LATEST NEWS


Guildford to Garratt Results

20 Westies athletes anointed the murky waters of the river Swan on Sunday 18th April to kick off the Winter competitive season!

All three crews posted competitive times, with the ME4X+ taking the first glassware of the season for fastest E grade quad.

Many, many thanks to Sten Campbell and Peter Klemm for driving the trailer and providing a storage solution given the shed was inaccessible during the red bull air race!

Mens 8+ (Jolly, Moore, Taylor, Klemm, Jones, Hort, Cartagena, Winch, cox: Wilson) - 3rd, 22:45
Womens 8+ (Rule, Pace, Devery, Scully, Downes, Davis, RIley, Mitchell, cox: Walters) - 2nd, 26:42
Mens 4X+ (Lane, Scott, Roworth, Myers, cox: Murdoch) - 5th, 26:38

- Mike Jones
WARC Vice Captain 2009-10

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WARC 2010 Season Ready to Kick Off!

The WARC senior training programme is due to begin on Monday April 5th - all new and prospective members, please see the 2010 membership form and Rower's Manual on the "Members" page, cheers!
For any queries, please contact the Captain, Glenda Hirsch at captain@warowingclub.org.


- Mike Jones
WARC Vice Captain 2009-10

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Learn2Row Applications Are Closed

Please note all WARC Learn2Row courses for the 2009-2010 summer season are now fully booked, due to overwhelming demand. The next courses will be run in October 2010, thank you for your interest!


- Mike Jones
WARC Vice Captain 2009-10

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Learn2Row Applications Are Open!

WARC is now accepting applications from prospective athletes for the 2009-2010 summer Learn2Row programme.

WHAT IS IT?

The Learn2Row programme is a 5 week course, during which you will undergo nine training sessions on the water and learn the basics of rowing. You will be learning in a boat called a coxed quad scull - meaning the boat is “coxed” (there is a person steering the boat for you), “quad” (there are four rowers) and “scull” (i.e. two oars per person, as opposed to “sweep”, which is one oar per person).

WHEN IS IT?

WARC will be running three separate Learn2Row programmes over summer, on the following dates:

Course 1: Sat 10th October – Sat 7th November (Course full)
Course 2: Sat 14th November – Sat 12th December (Course full)
Course 3: Sat 30th January – Sat 27th February (Course full).

We can accommodate a maximum of 10 athletes per course.

Each course has two 90 minute classes per week, for a total of 9 sessions (5 x Saturdays, 4 x Wednesdays):
- 6:30am – 8:00am Saturdays
- 5:30am – 7:00am Wednesdays

WHAT DOES IT COST?

The cost of the programme is $180 per athlete.

WHERE ARE THE CLASSES?

All classes are conducted from the WARC Boatshed on Riverside Drive. It’s the white building around 150m east of the Swan belltower.

WHAT DO I NEED TO DO NOW?

Reply back to the course coordinator Mike Jones (thejonesy@gmail.com), indicating which of the three courses you are interested in completing. He will send you a registration form and a booklet containing further information, which will include payment details. Complete it, send it back and you’ll be locked in!

Thanks for your interest and good luck!

- Mike Jones
WARC Vice Captain 2009

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WARC HAS WON THE STATE PENNANT FOR 2009!

RWA has confirmed that Westies won the 2009 pennant.


Well done everyone. You deserve this great victory. Congratulations!

David Winch
WARC Captain 2009

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WARC Youth World Championship Success!

As you may be aware, Hannah Vermeersch returned to Perth on Tuesday 11th August with a big gold medal to show off after her crew dominated the WJ4- in France at the World Junior Championships. This is an incredible achievement and I know I speak for everyone in the club when I say we are amazed and impressed with Hannah’s feats and very proud of her as an individual and as an athlete.


Well done Hannah. We are really, really happy for you and your family and look forward to supporting you through what will almost certainly be an exciting future.

David Winch
WARC Captain 2009

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WA Youth Cup Success

Hi all

Following another super-successful regatta weekend in Perth, please see the email from Tom Morris below, which records the fantastic success of the Westies Youth Cup members.

Congratulations to all the youth cup participants and Tom on such a brilliant effort. Well done!

We look forward to seeing you all back home.

The countdown to States is on - keep working hard!

Cheers
David Winch
WARC Captain 2009

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To All at Westies,

As you may be aware, our team had an amazing performance this year with WA finishing 2nd on overall points and 1st on the medal tally with 4 gold, 4 silver and 1 bronze medal from 14 events with one of the gold medals being the Men’s Eight which until now has not been won by a WA crew. WA’s previous best overall performance has been 5th on points and 4th in medals.

Huge congratulations must also go to the WARC athletes who competed at this competition:

Matthew Cochran Gold Medal: Men’s 8+ Silver Medal: Men’s 4x-
Michael Stott Gold Medal: Men’s 8+ Silver Medal: Men’s B 2-
Sam Hughes Gold Medal: Men’s 8+ Silver Medal: Men’s B 2-
Jessie O’Mahony Bronze Medal: Women’s 8+

Thanks again for helping us get these results with the use of your boats and facilities, I know that I speak for the whole team when I say that you’ve been a great help in our preparation!

Hopefully we can take out the top spot in 2010!!!

Cheers,
Tom Morris
Men’s Coach
WA Youth Cup Team

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UWABC Pennant Regatta Results

Hi all

The updated pennant points are out!

Congratulations to all the athletes who have trained hard and contributed to the solid lead that Westies holds on the pennant table. Keep up the good work.

I do stress however, that while it is nice to be on top, the focus of the club is to prepare ourselves for a solid tilt at the state titles in September. I would love to see every athlete take home a medal this year and I know we have the people, equipment and commitment to give us a good crack at making it a reality.

The countdown to States is on - keep working hard!

David Winch
WARC Captain 2009

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Perth-to-Fremantle Results

Hello Westies!

Congratulations to everyone who competed in the Perth to Freo on Sunday. It was a fantastic race and Westies came away with an amazing double win with WARC men’s first 8 getting line honours (and the enormous trophy which actually doubles quite nicely as a hat) and WARC women’s first 8 taking out fastest time FOR THE SECOND YEAR RUNNING!

Westies entered 6 crews with the following results:

WC1X (Hirsch) - 1:26:23
ME1X (Lane) - 1:15:33
WB8+ (Walters, Bignall, Davis, Allen, Donnelly, Foster, Scott, Jolly, cox: Ellis) – 1:02:15
WE8+ (Stacey, Scully, Stacey, Youngs, Tromp, Gainey, Gara, Murdoch, cox: Elliss) – 1:06:25
MB8+ (Hughes, Campbell, Wheeler, Wakeford, Cochran, Holdsworth, Jones, Stott, cox: Wilson) – 52:14
MC8+ (Leach, Hort, Reid, Johnson, Binnie, Klemm, Blackman, Murdoch, cox: Spencer) – 59:00


Well done to Glenda Hirsch who got the second fastest time in the women’s single scull and to Mike Lane who got fourth fastest scull time in a field of 9 men.

The RWA pennant points table shows that we have managed to move into first spot on the points table, 31 points clear of ANA. We have a massive season ahead of us and this has set us up very well looking toward the Mettams in just under a fortnight’s time.

Well done to everybody who has been training so hard and consistently this early in the season. Keep up the good work!

David Winch
WARC Captain 2009

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Season Kicks Off

The first regatta of the year was the Guildford to Garratt headrace on 19 April 2009, raced on a stellar sunny morning.

Westies entered 4 crews with the following results:

MC4X+ (Wakeford, Johnson, Reid, Leach, cox: Wilson) – 2nd – 25:03
WC4X+ (Bignall, Allen, Youngs, Davis, cox: Ellis) – 2nd – 26:56
ME4+ (Jones, Boylan, de la Hunty, Klemm, cox: Murdoch) – 2nd – 27:29
WE8+ (Stacey, Scully, Murdoch, Tromp, Hirsch, Duder, Gainey, Mumford-Holmes, cox: Mason) – 3rd – 28:24

The placings listed are across all grades – all four WARC crews were the fastest boats in their grades.

The next day out for Westies competitors will be the Perth to Freo on Sunday, 2 May. Watch this space for news and photos from the day and the after-race-lunch.

David Winch
WARC Captain 2009

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Lord Mayor's Cup

The 20th annual LMC has been and gone. We had 42 corporate crews entered this year and with all heats and finals run on the day of the regatta, it was a long day for some!

The winners of the 4 categories were:

Novice Final – Charles Somerset Cup: Swamp Donkeys, sponsored by Wood & Grieve Engineering
Mixed Final – Alan Salisbury Cup: Oarsome Flow, sponsored by the Water Corporation
Women’s Final – Guy Negus Cup: Birds of a Feather, sponsored by Jackson McDonald Lawyers
Men’s Final – Lord Mayor’s Cup: Gage Roads, sponsored by Gage Roads

Congratulations to all the winners and competitors! We hope to see all of you again soon.

David Winch
WARC Captain 2009

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Bring on BunVegas

ROAD TRIP!

Nineteen Westieites are heading to BunVegas today (Friday) for the Bunbury regatta and will be joined by another 15 or so - plus the Js - tomorrow for a stellar day of competition on the estuary.

The good news is, boat loading has gone almost without hiccup (I say almost, because I don't know if we've forgotten anything yet) thanks to early rigging by the F1s and the new sculls trailer which is being towed down to Bunbury by Tom.

The weekend promises to be great fun both on and off the water and most importantly is a great opportunity for WARC to support one of the stalwart clubs of WA, the Bunbury Rowing Club.

In other news, a new PA system was approved by the WARC committee last night for the function room which is expected to help boost revenue and utility of the River Room and will also make commentating for the 2009 Lord Mayor's Cup less problematic.

The WARC committee has written to all Perth City Councillors asking for an excemption from proposed 24-hour ticket parking in the city, as it doesn't quite sit right that we'd need to buy tickets to park between 4.30am and 7.30am.

And WARC has come to an agreement with the City of Perth Surf Lifesaving Club to rent a big shelter tent (most importantly, a RED one) for the remainder of the season.

Yay :)

Happy rowing,

Peta

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Ouch.

One word, WARCers, and that word is ouch. Yep, Saturday did hurt us just as much as we suspected it probably would, ANA got away by 100 points. The good news is we've managed to maintain (only maintain, not increase) the 300-point gap between us and third place, but losing that much in one day shows how fickle this sport of ours can be.

ANA 989
WARC 885
FRC 535
UWA 520
SRRC 408
BY 382
CUBC 318
MURC 130
PE 62

However, under the circumstances, well done! Despite ourselves I think we still won four races, which is not terrible! And we had some pretty spectacular close seconds. For full results, click here. We also had some good results in the B single races and some of the WARC members have made youth selection, and the rest scared the pants off the opposition so yay us.

Standby for more in the next newsletter.

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Fallout from the FRC pennant

I think we can all appreciate the FRC regatta was a tough one. Loading was a bit trying and but we had some decent racing (go the WD4+!) and at least the sun was shining on us. Particular congratulations must go to the Js for toughing out heats and finals in the B single races and for those who backed it up the following day for youth try-outs.

I would like to thank Janelle, who did a stellar job as WARC liaision officer for the morning, and Phil who managed to make sure everyone got in their boats and on the water. We would have been lost without you!

Standby for another newsletter once the results are out, and check out the latest pix on Facebook (weird and wonderful westies rower group).

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I see red...

What a fabulous day for the headrace and a spectacular way to end the WARC Head of the Swan event!

It's been a good four years with this race and it's great to see the fastest boat on the water from the day belonged to the home club... good work Caine "Goose" Holdsworth and Mat Cochran in the double.

I'd like to extend a very personal thanks to Warren Anderson who organised the headrace, Simon Johnson for setting up the boat naming, Andrew Taylor for laying the buoys, Su Guy for her eternal guidance, Alex, Tim, Tom, Stuart Payne, David Winch, Marie, Rob and Kate Jurjevich, Bill Cooper, Lynne Bayliss and the RWA officials, Lynette and Nola who came up from Bunbury for the race and the remainder of the clubs for supporting the last of the WARC hadraces.

I can't quite believe we're in first place.

Click here for the full results

PENNANT POINTS
WARC 759
ANARC 758
UWABC 438
FRC 408
BRC 351
SRRC 300
CUBC 240
MURC 123
PRC 51

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Boat naming ceremony: Thanks to Charlie Somerset

On Sunday we recognised ten years of dedication put into WARC by Charlie Somerset. It was a long time recognising Charlie, who drove the refurbishment of the club during the 90s.

Below is the speech made at the boat naming ceremony for Charlie.

On Saturday, the WA Rowing Club had a sponsors breakfast to thank those who, in recent years, supported the club.

Among them was RSL President Bill Gaynor, City of Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi, representatives from Watercorp, Master Foods and a few others. All were blown away with the majesty of the River Room, the breathtaking tranqility of gazing over the Swan River early in the morning in one of hte last buildings of its kind in the world.

As President Warren Anderson spoke to the sponsors about the history of the club, it occurred to me that from the beginning of this club in 1868, WARC has has battled near destruction, dissolution or condemnation almost every decade, and won.

That over the years WARC has churned out national and world-ranking rowers is truly remarkable.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but at any time in the club’s long history the volunteers who ran it simply gave up and went for beer at the Lucky Shag, the building you see before you and all it entails would not have made it.

The current members of WARC owe a great debt of gratitude and recognition to those who went not just above and beyond the call of duty, but put their lives and livelihood on the line to make sure this building, the home of the 2007 Club of the Year, continues to go from strength to strength.

One of those is here today, Mr Charlie Somerset.

Charlie joined Westies when the club would sway from side to side if someone was doing an ergo, and you could talk to each other through holes in the second-story floor.

It was 1989, which was incidentally, the same year the Berlin Wall came down, Bob Hawke cried on national television, and Seinfield premiered in the US.

Charlie immediately joined the committee and by 1991, Charlie was Vice Captain and coached the winning Men’s 8… risking life and limb every training session just to get the boat off the trecherous WARC deck.

On that note, some things never change.

A year later Charlie found himself steering the good ship Westies as Captain, and after my own experience at this, I have to wonder if, at the time, he knew what he was getting himself in for.

That year, Charlie coached the senior men’s 4 to victory at State Championships and I think it is appropriate the boat that will bear Charlie’s name is suited to that particular crew. He won the same event multiple times as captain until 1995, along with a swag of other awards. He then went on to take up the role of president from 1996 to 1998, and by the end of his title-bearing roles at WARC, Charlie’s squads won a total of 27 State Championships.

Rowing is one thing… rebuilding the clubhouse at the same time.

Stories of rowers racing at Canning, getting out of the boat and hooning back to WARC to sand back boards used to rebuild the clubhouse have become legend at WARC. Charlie negotiated with timber companies across the State to source appropriate materials to rebuild Westies, and managed to inspire and mobilise the entire membership to put aside their time to not only continue training, but actively help reconstruct this beautiful club at the same time.

Personally, I can hardly imagine what that was like. With more than 70 active members and 150 on the books in 2008, I do not think there is anyone at this club who could do what Charlie did and rebuild a decrepit, century old building into a jewel of the Perth foreshore, while continuing to run a rowing club at the same time.

What Charlie contributed to this club can not be squashed down into a four minute speech.

What I can say is that in 2009, the Lord Mayor’s Cup will celebrate 20 years, this was yet again another brainchild of Charles Somerset and a major fundraiser for the club. It’s the only reason our ever-growing insurance bill hasn’t brought WARC to its knees.

Charlie, can I say to you that your contribution to WARC is remembered and appreciated every day. Taking a leadership role in rowing is not an easy path to choose, it can be hard, emotional, time-consuming and sanity stealing.

You deserve to be proud of what you did for WARC and can I assure you, the membership of WARC recognise your contribution.

I sincerely hope that after today’s headrace, WARC will knock ANA off the top of the pennant table and be in prime position to take out the Club of the Year and Champion Club awards for 2008.

If we do – and even if we don’t – we owe much of our success to you.

Thankyou.