Dear all,

The snow and rain has done its best to halt activity on the water but there has been a great deal of work done both running, circuits and on the ergo with the majority of the juniors getting personal bests in their 2000m tests. As Roman, Ellie, Samuel and Caitlin all prepare to go to the GB j16 camp as well as Eve and Joseph heading down a few days earlier to Nottingham for trials and our younger junior section looking to race at Ponteland Head on the Tyne this weekend, we are literally in three places at once. There will also be sessions as usual on both days this weekend also.

The weather got the better of the Varsity Boat Race last weekend but as a club we are still proud to have athletes asked to take part.

Ponteland Junior Head takes place on Saturday with entries below. Unfortunately, a few of our younger athletes were deemed too young to take part and as a result, the entry is slightly smaller but Craig will be there to do the team talks, Gordon and Chris will run the junior session at the club and Ellie will run the Sunday session, whilst Arran and myself are in Nottingham. The website for timings and the draw is also below, but it won’t appear until Wednesday:

http://www.tynerowingclub.org/pages/ponteland_junior_head_153682.cfm

Our Junior Learn to Row taster sessions start on Sunday (if anyone is still interested please point them in the direction of the website where the link is still open), I would appreciate any willing helpers to jump in boats to support Craig and Louise from 12 on Sunday if possible.

If possible, please support the club in our fundraising efforts as below:

• the Tesco token scheme worked very well and it would be great if you could support by either putting the token directly in the store in Durham or bringing the tokens to the club and putting them in the jar in the ‘trophy corridor’.
• As we are now a charity can I ask members/parents to check if the companies they work for offer a match giving scheme, where your employer will match any money you raise for your chosen charity. The Regatta is an ideal way to help us raise funds and we already have pledges for another £1,500 from Barclays and Boots on top of what we will actually raise on the day.
  Any questions please message me or catch me down at the club (Simon Adamson). Costs you nothing, just your time and could be a really large source of income for the club.

We are looking to plan the regatta season and crews in the next few weeks in an effort to be prepared for deadlines set by regattas. The nature and popularity of the sport is as such that if we often don’t submit entries to host clubs even the week before entries may not be accepted and athletes miss out on races. Wayne Curry will produce the link for parents and athletes go fill in ASAP. We will set deadlines for completing availability as we cannot submit half entries. Often things change and you may not be able to attend races and that’s fine, but the rule of thumb is that if in doubt say yes if you are unsure if your child is allowed to enter a regatta due to their age.

Thanks

Steven.