NOVEMBER 2017 NEWS Above – Kat Werry celebrates with her crew their rower of the year award on 28th October News covered below: • Mercs on the pages of World Rowing • Head of the Yarra in review • National Training Centre athletes compete at Head of the Yarra • Invitees announced for December time trial • Great aerial footage of the Men’s Open Eight finish • Vale Richard Crawshay • The masters are everywhere • Melbourne Head Regatta • Mercs athletes added to National Training Centre 2018 Intake • Masters get four eights out on Thursday night • Head of the Yarra entries • Tuesday night ergos • Member Profiles Mercs of the pages of World Rowing Published 30th November 2017 Mercantile has made the pages of the World Rowing website with the girl’s win in the open eight at the Head of the Yarra. The story was on the regatta but the picture was of our girls. Above: Winning Mercs Eight taken from the World Rowing website. © Steve McArthur/Rowing Celebration Head of the Yarra in Review Published 26th November 2017 Sorry it has taken a day to report on the regatta, but your correspondent takes a day to recover from such a race. Another good day for Mercantile with eight entries. The Men’s Open Eight had a great tussle with a “best of the rest” crew – a crew comprising non Mercantile members of the National Training Centre. Alas the “best of the rest” defeated Mercs in a great race. To be fair, our stern four comprised our own National Training Centre athletes as well as David Crawshay coming back for the race. Steve from Slingard Studios again has provided some terrific aerial shots of the crew – https://youtu.be/8g4WBnQnXq4. To find out more about Steve’s business, go to https://www.facebook.com/slingardstudios/. Above: Our men’s open eight at Scotch – Photo George Theodossiou Above: Our men’s open eight at Scotch – Photo George Theodossiou The Open Women’s Eight was a clear win to Mercs with a crew stroked by Jen Cleary. Above: Our women’s open eight at Scotch – Photo George Theodossiou The men’s B eight was a big win, some 1.25 minutes ahead of the field. Above: Our men’s B eight at Scotch – Photo George Theodossiou Above: Our men’s B eight at Scotch – Photo George Theodossiou Our women’s B eight had a great fight with UTS Sydney in a good row but finished second. It was a great row by our young crew. Above: Our women’s B eight at Scotch – Photo George Theodossiou Above: Our women’s B eight at Scotch – Photo George Theodossiou We had four masters crews also. Starting with the composite women’s crew, they finished fifth in a field of 12 crews. They were satisfied with their performance. Next year we hope to recruit enough women to boat a Mercantile crew. The men’s G crew contained a visitor from New Zealand in Lee Spear. Lee is FISA’s continental Council Member for Oceania and enjoyed his Head of the Yarra experience. The crew was performing well, in front of their division, and going away well. They were a good minute in front when one of the crew members collapsed at St Kevin’s. After receiving medical assistance from Hawthorn and ensuring that he was in good hands, the crew finished the race with seven crew members. Well these things happen when you are a G crew. Our injured crew member is good and no harm was done other than a loss of pride. Despite the rest at St Kevins, and waiting for first aid to arrive and assess our injured crew member, this crew managed to beat 20 crews home! We do not know what these other crews were doing. Above: Our men’s G masters ‘seven’ at Scotch, Lee Spear in the 3 seat – Photo George Theodossiou Our men’s masters E crew had a creditable row finishing four in a field of 13 crews. Above: Our men’s master E eight at Scotch – Photo George Theodossiou Finally our men’s masters F crew also performed well and were happy finishing in the top half of the draw after a limited time together. Above: Our men’s masters F crew at Scotch – Photo George Theodossiou National Training Centre athletes race at Head of the Yarra Published 22nd November 2017 Mercs members at the NTCs will be back racing for the Club at Head of the Yarra. Given that all NTC athletes will be racing, it will be great open men’s and women’s eights. Unlike MUBC, we will be boating all Mercs crews. Men Robert Black Liam Donald Joshua Dunkley-Smith Angus Widdicombe Women Addy Dunkley-Smith Katrina Werry Go Mercs Invitees announced for December time trial Published 22nd November 2017 In addition to the NTC athletes, additional athletes are invited to the December time trial at Penrith. Three non-NTC Mercs athletes have been invited: Amanda Bateman Tom Hunt James Rook Congratulations to these athletes and Go Mercs. Above: Amanda working hard in her semi-final at the Nationals Great aerial footage of the Men’s Open Eight finish Published 20th November 2017 Steve from slingard studios, shot an aerial video of the Mercantile Open 8 winning the Melbourne Head on Saturday and is available at this link – https://youtu.be/MF4Ox6jlh7I. Steve was down taking footage of the Banks crews as his daughter coxes at that club. Steve’s business can be found at https://www.facebook.com/slingardstudios/. PS: The regatta was ably refereed by our own Treasurer Duncan MacKinnon. Congratulations Duncs on such a good regatta. Vale Richard Crawshay Published 20th November 2017 As mentioned in our review of the Melbourne Head, we were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Richard Crawshay, father of club member David and great friend of the Club. Richard was a fabulous supporter of David’s rowing endeavours and the Club. The Celebration of the life of Richard will be held on Wednesday 22 November 2017, 2.00pm at Leonda by the Yarra, 2 Wallen Rd Hawthorn. Above: A happy Richard after David won gold at Beijing The masters are everywhere Published 20th November 2017 Hasn’t anyone told these oldies that head racing is for the youngsters? There appears to be plenty of these old bods who have failed to receive the message that the mellow years are for relaxing and drinking beer and wine! The sad thing is that they appear to be enjoying it and are coming back next week to do an 8.6km Head of the Yarra, along with our women masters. Insanity is rife. Above: Our male masters crews last Saturday – photo George Theodossiou Melbourne Head Regatta Published 18th November 2017 The Melbourne Head Regatta was a record entry and is now a major regatta. Mercs performed excellently with a large entry. The Club wore black arm bands to recognise the death this week of Richard Crawshay, father of David and great friend of Mercantile. He was a fabulous supporter of David’s rowing endeavours and the Club. Above: Crews warm up for racing The first race on the program was the men’s pair with Mercantile members taking the five placings as follows: 1st Josh Dunkley-Smith and Josh Booth won handsomely. 2nd Callum Nott and Tom Hunt 3rd Patrick Boomer and Alex Wolf 4th Trevor Appier and Angus Moloney 5th Ben Canham and Alex Clarke Michael McNamara was our best men’s sculler finishing third with James Hoban, Carl Tomczak, Alex Kinsella, Will Legge and Joel Cain following. Above: the Yarra on race day In the open women’s pair, Mercs finished 2nd 3rd and 4th. 2nd Sarah Harte and Georgie Gleeson 3rd Michaella Ballas and Kirsten Green 4th Ellie Tomanovits and India Mattocks Also in the women’s single, we settled for 2nd and 3rd with the others further back in the field: 2nd Amanda Bateman 3rd Madeleine Thomas Josh Dunkley Smith teamed up with Josh Booth and other to take out the men’s four and then immediately backed up in the men’s eight. He won the sweep hat trick. Above: The men’s four negotiating Swan Street Bridge works Meghan Hester finished second in the open double. In the eights, Mercs had great success. In the men’s open eights, a weary Josh Dunkley Smith stroked the number crew to victory. Sadly, David Crawshay could not race but this opened up the opportunity for Lachlan Murchie, son of past Mercs rower Andrew, to take the two seat. Above: The winning open men’s eight Str: Josh Dunkley-Smith, 7: Tom Hunt, 6: Callum Nott, 5: Benjamin Canham, 4: Alexander Clarke, 3: Alexander Wolf, 2: Lachlan Murchie, Bow: Angus Maloney and coxed by James Rook The second men’s open eight finished third. Above: Second open eight – Str: Trevor Appier, 7: Patrick Boomer, 6: James Hoban, 5: Joel Cain, 4: Mitchell Hooper, 3: Isaac Sanderson, 2: Michael McNamara, Bow: Maximilian Hanna, and coxed by Roy Zhang The women’s eight raced well but were defeated by a more experience Uni crew. Above: The Mercs eight. Str: Madeleine Thomas, 7: Olivia Sibillin, 6: Amanda Bateman, 5: Georgia Stewart, 4: Sarah Harte, 3: Kirsten Green, 2: Michaella Ballas, Bow: Georgie Gleeson and coxed by Adelaide Cester Our youth eight also raced but finished further back in the field. Above: Mercs No 2 open eight – Str: Skyla Froebel, 7: Meghan Hester, 6: Ellie Tomanovits, 5: Sophie Balson, 4: Jane Perrignon, 3: India Mattocks, 2: Phoebe Wolf, Bow: Bella Logie-Smith, Cox: Ella Jackson Our men’s quad won their race.