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May I introduce the ladies?
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By Neil Lewis
Durham Veterans and Juniors Regatta, 5 October 2001.
Course: 750m Conditions: Calm and cool.
Hexham Rowing Club owes its continued existence to one person, Bob Manning. He kept the club afloat so to speak in the lean 1980s, and carefully coached and cajoled it back to health, getting it boats in the process. There is now a band of little helpers in place and he is trying to step back a bit. Can he though? He is still chief coach, but not racing himself until recently, never gets a mention in regatta reports.
Until now. Over the last few months he has become Bob 'Svengali' Manning, and is regularly to be seen on the water surrounded by beautiful women. Look at the accompanying picture; look at his grin. There you will see him in celebratory mood, drinking to their triumph with his ladies in the Durham ARC bar. This was 30 minutes after their first ever competitive outing in a coxed four, (Bob coxing) at the DARC Veteran and Junior Regatta a fortnight ago. This had been their target event since they started rowing less than a year hence. Training, technique, strategy, diet and visualisation were all part of Bob's coaching package. They didn't win, that would have been a bonus, race experience was the aim this time. But they only lost to a much younger crew by a boat length. Their triumph lay in conquering their nerves, mastering a technical sport in later life, realising they had skill, that they were a sleek unit, and that they indeed had potential, and it was fun. Bob has given them these things and they think the world of him for it. How does he feel? He asked me later in the day "What did they say? Did they enjoy it? Didn't I always tell you they had potential? My ladies - weren't they great?". Now I've gone and embarrassed everybody, but heh, at our level, this is what sport's all about.
Another relative newcomer competing at Durham was George Doody. Always technique training, and learning in every race, he was beaten this time by Jaggard of the host club in the Veteran C class single sculls. Jaggard raced in his Lola, they make racing cars and fast boats, but George was in no way outclassed, and is looking forward to the challenge of the region's winter sculling series. It began last Saturday, again at Durham.
The Northern Sculling Series consists of 6 races on consecutive weekends on our major rivers. Each race is against the clock and may have up to 200 boats competing. At Durham everyone rows from the town's boat club to sit, bobbing amongst the competition for anything up to an hour before haring back again, line astern hopefully having negotiated the dreaded and narrow Elvet Bridge. Get it wrong and you either hit it or in choosing the wrong arch get swept onto the outer bank of the bend that follows. Big boats go first at 25-second intervals. Christer and Brown were ours, and in their words not mine,
"Hit the ##### bridge, and stopped long enough under it to write our names!" So competitive these boys, so gutted, although Brown found solace in the fact that they were the fastest Hexham boat of the day. I mean really, David, the rest of the squad were a women's double of Liddle and King, and three old men, Mulholland, Doody and Lewis in singles. None of them hit the bridge. The circus moves on to Newburn, racing about 5 miles on the Tyne on October 13, through big, highly visible, wide bridges.
Previously published by Hexham Courant
05 Oct 2001
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