| WELL I NEVER |
The Slug was most amused to find that someone has very kindly scanned in the Daily Mailarticle about those Brookes rowers getting up to no good. For those who want a look it can be found at http://users.ox.ac.uk/~some1004/article.jpg and the accompanying photo at http://users.ox.ac.uk/~some1004/rag.jpgAnd oh look, the girl in the photo is none other than last year's OURCs Secretary.
Hmmm...
| CLASH OF THE TITANS? |
Spring is in the air.. you can tell because the usual pre boat-race hype has started up again but behind the column inches are two strong crews, packed with internationals, which, at least on paper, promises an exciting race... clashes not withstanding.And talking of clashes... following on from the experiences of Leander II, in their tete a tete with Isis last weekend, the slug would suggest that the second boat race might be the interesting one to watch, especially if you've got a bet on a clash between Goldie and Isis.
Of course, this does depend on a certain member of the Leander crew not managing to catch up with the Isis cox - as he's not very happy after having his sunglasses smacked off his face by his blade because of:
"some little c**t who thinks he's God's gift to coxing"...
the situation probably wasn't helped by the cox in question proceeding to do it again, after Leander had re-built their broken rigger...
Coxing can be difficult with an oar... um... inserted...
| BLUE-EYED SCOTSMAN TO THE RESCUE |
The slug can reveal, that following the cancellation of the women's head last weekend, Peter Haining decided to hang around Putney for a while, rather than risk driving the Upper Thames trailer back to Henley in high winds.This turned out to be rather fortuitous for two young visiting Germans, who decided that March was a good time of year for a late night swim in the river Thames (yesssssss...ED)
Alerted to the fact that these nutters were trying to kill themselves by the illustrious captain of Vesta, Peter and he then tried to convince the pair to get out of the water. When they finally did, they blue-eyed Scotsman quickly noticed they were suffering classic signs of hypothermia, so wrapping them up in space blankets he, bundled them in the back of the land rover and sped them off to hospital.
After checking their body temp and finding it to be around 31 degrees, the hospital staff kept them in overnight promising to keep Mr Haining updated of their progress. By all accounts they were back to normal the following morning and allowed out.
In light of his heroic efforts the slug wonders if this means Peter will be wearing his pants on the outside of his all-in-one from now on...
|
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER? |
Maybe it's just a case of teenage angst, but the slug has been hearing mutterings about Eton's behaviour in the school's head last Friday.It appears that the little light blue boys in their first VIII, turned up a couple of hours after everyone else and were allowed to race in, what some of the other competitors have grudgingly termed, "more favourable" conditions - because of the change in the wind direction. They then proceeded to come a respectable 4th knocking all the crews below them down a place.
A totally unbiased source close to the St Edwards crew who came 5th told the slug, "It's just not tickety-boo, those dreadful Eton types have no sense of honour..."
By all accounts this isn't the first time the Etonians 'have turned up late' for the race but rumours that next year's schools head will be held over 4 days with crews being able to turn up at any time they want, are still unfounded...
|
DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME FOLKS |
The e-mail equivalent of a brown paper package arrived at Slug HQ recently, containing several photos taken in the gym at Dorney lake, of which only this is suitable for reproduction (think that's bad you should see the front shot).
After the recent press coverage about the antics of the Robert Gordon University crew, this has prompted the slug to question just how widespread nekkid training is amongst the rowing community. So in the interests of public knowledge we ask you to complete the following questionnaire.
(p.s. extra points if you can correctly identify the "cheeky-chap" working his lats. slug@twrc.org)
|
WINDS UP NOT A WIND-UP |
Saturday morning and hundreds of crews converged on the Tideway for the 2002 women's head. After assembling their boats, picking up the numbers and boating ready for the start, with about 30 mins to the first divison, the call came out from the organisers that the event had been cancelled.A combination of high winds against strong stream along the length of the course led to conditions which at best could be described as "shitty", the water at Barnes was particularly bad and a couple of crews had to be rescued - in danger of sinking after being swamped.
The PLA advised the organisers to cancel the event, leaving competitors looking in turn annoyed and depressed that their training efforts were to be in vain. Crews that had boated from Putney, then had to make the long way back up the course and it wasn't long before the lifeboat - sirens wailing shot down to Putney at speed to rescue a crew that had blown onto Putney pier.
While total cancellation may not have been a popular decision amongst the competitors, it does appear that, given the conditions, it was the right one.
|
A COUPLE OF CORRECTIONS |
The slug sends its deepest apologies to the LRC 5th VIII, as there were in fact FOUR races on Sunday, not 3. and I forgot to mention them... (all that hard work - poor dears)Just to be clear, the LRC veterans raced the TRC veterans, which LRC won, and it was LRC V who raced Thames III, which LRC won by 26 seconds or so. (is that better?? ED)
Also a few more details about the Oxford Brookes "incident" reported below - In that only one of the individuals was a Brookes rower, and it turns out that the girls weren't girlfriends - in fact complete strangers pulled up on stage. Not sure if this makes it better or worse? hmmm....
|
BAAAAA! |
A few pics of the Black sheep boys in Melbourne at Australian Henley - it appears "They came second (from two) by about a length, but the other crew were sitting on them a bit to make it look better..." Click on the thumbnails to open the image in a new window (many thanks to JC)
|
AND WHILE I'M AT IT... |
A few pics of the London boys, also in Melbourne but this time at the Australia Day regatta in January Click on the thumbnails to open the image in a new window (thanks to JC again!)
| CLOSE... BUT NO CIGAR |
The slug trotted down to Putney on Sunday morning, to watch what turned out to be a more eventful Boustead cup than usual. The annual event allows the local rivalries of Thames and London rowing clubs to be vented side by side over the 4 and a quarter miles of the Tideway head course, but without the benefit of a river closure.Three races were held in all, the first race- a London veteran crew against the TRC 3rd VIII and the second race - the LRC 3rd VIII against the Thames 2nd VIII, both proving to be an easy challenge for the boys in blue. Then came the main event, on which the large lump of silver, otherwise known as the Boustead cup was to be won or lost. LRC, boating a mixture of their 1st and second VIIIs for the head (due to absence/illness/parenthood) were up against the Thames 1st VIII, containing a number of the crew who got to the final at HRR last July.
The crews clashed shortly into the race, one of the LRC boys catching a huge crab and losing his blade. After stopping long enough to recover it, (and then for a bit longer just for the hell of it) the boys in blue started back up again and started to claw back the gap between them and Thames. Having got to within two lengths of the club in red white and black, the umpire then made the LRC crew stop, to avoid certain collision with a four which had decided to cross in front of the race. Again Thames took the initiative to increase their lead while the London boys waited for the “obstruction” to get out of the way.
Over the last half of the race London again started to come back up through the Thames crew, at one point coming past the boathouses it looked almost certain they would pull it off but in the end lost the race by a canvas.
Afterwards, a number of disgruntled boys in blue were seen wandering around muttering about “winning by 6 lengths but still losing” and casting Paddington bear type hard stares at the unfortunate umpire. Despite LRC arguably taking the moral victory, it is of course, the bows that cross the line first that count, and the TRC smiles were broad as they reclaimed the trophy. For the next rematch we suggest you keep an eye on the small event happening on the Tideway on 23rd March…
| SHURLEY NOT |
How much do you know about Oxford Night Life? Well readers inhabititing the gentle climes of middle England, may have noticed an article in the Daily Mail a couple of weeks ago, regarding the Zodiac club in Cowley which every Wednesday hosts an evening called Fuzzy Ducks - best described as a student bender night. Well at least it did until recently, its been banned forever! Why..? because a stunt went too far.In much the same vein as those Japanese endurance shows, they ran a competition - what would you do and how low would you go to win a bottle of Champagne? So various individuals got up on stage and performed some demeaning act in the hope of wining.
The slug has no idea what the other various acts were, I only know that one of the two winners was a member of the Oxford Brookes rowing team. Their act involved standing on stage and producing their manhood. Not too impressive, however a couple of complete strangers (female) then joined them on stage and proceeded to perform felatio on them!
Charming
