up on stage!" And I'm like, shit, sweet! I'm so pissed I don't even know if I can remember the words to Sweet Home Alabama - but I'm gonna give it a shot! I race to the Barn Bar stage and there is about 500 people chanting "Matt from Putney Town, Matt from Putney Town". It's electric, and just as I'm about to launch up onto stage, the song starts and there's some bloody imposter up there pretending to be me! I get to the side of the stage and I'm explaining my predicament to some random punters, and they are like, no get up there we wana hear the REAL Matt from Putney Town! So I get up and shoutl to the band "hey, I'm Matt from Putney Town!" Well the guy turned out to be some bloke from another club who grabbed the chance to get on stage when I was late, and he's a little embarassed when I show, and he's like, oh sorry mate. And I'm promised my turn on the mike, but then there's a power outage! By the time they fixed it there was only enough time for one more song, and I'm trying to convince them that the crowd would much rather hear Lynard Skynard than a soppy Robie Williams number, but I got rolled, and had to share the limelight with several other singers. But it wasn't so bad and we got the crowd singing along to our version of Angels. Well after that, I don't remembr much but it was a great buzz and I know we ended up in some late night bar in town before I passed out in someones tent. The scene when I got up the next morning was like something out of Shaun of the Dead - lifeless bodies scattered all around the campsite, passed out everywhere. Hilarious! What a great weekend, Come on the Town!   
Photos 73 - 88 out of 88 | Back to Albums
Description: To win the Henley Royal Regatta is possibly the stuff that dreams are made of, up there with winning a Gold Medal in the Olympics. And you can imagine that even to be able to compete at such a prestigious event is such a great feat in itself. In 2009, I had the opportunity to be coached by one of the UK's double Olympic gold medal winning rowers, Andy Holmes. After a long, cold winter of technical rowing, and months of torturous ergo sessions to become more physically fit than I've ever been before in my life, I was promoted to the position of stroke of the Putney Town Rowing Club senior men's 8+ crew! Taking this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity by the balls, we marched on to the Henley qualifiers to fight for one of 32 positions in the Thames Cup event... and we did it!
Location: England

Be Sociable, Share!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *