Mermaid’s Echo –
September 2007
by
Richard Cornish
Were did I get to last time?
I’m sure I’d covered the drunken mess that was Scillies and the brilliant day
of our event (did I mention the dolphins?) So what’s been happening in the
months in between?
Well, first to mention is
that we now boast 4 rowers who actually live in Zennor, well between the
Gurnards Head and the Tinner’s, and one of these fine chaps is Steve Gardner
who, as you probably know, is going to be rowing the Atlantic in November with
Paul Harris . We’ll keep you updated with their progress and no doubt raise a
few glasses to their epic (if not completely bonkers) journey. The remaining
“Zennor Boys” have slotted very nicely into both the mens crews with some great
results during the season.
The season has, as always,
produced some interesting results for Zennor Gig Club, some too terrible to
mention that they’ll cause you to weep inconsolably for days if not seconds, so
I won’t mention those but will instead reflect on a few of the more uplifting ones.
The Two Castles Race: a race
from a point off St. Anthony’s head just next to St. Mawes into Falmouth harbour,
finishing right next to the Maritime Museum. With 24 crews
competing including Roseland and Falmouth, the going was
going to be tough. Zennor had entered two crews, a mens and a mixed. As you
would expect there was the pre-start banter between the two crews which was
chiefly concerned with who was going to have to buy the beer for the other crew
when they lost. Well the race went rather well in the end for both crews with
the mens crew coming in 4th over the line and 3rd mens
crew, and the mixed 10th over the line and also 3rd in
the mixed crews. As it transpired later the mens crew had made things very hard
for themselves by sticking close to Falmouth’s mens crews on
the start, thinking that, being Falmouth they’d have the
local knowledge. Unfortunately Falmouth had decided to
make things more challenging for themselves and had opted for a mid channel
start position. This was where the outgoing tide and the winds were strongest!
The free beer and pasties at the end more than made up for it though.
The Newlyn Fish Festival is
another Club favourite, mostly because the boats tend to stop on the
way back to Penzance and engage in a little
mackerel fishing. The race, as usual, is a long one starting off Newlyn pier up
to Low Lee buoy back to the Gear Pole and back to Newlyn Harbour where the finish
is. Well, the two mixed crews rowed rather well, although the second mixed crew
had a bit of a tangle at Low Lee causing many raised voices and a few choice
words. After a little manoeuvring and taking full advantage of the mess up by
another boat (in which there was desperate reaching for an oar that had somehow
left the grasp of its rower) they made up lost ground and were steadily gaining
on Penryn. In the end the first Zennor
crew came across the line in 2nd with the second crew in hot pursuit
coming across the line in 4th only a boat length behind Penryn.
After a traditional thirst
quenching at The Swordfish, the crews decided to head for home….. in the teeth
of a gale (well if felt like it, even if it was only a force 4!) Stopping to
get the fishing rods out was seriously out of the question as the boats would
have been blown back to Newlyn where the fish had already been caught, thus
spoiling any fun the crews might have had.
More recently, the ladies and Under 16s of Zennor were taking part in the County Championships. The Ladies A
did well and made it through to the quarter finals, narrowly missing out on a
place in the semi finals by just one second! In the end they were =12th with Falmouth B.
The Ladies B were knocked out in the
first round but did go on to win
the Plate Race, after much arm twisting by the crew to get the Cox to do it.
The author can in no way suggest that the result was due the crew being powered
by port and bubbly!
The Under 16 crew rowed well
coming 5th in their race. Unfortunately they missed out on a place
in the second round on time but there’s always next year. They finished in 18th
place.
So, as the season slows down
(it never actually stops completely) there are a few races still to be had.
There’s the Mens County Championships in a couple of weeks time, the Helford
River Race, the Bristol River Race and not forgetting the race to the bar
following each event. Before we know it,
it’ll be time to book those Scillonian tickets for Scillies 08…… I need a
drink!
Life in the Ladies A Crew in Scillies
2007
by Becky Williams
Saturday: Got up. Went
toilet. Had breakfast. Went toilet. Got dressed (chose best racing knickers).
Went toilet. Wandered onto Green. Had nervous look around. Got nervous. Went
toilet. Replaced toilet roll (used WHOLE one since breakfast).Sort out gig. Go
toilet. Have 50 THOUSAND publicity photos taken. Go toilet for ONE.LAST.TIME.
Get in gig. Row to start line. Wait for ‘The Phrase of The Harris’. Well this IS
it girls.Faff on start line. Give father greg a Paddington bear hard stare as
he’s about to take OUR WATER!!!-The cheek of it. Row up. Adjust knickers. Row
like hell. Repeat from ‘wandered onto green’ step 6. Finish racing for first
day. DON’T need to go to toilet for rest of day. Have argument with father greg
about start line. Mother greg leaves holiday flat……
Sunday: Pretty much same
as Saturday. BUT this time there’s the added highlight of my first wild wee on
the back of Tresco.Got stage fright. Admired view out across islands. Forgot
what I was there for. Slight cold draft reminded me I was supposed to be
peeing……Start to row up to start line. Miss start. Then some
rowing/screaming/swearing and general uproar…..don’t want to go into
that….Finish last race. Decide on crew challenge for night. Bow vs stroke.
Drink copious amounts of port after only eating dextrose energy tablets all day.
Try to walk up quay in sensible manner, but in real life I’m actually walking
like I’m wearing flippers….Drink more port. Eat pizza to sober up so I can put
lenses in without stabbing my eyes out. Shower. Sit on bed. Feel like old
person that’s been beaten with sticks. Get second wind and away I go
again….Mermaid. Red wine. Much hilarity with dubious wooden statues.
Hi-lar-ious. Go upstairs. More red wine. Tables. Red wine.
Carnage…
Monday: Wake up. Mouth
like camel’s arm pit (do camels have arms?). Last night’s make up on. Alice
Cooper. Drag myself down to Green. Slink around trying to make myself invisible.
Roskilly’s ice cream for breakfast. Celebrate the success of the Bow Side Bonus
Dream Team….
Mermaid’s Echo –
May 2007
by
Richard Cornish
So, Scillies is over for
another year, memories are now surrounded with a sepia hue that makes the
rowing seem more fun and less painful, the dancing on the tables less of a
drunken staggering about and more of a ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ special and the
massive hangovers seem, well, like massive hangovers.
Let us take a brief journey
back to the first Bank Holiday weekend of May and join the excited souls of
Zennor Gig Club. The weekend started, as usual, by sending all the veterans
crews out for a Friday evening race. Whether this is a clever ploy by
organizers to get the more experienced rowers nice and thirsty for the weekend
or an attempt to try and kill them off to allow some of the younger rowers a
sniff at a podium place, I’m not sure. Either way it was Zennor’s Ladies Vets
crew who pulled out a fantastic performance and got to the pub in 3rd
place - sorry I mean came across the line in 3rd. The men didn’t do
quite so well, coming in 20th. Maybe they were saving themselves for
the main races on the Saturday and Sunday. The Saturday dawned too bright for
some, joyfully sunny for everyone else.
The ladies went off and
raced the 3 mile St. Agnes race resulting in a
fairly respectable placing for all three crews. Then after a brief interlude
provided by the Island Fog Co. the men rowed out to St. Agnes turned round and
raced back. The Mens A crew went off as always with the main pack while the
Men’s B had to fight off Salcombe, who had decided that the patch of water in
which Senara was being rowed, looked like a better patch of water and wanted it
for themselves. Despite this brief interruption, the Mens B managed to get
across the finish line in a respectable manner. What followed was a sort of
yo-yoing affair where by Zennor’s crews went up and then down through the
groups finally coming to rest in about the right place that enabled them to
start the second from final race (the final race being the one to the bar) in
high hopes of coming away with a not to shameful result. As it was, the Ladies A finished 14th,
the Ladies B 51st and the Ladies C 84th. The Mens A who
had come 5th last year could only manage 27th but the
Mens B, who last year came 87th pulled themselves right up to 64th
place this year.
With the racing over, it was
a quick shower then down to the Mermaid for a light snack and a couple of
mineral waters before turning in about 9 pm…. if you believe that you’ll
believe anything! I’ll not divulge the gory details, firstly to save those
involved from a lifetime of ridicule and finger pointing and secondly, you
might be eating your breakfast!
What with Scillies done and
dusted and crews slowly drying out (in more ways than one) it was time to look
to our own event. We’d managed to get the first racing weekend after the
Scillies which meant that there should be plenty of race hungry crews out there
looking for victory and a burger. In the end, we had 17 clubs turn up which
proved to be just the right number as any more and there would have been
absolute havoc instead of the mild chaos that was present when the boats
arrived at the turning marks. Despite
having to man the bbq, the food tent, set out the course and keep everyone
happy, Zennor’s crews did quite well during the day. The Ladies A came in 1st
after a brilliant performance, both the Mens A and the Ladies B managed a 3rd the mixed came 9th and the Vet’s
crew, made up of the same ladies who did so well in Scillies, came in 6th
but were the first ladies vets crew across the line.
The day saw dolphins playing
in between the oars of the ladies as they rowed for the finish line, blue skies
and some very happy rowers. Of course it wouldn’t be a racing event if Zennor
didn’t celebrate in the traditional way by going to the pub.
Who said we’re a drinking
club with a rowing problem?
C O N G R A T
U L A T I O N S T O:-
Alice, Becky, Ellisha, Fiona, Jennie, Sarah, Tamsin and Vanessa who
all took part in the 2006 Race for Life in Penzance. To say it rained is an
understatement - it absolutely bucketed down so everyone was cold and wet before
the race even started. However, we managed to raise over £800 for
Cancer Research - Well Done Everyone!
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