I am sticking up for a rower.....

Richard Shead

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Yes that's right...

Whilst on my run last night I was following (and I wont name it) a Broom 10/70 with black markings, although the name suggests there might be some silver in it..... upstream from Richmond Bridge

It was a falling tide and clearly they were heading up from the tideway proper.

My Sherlock detectives skills led me to believe they were heading for the Broom owners association club that are alleged to be based near Molesey lock.

Anyhow and to be fair the Broom they probably did not realise it as they were pushing the tide, they pushed on through the narrow reach above the bridge at a fair old pace completely ignoring the rower who was left to tackle the wash behind.

Now normally I would not dream of sticking up for a rower but on this occasion the poor old chap had been completely shafted unnecessarily by this owners failure to read the water ahead.
 
Rowers get a lot of stick, and to be fair a lot of them can be quite arrogant, but they are valid river users who take their sport very seriously, and as I've said on other threads, I've never had a run in with them because I go genuinely slowly past and shout a polite warning if I think they're not aware of my presence.

Anyway, have a look at this:-




it is an "inspirational video" that number one son put together for his team-mates before competing in the National Schools this year, with words by Al Pacino (football references edited out...)

I was quite impressed. How can I make him show the same interest in his GCSEs?

R
 
Not bad but can you tell the rower at the stern (stroke?) to give up & return to his rugby team at Henley? (county player who told last years U15's/this Septembers U16's he's doing rowing rather than rugby this season)

IanC
 
It is our river.

The river is there for everybody. No matter what your interests are, we all deserve respect and consideration.

In my last trip a couple of weeks ago I had cause to haul a swamped rower to a shallow area for him to get out of the water. This incident occured just above the lock at Sonning. He was exhausted and could have drowned.

Apparently a gin palace threw the throttle open and created a massive wash which sunk him. He was able to get to the lock to remonstrate with the inconsiderate (.......).

Let us all think and consider other peoples interests and respect them.

Regards.

Alan.
 
Only a day or two ago I watched a NB almost mow down a Scull. The NB was merrily making his way upstream on the wrong side of the river. I shouted a warning and disaster was avoided luckily.
 
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