Welcome to Bedford Rowing Club

 Bedford Rowing Club is situated on the river Great Ouse in the heart of Bedford and welcomes everyone from our community. Offering rowing and sculling at all ability levels and ages, with members celebrating success at local, national and international level.

We have an active Summer and Winter Programme of rowing with races, events and training schedules, weekends and mid-week, as well as social functions.

 Club application forms can be found here

See our new FaceBook page –  BRC Supporters

 

Club News
Dear Friends, Welcome to the August edition of the BRC newsletter. As always, thank you very much to all of you who have contributed. If there is anything you would like to include in future editions do not hesitate to contact me: [email protected]. AGM The Annual General meeting of Bedford Rowing Club will take place on Wednesday 25th of September 2024. All the information on nominations and roles is being circulated separately. You are cordially invited to get involved and support your club. President’s Update The clubhouse was full for the captain’s election last month. As you may have heard, we had two candidates: Mike Baker and Ian Pendall. Following the July club committee meeting, Mike indicated that he would step aside so Ian could be elected unopposed. The election meeting gave us the opportunity to thank Mike for the amazing job he has done over the last seven years. We will have another opportunity to thank him and Anita at the AGM and at the Annual Dinner on November 9th. Ian outlined his goals and objectives for his captaincy, which were well received. More details will follow in due course. With Ian taking on the captaincy, a vacancy has opened up for Deputy President. I am delighted to report that the committee unanimously approved the appointment of Alison Cox. Alison, a former President of the Oxford University Women’s Boat Club, has been a member of the club for over twenty-five years and is a passionate supporter of the sport. She worked for Sir Robert McAlpine in the construction industry and was involved in leading several major projects, including the Stirling Prize-winning Bloomberg London scheme, the vast Battersea Power Station development, and the refurbishment of Big Ben. She recently changed industries, becoming the Domestic Bursar (Operations Director) at St John’s College, Cambridge. Alison’s addition to the club committee will bring further passion for the sport, as well as sharp business acumen, as we move the club forward. As the 2023/24 season draws to a conclusion, I’d like to thank everyone for their support on and off the water. We’ve had some excellent competition results across the squads during the year, and I look forward to seeing these built upon in the upcoming season. The events committee is already planning the autumn head on October 13th—any help you can give on the day would be gratefully received (see Biggsy’s piece on page 5). Finally, a big thank you to the Social Committee, who have been working tirelessly to promote the bar and generate much-needed funds for the club. I look forward to seeing you all at the AGM on September 25th. Hugh Subscriptions. Membership Update   The oversight of club rowing membership is now under the control of Alison and Paul Pointing. A reminder to members that their rowing fees can be paid for annually or monthly at no extra cost. Please remember that if you are unable to row or use the club fitness facilities for a period of time the fees are still expected to be paid to the club.   For insurance reasons you will not be permitted to row if your personal subscriptions are not up to date. Please do contact the membership team if you are having difficulties in meeting subscription payments or if you are not going to be around and are considering suspending your monthly payments in order for the team and BRC committee to consider your circumstances and offer appropriate assistance as necessary. Here to help- contact Alison or Paul over Spond or email:   [email protected]   Unfortunately, the club’s bank account terms have changed leading to monthly bank charges which equates to two non-rowing memberships. To negate this, we are opening a free to run account. This will unfortunately require everyone to change their Standings Orders. We apologise for the inconvenience but hope everyone will help reduce this unnecessary cost. Bank details are: Virgin Bank Sort code: 82-12-08 Account number: 40135971   Men’s Squad Update A small contingent of the men’s squad and coaches went to Sudbury with wins for MxMasE 2x of Paul Brown and Maddie Brodie and then Maddie did the double with a win with Alison Cox in MasD 2x. We were represented at Peterborough by Alex Loveday and Jack Allingham with appearances in finals but no pots. We are now looking ahead to the Great Ouse Marathon with a good entry including the MasC4 going for the record held by a previous BRC MasC4.  Good luck everyone. On a sad note, we are losing Reethin who will be moving away from Bedford in the coming weeks.  Reethin, your rowing has improved so much over the couple of years since you came up from Explore Plus, so I really hope that you will be able to continue.  We all wish you the very best. SENIOR SQUAD  Build it they will come…. We have expanded over the summer. Welcome to Harry Gleave, Hugh Tobin, Jack Bufton and Will Cave. A bit of competition for seats now boys! Also, congratulations to Jack Allingham on his A level results, although it does mean that we will be losing him to Reading University boat club. Good luck Jack in your studies and your rowing. Men’s squad pre-season meeting will be on Thursday 5th September at 18:30 followed by a short outing. Jayne Women’s Squad Update July saw the women’s squad take part in the Junior and Senior Club Championships, St Neots Regatta and Sudbury Regatta before earning a well-deserved rest in August. The squad sent two W4x- to experience the Junior and Senior Club Champs held at the National Water Sports Centre in Nottingham. This involved a very early start for a time trial at 8 am – one of the first races of the day. Then a semi final, followed by a C final, coming 11th and 13th overall. It still remains a mystery to us as to the point of the time trial – however, it did provide valuable experience and was an enjoyable – if tiring – day. At St Neots, a W4x- and a WMasC 4x- took part on the Sunday sprints with the WMasC 4x- reaching a semi final. It was great to be out with so many from the club. Well done to Lydia Swift for representing the Women’s squad in the W1x and WMasC 1x events at Sudbury ‘International’ regatta. Shout out to Gaby Legate who took part in the Cambridge Bumps with her composite 8+ with St Neots, a fast paced and exhausting day! Anna Recs Update The Recreational squad is currently leading a Learn to Row course on Friday mornings with a view to encourage those who would like to learn to row recreationally to get involved and ultimately join the club. We are currently heading towards week 7 of 8 sessions. Three of the Recs have had very significant birthdays this month, celebrated by punting in Cambridge for Vince, and a commemorative (all out in force) row, for Nicky and Wendy. Celebrations included fizz, games and an alfresco lunch on the balcony. Thank you, Cap’t (elect) Ian P, for joining in and thank you LTRs for being such good sports. Anne Hignell Club Events Committee The BRC events committee, headed by Gavin Dods, puts on three events per year. These are in February, April and October. The proceeds of these events go towards keeping the subscriptions at the current level, along with paying for club upkeep, be that establishment and/or equipment – nothing is cheap, and we only buy good quality. To that end, if you compete, at a club event, you are expected to be on Hazel’s or Biggsy’s helper’s rota. The rota is for marshals along the bank, or to help with safety boats. These stints are for an hour or so, and if you help over a meal period, we ensure that you get fed, from breakfast to lunch. If you are in over the afternoon, we offer a drink of your choice at the end of the day. Of course, if you do all day, you get all three! During the last event, we had sixty volunteers make the day happen, and it is very much appreciated! Of course, all are welcome to help with regard to events, and we are always on the lookout for anyone, that wishes to be a part of our events team. Those that came from other clubs, including both competitors and supporters, all remarked upon how friendly, yet professional our events are. If anyone would like to make suggestions on how we could improve our events, please drop Gavin an email. [email protected]. Biggsy Water Testing and Water Safety In May the local campaign group Bedfordshire Great Ouse Valley Environmental Trust accredited laboratory was able to show excellent water quality, but unfortunately since then E.Coli levels have been shown to be very high indeed. In order to ensure personal safety please see below: Cover blisters or areas of broken skin. Do not deliberately make contact with the water. Those not showering after rowing should wash their hands before leaving the club or heading to the bar. Please see the notice board for more detailed information. Chris Wisbey (Safety Officer) Brain Tumour Research Louise Dickson (Explore Plus) is cycling from London to Bruges to raise funds for Brain Tumour Research on the 13th of September. Louise has more information about sponsoring this amazing challenge; please contact her directly on Spond. Good Luck Louise Thank You To Ian Darnell, Shirl Musselle and Chris Wisbey who painted the gentlemen’s toilets, they look super, fabulous job. Thanks also to Connor and Reece for their flat roof cleaning work. Their efforts will maintain the roof, keep leaves from blocking the drainage that could cause leakage and flooding. As always thanks you all for all you do for the club and the sport, we enjoy… And thank you for reading to the end! The Committee.   [...]
Thank you to everyone that came to enjoy the Bedford Autumn Fours & Small Boats Head, whether as a competitor or spectator.  We were certainly lucky to have some great sunny and warm weather for the day.  Please see results overall here or sorted by status [...]
Please note that the BRC website is currently under a period of redesign. We’ve experienced issues with media loading on the site and are working to address the issue. All documents and forms should still be accessible. [...]
With the summer, unfortunately, nearly over, please have a glance at the safe boating procedure for the coming winter season. Weather restricted boating 1pg https://check-for-flooding.service.gov.uk/station/6169 [...]
A good day for BRC. To see the racing, “Official Racing Photos by AllMarkOne here: https://www.allmarkstore.co.uk/f1049745661” [...]