The non stop Boston rowing marathon, held between Lincoln and Boston, will take several hours to complete by the 9 man crew but will be well worth it to raise deserved funds for LBC’s chosen local charity.

The IM3 8 that are due to take up their oars and row the course are: Adam Fairbrother, Chris Smith, Shane Frear, Jonathan Day, Simon Gee, Scott Boardman, Henry Simkin, David McCaughan and coxed by Timothy Ives.

The crew are due to increase their training schedule over the upcoming weeks to ensure that they are ready for the challenge with plenty of off and on water training activities planned for the weeks to come.

The crew hope that you would be able to make a donation to the cause and help us to raise as much as possible.

This can be completed by donating on the LBC Boston Marathon 2012 Just Giving page:

http://www.juustgiving.com/lbcbostonmarathon

Alternatively, send a text message from your mobile phone:

Text: ROWS99 £(Amount) to 70070.

Thank you for your support.

To find out more about STEPS click here to find out more.

On Sunday 22nd January, seven LBC crews travelled to the Witham to compete in the annual Boston Head. The wind and rain proved unwelcome guests for the competitors in the first division. Tom Gee represented Loughborough in the IM3 single scull event. Loughborough Ladies crew of Helen Fairbrother, Erica Gummery, Lindsey Skinner, Gill Hepworth, Jenny Smith, Emma Heygate, Sandra Martin and Di Hope-Cockayne gained second place in WNOV8+, coxed by Ladies Captain Zoe Poyner.

Unfortunately the weather conditions deteriorated, resulting in race organisers cancelling division 2, and limiting division 3 to fours, quads and eights. This was disappointing news for the IM3.2x crew of Simon Gee and Adam Fairbrother, and the WIM3.2- pairing of Lindsey Skinner and Zoe Poyner.

The continuing poor weather conditions saw division 3 shortened to 2KM to accommodate a more sheltered stretch of river. LBC’s new IM3.4+ crew of Chris Smith, Shane Frear, Jonny Day and Dave McCaughan had an excellent race and are relishing success in upcoming events. Also racing over the 2KM distance were the eight Loughborough ladies, but this time as two WNOV4+ crews, coxed by Zoe Poyner and Jerry Heygate. Both coxwains worked their magic and conjured up inspired performances from both crews, resulting in second and third places.

After a month and a half of tracking their progress we are pleased to congratulate the Row For Freedom team, Julia Immonen, Debbie Beadle, Helen Leigh, Kate Richardson and Katie Pattison-Hart on there achievement of completing the Talisker Whiskey Challenge.

Not only did they complete the 2613 nm but set a double world record while doing so!

They are the first five-woman team to row any ocean in the world and have broken the record for rowing The Atlantic in the fastest time by an all-female crew (45 days, 15 hours and 26 minutes).

The team has had a tumultuous crossing: on dry land in La Gomera, the six-strong crew shrunk to five due to the departure of skipper, Andrea; at sea, whilst battling waves up to 30 foot high, their steering system failed, water-maker caught fire and de-salinator broke resulting in the necessity of a laborious hand-pumping process to produce drinking water.

Well done to a fantastic effort by Helen and the crew!

To discover the routes and details of their challenge take a look at the Talisker Website.

LBC have signed up with www.easyfundraising.org.uk, an innovative website where thousands of people are raising money for charities every time they shop, By using easyfundraising to access over 2000 well known retailers, savvy shoppers generate a free donation for the good cause of their choice. With this in mind, LBC have signed up! And as donations can be as much as 15% of the purchase price, Loughborough Boat Club are really hoping local people, members and friends of the Club will log on and support them.

With British shoppers set to spend a staggering £39 billion online this year alone, David McCaughan from Loughborough Boat Club is keen for as many people as possible to sign up:

“In the current financial climate we know that every penny counts so we’re not asking people to donate, just to shop online as they normally would.  A large proportion of us shop online these days so what could be easier than raising funds simply by making the purchases you make anyway at no extra cost to yourself?”

Featuring over 2000 of the UK’s most popular retailers including M&S, Argos, Boden, Tesco and many more, easyfundraising has already raised helped UK charities raise over £2.6 million.

As well as raising funds, the free to use website also gives shoppers access to hundreds of offers, discounts, vouchers and free delivery codes that they won’t find elsewhere.

To support Loughborough Boat Club, visit http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/loughboroughbc

and follow the instructions.

Thank you for your support in advance.

Crews travelled from as far afield as Peterborough, Boston and Doncaster to compete against local clubs for the coveted engraved glass winners tankards.

This year the Victor Ludorum Trophy, awarded to the club with most wins, was tightly contested.  The result being a draw between hosts Loughborough Boat Club and local rivals Leicester Rowing Club who also had the largest entry with 26 crews.

The NOV.2x rowed by Mark Meacham and Thorsten Kampmann was the first of the six victorious LBC crews.  The next five wins were all provided by the ever improving junior squad. The pairings of Lucy Agar and Beth Henry in the W.NOV.2x and Rachel Grewcock and Scott Boardman in the MxIM3.2x continued the success. These doubles are showing great promise with both crews achieving their second wins in as many weeks. The fourth double LBC victory came in the J15.2x category, and was provided by Danny Walder and Charlie Macnamee.

Scott Boardman was able to collect his second winners tankard when victory was his in the J16.1x.  Last but not least, no LBC results listing is complete without a mention of ‘super sculler’ Tom Scholefield who saw a comfortable victory in the J18.1x.  Tom was denied the trophy for fastest sculler of the day by just 5 seconds.

A big thank you to all of the crews, clubs and volunteers for their help and support this year to make the Soar Head 2011 a successful days racing.

The dynamic double of Tom Scholefield and Tom Gee raced first in the J182X category, securing a comfortable win.  Tom Scholefield was later to be the fastest single sculler of the day winning his OSEN1X event.

Beth Henry and Lucy Agar had no opposition in the WJ162X category so instead raced inWNOV2X, the double had a fantastic race, overtaking the opposition to confirm their well deserved category win.

LBC coach Stewart Ward has worked with the competing junior rowers, concentrating on training regimes and technique, which has clearly paid off making all the hard work worth while.

Scott Boardman completed the LBC winning streak on his maiden race. Partnered with Rachel Grewcock, the double found no competition in the mixed J162X so entered the OJ162X category. Both rowed faultlessly to confirm their victory.

Six very happy young rowers, seven winners meadals and four more crew victories to add to LBC winners tally. Loughborough Boat Club will host the annual Soar Head race on Saturday 26^th November so here’s looking forward to some success on home ground.

The morning division held host to three doubles. Tom Scholefield and Tom Gee raced the first in the J18 category. The WJ16 event was represented by Beth Henry and Lucy Agar. All four juniors rowed with conviction
and were unfortunate not to notch up a win. Their dedication and hours spent training both on and off the water are really paying dividends, with improvements evident week by week.

The third double of the morning division was in the MxMasB2X with the two captains Keith Hudson and Zoe Poyner competing together in a ‘Love Double’. The two clearly make a great partnership as they won their event, beating rivals from Burton Leander.

Afternoon racing saw two more wins for Loughborough Boat Club. Tom Scholefield rowed to victory in the SEN1X event, his doubles partner Tom Gee had a good race in the IM31X category but sadly no win this time.

Both the WIM38+ and the MASC8+ crews had excellent results. The Ladies eight had a fabulous race and with first time competitors in the crew, rowed faultlessly. Although not achieving the wining time, the Ladies displayed ‘coaching manual’ technique with all crew members delighted with their performance.

The third victory of the day came from the MASC8+ crew of Ian Hepworth, Andy Hill, Mike Targett, Jerry Heygate, Richard Goodwin, Nick Maker, Mark Meacham and Andy Martin all coxed by Oisin Mcnally-Rielly. Looks like the eight are continuing the success achieved during the summer sprint season.

Well done Loughborough! Praise where praise is due! Just goes to show that all that hard work in training really does pay off.

This was a chance for all members to celebrate the Club’s past, current and potential future success.

With Shirts and Ties and Dresses in the plenty the band of merry members were in high spirits and took the opportunity to make the most of this occasion, even marking the event with a Club photo.

Speeches at the ready, the President, Honorary Members and Men’s captain took the time to reflect on the Club’s developments over the year and a remarkable Regatta season for LBC.

Furthermore, there was also special mention to the Boston Marathon crew in recognition of their contribution to local charity LOROS, to which they have currently raised £866 towards the cause.

All in all it was a enjoyable tradition that is hopefully renewed for years to come.

With the unfortunate discovery that the Boston Marathon had been cancelled, due to un-rowable conditions, the crew were in dismay. However, the crew where not deterred by these unfortunate circumstances and took it upon themselves to organise their own event.

With spirits high and the charity funds exceeding their target of £750, for LOROS, the crew took to the water at 8:15 on Sunday 18th September. Rowing for a nonstop 5 hours the crew reached a remarkable 54.8km that was accumulated by the crew’s lengths of the River Soar.

Why not view our video to see our epic challenge.

The Crew would also like to take this opportunity to thank everybody for their help and support over the last few weeks with both the training and all of the donations received. You have all made a real difference to help support of local charity of LOROS.