A Swedish rowing blogger living in Connecticut, Goran R Buckhorn, recently posted about a link he found between Vesta and a recent episode of Downton Abbey. ‘During the War, Vesta RC’s R.J. Calcutt (club president 1905-1919) had taken the initiative to offer ‘war-blinded men’ at St Dunstan’s, rowing at Vesta. The ex-Service men were taught rowing by the club’s members.’ St. Dunstan’s is the hospital featured in the series. Click here to read the full blog post. Thanks for finding the link and blogging about it Goran!

Tickets cost just £50 and include:

- mini-bus transportation between VRC and the Roehampton Club
- welcome drink when you arrive at the Roehampton club
- 4 course dinner (starter, main, dessert, cheese course)
- coffee, tea and petit fours
- delightful and entertaining speeches including your captain and a specially selected keynote speaker
- entry to the after party at VRC and all the usual shenanigans that follow

How to buy your tickets:

Tickets are £50 each. Vesta members can purchase tickets for themselves and one non-member. One week before the event, any remaining tickets will be able to be sold to additional non-members.

For the first time ever we are attempting to modernise the ticket selling process and will be making tickets available for purchase online via PayPal. Here’s how to get yours:

Buy online: You will be receive an email on 16/11/2011  with a link to purchase tickets online. If you do not recieve an email or have any questions, please contact Aga

Pay by cheque: If paying by cheque you can purchase tickets in person from Emily Trant. She will be at the club on Thursday the 17th of November from 6:30pm until 10pm, and on Sunday the 20th of November from 11:30am until 1:30pm. Further times and dates will be announced as needed. You may also post your cheque to Vesta Rowing Club for the attention of Emily Trant.

Please note that no paper tickets will be issued this year. Instead, a guest list at the door will be administered by Ailsa and Emily.

If you have any problems, questions, concerns, please email Aga and she’ll try to get things sorted asap.

Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

Happily for all competitors, the weather forecasts were wrong and the 5th of November offered excellent racing conditions for the Fours Head of the River Race.  The weather was dry and mild (handy when you’re marshalling in the 400s) with a gentle breeze, and the water conditions as good as you’ll find on the tideway. Following the sprinkling of GB squad members racing in the pairs head, there was a large contingent of the current GB squad out competing for their respective clubs and picking up more silverware for their groaning trophy cabinets. (Unlike in training outings I believe they all made it home in one piece as well.)  The Hor4s twitter account disclosed that the race committee run a sweepstake on the number of crews in the top 100 who hit the buoy at Chiswick Pier – and true to form, the crews marshalling in that area enjoyed the sight of crew after non-tideway crew beat up the Chiswick pier buoy.

Fortunately this isn’t a “key target” race for the club, so we had a mere ten crews from Vesta competing across men’s and women’s, scull and sweep, among the 455 crews that completed the course. With some sub-tastic entries, three of the Vesta crews raced for time only. The event saw the usual mixed experiences whereby some crews had an open fairway for about 4 miles – a steering experience never enjoyed during training! – while others fought for space with competitors either side.

There were no wins for the club but good racing throughout, and some notable performances. The men’s IM1 4- finished eighth out of 36, including as it did the winning IM2 pair combination from the pairs head (Richard Lear and Simon Woodfine). The women’s IM1 4x came third in a large, and at the top end very pacy, field of 38 boats. Meanwhile there were two second places, for the women’s senior 4- and the women’s IM1 4-, the latter fighting off a fellow Vesta crew in the same category. Their pace must have had something to do with coach Jamie Low’s advice that as lightweights they should keep it “fast and loose” – probably not the first time such advice has been successful. (Ahem.)

Given the shortage of boats for the vast (in number) senior women’s squad, both the senior and IM2 women’s boats had to be returned to Hammersmith post-race, meaning their crews had a Putney-Chiswick warm up, followed by a Putney-Hammersmith warm down followed by a long walk back to the club. All crews had limited training time in their racing formats, with the luckier crews getting more than one outing before Saturday. The IM2 crew tried to fit in some last minute practise, and so gathered at 5.45am on Friday morning amid heavy rain, thunder and lightning,  only to find that some especially secure locking of the boatshed (Captain, please note) meant a quick borrow of incorrectly geared blades from KCS. Getting up early is such a good idea in theory…

All crews enjoyed taking local scalps, in addition to visitors who may not be so familiar with the stream. However, perhaps the greatest achievement of the day was that of our Communications Officer Aga Siemiginowska (IM1 4+). If anyone deserves a medal, it’s her, for managing to complete the race for the first time out of four (yes, four) attempts, having been defeated in previous years by crew injury, weather and broken steering. Well done Aga!

Well done also and thank you to the efforts in the bar and the kitchen, as marshalled by Ailsa Tremayne, for providing bacon baguettes, cakes, hot drinks and the odd pint or two to many a competitor and spectator over the course of the day.

- Martha K

One of the fundamental keystones for proper training, staying healthy and winning races is correct nutrition.  Whilst one can find a dizzying array of information on the internet and come to your own opinions, a sports specific briefing delivered by a professional may help to clarify some things and put you on the right track.  To that end it has been organised for a sports nutrition talk to be given at the club on the 25th of October in the front room at Vesta at 1930.  This talk is free and open to all members of the club and as such is a one time offer, don’t miss out!

The talk is being given by Matt Lovell who has been the Sports Nutritionist for the England Rugby Team since before the 2003 World Cup and has also worked with a number of professional rugby and football teams. Don’t miss out on this awesome opportunity to help you achieve your goals over the coming season.

Ladies and Gentleman,

On Wednesday 19^th October, the honorable quizmaster Gordon Barnes will be hosting the first Vesta Quiz of the season. Start time is 8:30, food should be provided, and the bar will of course be open.

Get a team together or just turn up, the more the merrier. Who knows, we may even see a return of the ‘Will Tilbury’ question?!?!?!