William White awarded Oxford rowing scholarship

Fifteen year old William White, an aspiring young junior from Herne Bay Rowing Club, has been awarded a prestigious scholarship with St Edward’s School, Oxford, which will help him with both his academic and sporting aspirations. 

He will board for three years in which time he will be coached, trained on an intense regime and with a view to compete at a high level, predominantly at National Schools and Henley Royal Regatta. William starts on 1 September. 

For two months during Lockdown White was watched and evaluated via Zoom by the school’s Senior coach, Jonny Singfield and Master in Charge of Rowing, Adam Moffat whose initial thoughts of William were “powerful with reasonable technique who would be a great addition to the school and boatclub. His physiology is impressive and scores on the rowing machine are right at the top end for his age group.”

Initially pointed out to the school by Herne Bay Rowing Club member and ex international rower, Daniel Ritchie, it was clear that William was a determined and focused boy who was prepared to work hard.

Herne Bay High School, where William attended until this year, has remained extremely supportive throughout the process giving extensive references, together with words of encouragement and excitement. 

Mrs. Jackie Wilson, Head of Omega College at the local school was ”thrilled that Will has achieved this scholarship and we send him our best wishes for this next exciting chapter in his life. He will be missed by many staff and students but we look forward to following his career. 

She continued to say “William is a natural sportsman and has displayed a real love for sport through the camaraderie he injects into his many sporting experiences. He also has the drive and desire to be the best he can, no matter what the obstacles are’’.

William’s father is also the Captain of Herne Bay Rowing Club, who said a few words: “This is an extremely rare opportunity and recognition of talent in a young athlete, a break that is often missing with so many talented individuals but also a testament to our great club. Herne Bay Amateur Rowing Club is not just one of the oldest sporting clubs in the local area but also one of the most grounded and stable environments to nurture young people. It takes children in and teaches them the skill of coastal rowing but more importantly, team spirit, comradery and respect for others.”

This opportunity for William is something the club as a whole has achieved as we have given him the foundation, the pathway and the self-motivation to succeed.

William would like to thank all members of the club for their support, especially those volunteers that make rowing possible including the committee and senior members that run the club on a day to day basis. He would like to single out Keith Grove who has been a great coach and given him guidance through the past three years since he started at the club.

Herne Bay Amateur Rowing Club wishes William every inch of luck and we look forward to watching him grow into an aspiring athlete.

HBARC Annual General Meeting

On Friday 31st January 2020 at 8.30pm the Annual General Meeting will be held at the
Clubhouse, Spa Esplanade, Herne Bay, Kent.

Subscriptions were due on 1st March 2019. In order to vote at the AGM any outstanding subs for the current year should be paid to the Club Treasurer forthwith.

Membership rates are: Rowing £144.00, Student Rowing £72.00 (Social Rowing membership 50% of these rates), Social membership £20.00 (or £10 if joined after 1st September), Coxswains £5.00, OAP £8.00.

Herne Bay Regatta Cancelled

Unfortunately Herne Bay Rowing Club’s regatta is cancelled tomorrow, however we will be hosting another on Saturday 20 July.

To find out more about the club please follow our Facebook page and if you’d like to cheer us on at any of our other regattas, please look at our regatta list.

Taster session

Come and have a go at rowing this year at our drop-in taster session.

Sunday 17 March, 10am to 12pm If the weather is kind, you will have the chance to get out in one of our boats with experienced rowers.

– Try our 500m ergo challenge to win a prize.

– Walk around our clubhouse

– Find out about the races at regatta season

– Find out about our up and coming social events

– Bar open

Also, sign up to our 6 week LEARN 2 ROW programme, which starts Wednesday 27 March. Ten people maximum.

Please wear gym kit and shoes/socks you don’t mind getting wet plus a change of clothes and towel to dry your feet.

We accept boys and girls from the age of 13 years and upwards. You don’t have to have any experience. Please bring along friends, family, colleagues who you think would love to have a go.

For more information please email contact@hbarc.org.uk or keep up to date on our Facebook page.

Want to try a new sport?

Want a new challenge for 2019? Want to be a part of an enthusiastic, competitive, award-winning and friendly team? 

We’re always looking for members to join Herne Bay Amateur rowing club.
We’re open Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 6pm and Sunday mornings at 10am.

Come down to the club to get your free taster sessions or contact us via Facebook or contact@hbarc.org.uk to find out more.

British Rowing Indoor Championships

Last Saturday five members of Herne Bay Amateur Rowing Club took part in the annual British Rowing Indoor Championships 2018 at the famous
London Olympic Velodrome.

These five were thirteen year olds Bradley and Lewis Perry-French, fifteen year olds Heidi White and Poppy Webb and master rower, Liz Taylor.
All competing against world athletes and rowers their own age from schools and clubs from around the country.

This is what they have all been training hard for for the past few months and was their first time to compete in such a renowned and important
competition like this.

Liz, who has rowed since she was 14 years old was up first, rowing 2000 meters in the Masters 50 to 54 women’s category. There was extremely
hard competition in this category and Liz, who manages to keep up with the other youngsters in the Bay club, got a well earned 5th place. She said “That was bloody hard, I knew it would be, but I’m glad I did it!”

Poppy and Heidi were up next, to row against 59 other rowers for six minutes where Heidi came 13th and Poppy came 18th overall. Both came back
exhausted, but still buzzing from the adrenaline and excitement of being a part of this major rowing event.

Later on in the day the girls entered the 500 meter race, this time against 33 girls from year 11. Heidi was “really pleased” with her 5th
place and Poppy did well to get to 13th place.

Twins, Bradley and Lewis were ones to watch in their competition, as they always work so hard in their training sessions. Both boys started
off strong and fast in the beginning of their five minute race, but started to tire, but should still be very proud at getting joint 20th and Bradley at joint 24th out of a whopping 83 competitors!

Their 500 meter race in the afternoon had a bit of a different result, where Lewis came 16th in 1 minute 36 seconds and Bradley coming in at
18th place only 1.2 seconds later.

With 86 events taking place throughout the whole day from 9am until 6.30pm with extreme professionalism and speed, the whole day was a joy
to watch and be a part of.

All who came to the event had a chance to watch a few Olympic rowers compete against each other. In the women’s 2000 meter race Alice Baatz,
25 year old GB Rowing Team member, achieved an incredible 06.44 result, beating the other ladies.

I managed to catch the friendly and bubbly Alice for a five minute chat, to ask her what her secret was with diet before a race and her top
tips were eat small and often. “I don’t eat two hours before a race, but if I have to I eat a few sweets to keep the sugar levels up, and caffeine bars are my friend on race day.”

The men’s Olympic team were up, featuring Mo Sbihi, who beat Adam Neill by just one second and getting sub 6 minutes on his 2k test with 05.41!
Something all young rowers will aspire to beat now I’m sure!

Coming to this event and experiencing something as big and well-known as this was very exciting and inspiring for the teenagers and also for
the responsible adults that joined them. All five of the competitors should be extremely proud of themselves for taking part in this star-studded event.

Everyone is looking forward to entering themselves into next year’s competition already. Now the hard work starts, especially as we know what
to aspire to.

If there is anyone who wants to aspire to be a great rower, we are training over the winter ready for next year and always looking for new members to join
this competitive club. Contact us for more information.

The results:

Liz – 2000 meters: 5th place (out of 15) 07.48 (PB)

Heidi – Six minutes: 13th (out of 59) 1573 meters – 500 meters: 5th (out of 33) 01.41

Poppy – six minutes: 18th (out of 59) 1548 metres – 500 meters: 13th (out of 33) 01.45

Bradley Perry-French – Five minutes: Joint 24th (out of 83) 1396 meters – 500 meters: 18th (out of 40) 01.38

Lewis Perry-French – Five minutes: Joint 20th (out of 83) 1401 metres – 500 meters: 16th (out of 40) 01.36

Open Day 23rd September

Come to the club on Sunday 23 September between 10am and midday to try your hand at coastal rowing.

Weather depending, we will offer you a seat in one of our boats and get you out on the sea, but will show you the ropes beforehand on land.

Bring: Tshirt, shorts/leggings and old shoes plus a bottle of water.

The club will be training over the winter for the 2019 regatta season.

Didn’t The Boys Do Well

Saturday saw hundreds of rowers taking part in the 62nd South Coast Championships, this year hosted by Deal Rowing Club.

35 of Herne Bay Amateur Club’s fittest rowers entered into 13 out of the 24 races; five of those included races of the highest calibre with men and women competing against top crews from each of the three coastal rowing associations.

Having trained extremely hard throughout the summer to be a part of the Champs, our rowers of all ages spanning from 12 years to our oldest of 75 took part in the final regatta of the year and they should all be very proud of their achievements no matter where they came in their races.

As well as a second and plenty of third and fourth placements, we had one crew come first throughout the day. These boys need no introduction, but they have trained long and hard together, being coached by long-standing rowers and members of the club, Keith Groves and Mark Jeffries. These 12 to 14 year old boys are J14 CARA champions of 2018 for the second year running but also the only crew to have achieved first place from the club in this year’s South Coast Championships.

Well done to William White, Bradley Perry-French, Lewis Perry-French and Jacob Webb, with Jasmine Amos steering them into first position.

The J14 girls including Lucy Horton, Ella Rose, Maisie Jeffries and Tamzin Vickers coxed by John Cox were the only girls crew entered into the J14 girls race, and were therefore put together to race with the older, stronger J14 boys. The girls were awarded the J14 girls category winning medals and a trophy. These girls haven’t trained for long as a crew but hopefully next year we will see them adding more trophies under their belts.

The five championship races included the Men’s Junior/Senior crew with Luke Taylor, Harry Taylor, Tom Harris and Manuel Marques who were entered in as a late entry. The same crew were a favourite to do well in the Men’s Junior race. They could only come away with a third place in both races, but first out of CARA crews in the Junior race. Of the Masters 40 race John Cox, Darren White, Stuart webb and Liz Taylor with coxwain, Maisie Jeffries put up a good fight but were beaten by Lymington, Deal and BTC clubs.

The other two races that the club were betting on was the Ladies Junior four consisting of fifteen year olds Poppy Webb, Heidi White, Vice Captain Emily Noyes and Steph Rondel in Bow, coxed by the young Maisie Jeffries. This was the ladies final race of the season as juniors and will feature in the senior ladies races next year due to their winning streaks throughout the summer.

Unfortunately the ladies couldn’t quite beat the Hants and Dorset crew, Christchurch or Hometown crew, Deal who came in first. The water was unforgiving and they hit some tough water and at one point a large wave turned the rudder to nearly hit Coal Porters boat side on!

The Men’s Senior four race was the important race of the day, with the Bowl trophy as the prize to aim for. Jeffries again was the trusty coxwain to steer the four strong men, but beaten into second place by rivals Itchen Imperial. The crew consisted of Will Campbell in Stroke position, Dan Ritchie and Tom Walton with Ryan Hosking in the bow.

Ex-member of Herne Bay Rowing Club and father to James Foad, who rowed in the winning Itchen boat in the Men’s Senior race said: “Though it was great to see my home town club performing so well through the season, my heart was with my club, Itchen, but congratulations on such a good year and an amazing race for the Bowl!”

Also talking from his heart, captain, Darren White said a few words about the club’s performance throughout the year: “I could never have imagined the depth of satisfaction and overwhelming pride the past few months have given me.

He continued “To see the true dedication and commitment to training, to witness the shear resilience in racing and to achieve the results have made this a very special, if not historic year for Herne Bay.”

So even though the club didn’t achieve the goals they wanted at the Championships, they have achieved awards and prizes far greater than expectations from the season’s races and regattas.

Lord Mayor Celebrates New Ergos

Herne Bay Amateur Rowing Club is celebrating after being awarded £10,000 of National Lottery Funding to purchase ten brand new rowing machines.

The grant, awarded through Sport England, will show that the club means to invest in the current but also new members and the community. These rowing machines will mean that people from the age of 13 upwards and of all abilities will get the best training and help with their health and wellbeing.

The Lord Mayor of Canterbury, Councillor Colin Spooner attended the club’s celebratory morning with wife and Lady Mayoress, Julie Spooner to cut the ribbon to announce the new rowing machines and even had a go one of the machines himself.

Cllr Spooner was very impressed with the enthusiasm and energy in the club and he wished the members all the success at the championships this Saturday at Deal.

Dan Ritchie, gold medallist and World Champion rower commented saying “Sport England’s donation is key in aiding the development of rowing in Herne Bay. It’s great to see new equipment so accessible for every member of the club and designed to drive membership, which in turn will help keep the club one of the premier coastal rowing clubs in the county.”

Dan, who has rowed for the Bay club for over ten years is a great advocate for the town and the club, which has always been close to his heart.

Ritchie and the club will be rowing and competing against other coastal amateur rowing clubs spanning from Herne Bay, Dover and Folkestone to the south west coast at the South Coast Championships on Saturday 8 September, hosted by Deal rowing club.

To find out about joining this welcoming local club visit www.hbarc.org.uk

John Rodwell

Some sad news was received this week regarding an old club member John Rodwell  who passed away on Thursday.

John the was the eldest son of Mick Rodwell and brother to Chris and Sarah.

John was a senior pairs champion with his partner Malcom Clarke in the early sixties.

Our thoughts go out to all his family and friends