I find myself writing this the night before the biggest event of my RUBC career so far, the Reading University Head of The River. Due to the repeated cancellation of Wallingford Head, this will be the debut of our Eight and my first race since BUSA Small Boats before Christmas.

We are setting off 10^th in a division including the Oxford blue boat, Leander Club, Henley RC, Oxford Brookes and Imperial College. Well, at least we can hope to be the winners of the Senior II pennant. I think our plan is to go down the 3 mile course rating 35, at that pace, I think I will cross the line feeling 35 years my senior.

Last weekend we attended a three day training camp at Upper Thames RC on the Henley stretch. Involved were Reading, Henley and Upper Thames. It was a real wake up call for the entire of our mens squad. We realised that we’d been in out comfort zone pottering up and down in Caversham and were literally destroyed the first time round. Heads dropped and a crew domestic followed, I on the other hand chose to stay clear of the politics and indulge in a mug of Typhoo. Which was greatly received as this was probably the coldest Saturday morning id ever known! Ice on blades and the lack of feeling in my left hand confirmed this.

By Monday’s final outings, we had switched on and were holding our own in the four, six and eight minute pieces. The healthy rivalry between us and Upper Thames should make tomorrow’s proceedings very interesting as they are starting two boats after us.

Since then though, our preparation this weekend has been far from ideal, and after reading the latest edition of The Musings, events remind me of the famous Trent RC Eight at Ross on Wye. On Tuesday our bow man pulls out with a back injury and at Thursdays 7am training we hear that our four man has returned home for family reasons. So, come tomorrow morning our new Eight, with myself now at three, can have our first training session as we paddle to the start.

However, there will be no evening of kebabs, pizza’s and beers (Thanks again Chris) this time round as Sunday is BUSA Head. As soon as the final trailer leaves the RUBC car park we are jumping on the minibus to Nottingham. I shall probably be asleep before we roll into the Travel lodge.

If anyone fancy’s seeing me in a sculling boat again, heres your chance as I’ll be racing in the Eight and in Championship Quads. Yes, sculling! This is a huge thing for me personally as I haven’t sculled really in over three years and in our first training session I was extremely cautious about my back. And in a boat that includes two U23 internationals I was worried about sticking out like a sore thumb and being technically out of my depth! However, things went well and I am really looking forward to my adventure in a sculling boat.

Come Sunday night, I shall be on the beers as the student event ‘Carnage’ comes to Reading. I think I might have earned a few drinks after this weekend. For those of you that don’t know, Carnage is an excuse for hundreds of students to get battered for cheap, draw all over each other and go out in our war parties for a girl hunt. Well, im game for that!

I shall let you know how things go this weekend, both with the rowing and the messy proceedings Sunday night. At the last Carnage, I woke face down in the corridor holding a traffic cone. A great night was had by all.

So for now, I shall return to my pirate copy of John Rambo and deliberation over what to have for tea, pasta with cheesy mash…...or chicken and chips?



Please note the opinions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Trent Rowing Club.