Loughborough Boat Club has recently been awarded £10,000 from Sport England, this was to fund new boats for Junior rowing. The club now has a new Octuple Eight and Quad for the juniors; Junior Development Officer and Coach Neil Martin is delighted with the new boats and hopes more Juniors will come and give rowing a go. The new boats and the ladies Eight were officially named at a formal naming Ceremony a few weeks back. 

The quad was named ‘Sunny Jim’ after Arthur (Jim) Hambly MBE 1914 – 2010 who was Secretary, Chairman and later President of the club. The name Sunny Jim refers to Jim’s nickname in childhood from the Sunny Jim Character on the Force cereal packet and his happy sunny character, which never deserted him. It was with great pleasure Jim’s wife Vivienne attended the naming of these special boats. 

The ladies eight was named ‘Back before Midnight’. At the last annual dinner the speaker enlightened the club members on one of the old rules back in 1892, a notice stated “That every member taking out a boat must return it by midnight of the same day”. One wonders what they might have been doing until midnight!!!

The new Eight was named ‘Jolly Roger B’ after Roger Burdell, a club member sadly missed for his wonderful jovial presence and his enthusiasm for junior development within the club. It was lovely to see the family join us on this special occasion. The weather held out and a wonderful day was had by club members and guests.

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