Henley Royal Regatta


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Henley-on-Thames. This place is beautiful! And pretty much my home for an entire week as we prepare for first the qualifying race and then the regatta itself. The boys get ready for an afternoon training session - we pretty much headed out to Henley to train every session for the whole week leading up to the event. That's a 45 minute drive from London. But such is our commitment! Hmm. PTGRC - Putney Town Gay Rowing Club?
Yep, definitely PTGRC. I hope Gary's been drinking pineapple juice! Big Dave tries to give Tuyut a lift, but despite being a giant, he is unable to do more than a couple of push-ups with our 55kg cox on his back! Meanwhile, it's 'get big' Phil who manages to impress, and can carry on with a dozen or more push-ups, putting Big dave to shame really.
This photo is from my stroke seat in the boat. We have just launched to go for our first training run down the course - this is the Monday before qualifiers. We use this run down the 2km course to get our bearings and Tuyut points out key landmarks and repeats our race plan along the way. Day of the qualifiers, and we have another warm-up row. James bought out a dodgy bike so he could ride alongside and yell at us - and blew a tyre while heading up the tow path. I mean not just punctured, but totally split. I'd be the expert in changing tyres, but unfortunately there was nothing I could do, so the boys made a trip to the bike shop later that day for spare parts. Meanwhile the boys were faffing around fixing it, so I head into Henley town centre to have a look around and pick up a llittle something... The sign welcoming visitors to Helney-on-Thames includes a rowing boat. Obviously rowing is an integral part of the history and traditions of the Helney township.
During a break between warm up and qualifying on the Wednesday, I head in to see what Henley town is like. I also need to pick up my new rowing club blazer which is being made by a tailor in town. This is the main street and you can see the Town Hall up the end. Apparently the draw for the regatta is publicly held here at 3pm on the Saturday before the regatta. Heading back to the regatta after my stroll around the town, I come across this view of the boat tents from across the river. The Leander Rowing Club - pretty much this has to be the most prestigious rowing club in the entire world - certainly all of England! Members of this club are generally dedicating their life to rowing like a devoutly religious fanatic might worship their God. They live and breathe rowing, dream about ergos in their sleep and when coach says 'jump', they clear Tower Bridge! The members that boat from this club just quite simply look like they were genetically engineered to row boats. This club is where you will find many rowing members of Team Great Britain training for the Olympics. I'm not sure how you get to be a member - but I'd say you have to be invited and need to be a bloody good rower!
The Red Lion pub at Henley. Of course, what English town is complete without a Red Lion? Here's another view of the Leander club from the bridge. Leander are so good, that they were banned from entering a team in the Thames Cup Challenge - the event that I'm entered in for the Men's 8's at Henley - because they would always win. They are borderline claiming to be an amatuer club but in reality are totally professional. The divide between Leander and other clubs generally , would be like the difference between Kurrawa SLSC and the rest of the association, but 5 times worse. Just imagine the government funding they get to help run this breeding ground of GB champion athletes! The Henley Royal Regatta - so big it has its own radio station!
Stunning houses at Henley across from the boat launching area. PTRC have two crews trying to qualify for Henley. My crew, the Men's 8 in the Thames Challenge Cup, and also a 4- (coxless four) in the Wyfold Cup event. If you thought we had it hard trying to qualify and beat 8 other crews for one of 32 spots, pity these guys. The Wyfold event this year was massively over subscribed and there were something like 64 crews competing for the same number of places! None-the-less the boys are determined and here they are heading off to undertake their time trial race. Good luck boys! While we are waiting, I try on my new PTRC club blazer! I'm absolutely stoked with this wonderful addition to my wardrobe! Beautifully tailored and customised to PTRC with white trimming and a magnificent wire-embroidered club badge on the front pocket. It reeks of pure class, and I'm in love with it! Can't wait to debut at Henley. Now only one thing remains... oh yeah still gotta qualify first :)
   
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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

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