JULY 2018 NEWS

Above – Mercs masters prepare for Henley with a row down the Thames

News covered below:

• Final day at HRR • Mercs Four makes final of the Wyfold at HRR • Gus Widdicombe makes final in the Goblets at HRR • Australian eights makes final at HRR • Mercs four starts very well • Alex Clarke, a late inclusion into the Australian Under 23 team • Mercs competes at Under 21 regatta • Vale Paul Harding • Mercs members race at Henley Royal Regatta • Mercs Masters cause havoc in London • The Lightweight Curse • National team members • Member Profiles • Thursday Night Social Hour

Finals day at HRR

Published 15th July 2018

Wow what a day! The Mercs four in the Wyfold was the second race of the day and raced superbly. Unfortunately, so did Molesey BC who won in a great race.

Our crew, probably the fastest crew we have ever sent to HRR finished behind the better crew. The time was sensational and worthy of a Visitors Challenge Cup win.

Our crew was: bow – Ben Canham, 2 – Jack Kelly, 3 – Mitch Hooper, stroke – Angus Maloney, coach David Pincus. All credit to the crew and coach on such a great performance.

Above: Off the start

Above: Approaching the finish

Next was of the Australian women’s which included Club members Kat Werry and cox . They raced well and took out the from the British eight in a fine race. It was closely fought out with the British crew not conceding at any time during the race.

Above James Rook advertises the result

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Above: Presentation

It was great that the Australian squad was allowed to compete at this iconic event during the height of the crew members careers.

Next up was the men’s pair. Club member Gus Widdicombe and his partner Cam Watts took it right up to the Sinkovic brothers from Croatia, current favourites for the World Championships. Gus must have known that a scratch Australian pair was no match for the Croatians, but it did not stop him trying to do the impossible. They controlled the first half of the race before bad steering a sustained effort by the Croatians brought the dream to an end. Well done Gus and Cam.

Above: Showing the lead to the Sinkovic brothers

Above: Approaching the Enclosure

Above: Then where did they go?

The other race of interest was of course the where the Australian eight came up against the Romanian eight after the Australians had disposed of the British crew in the heat. The race was not as ferocious as the heat but still a mighty performance. The Romanians raced very well and to the very end, in a fine race, the Australians prevailing by one length.

Above: Presentation of Grand Challenge Cup

Despite the nature of the regatta and the match racing element, all the crews had great racing experiences.

To finish with, some scenes from the regatta.

Above: Kat Werry

Above: Sean Colgan

Above: The Enclosure

Above: The course from the finish

Above: Temple Island

Mercs Four makes final of the Wyfold at HRR

Published 7th July 2018

Mercantile has only ever won one event at Henley Royal Regatta, and that was back in 1988. Well 2018 may be the year to redress this situation. David Pincus’ Wyfold four have made the final and are looking good.

Above: leaving for the start

Above: Off the start on Saturday

Gus Widdicombe makes final in the Goblets at HRR

Published 7th August 2018

Gus Widdicombe combined with Cam Watts to get to the final of the Silver Goblets with a great race. They face the Sinkovic brothers tomorrow in their toughest pair oared race of their career. The Australians are having fun and will enjoy playing with the world’s best pair tomorrow.

Above: The pair heading out for their heat on Saturday

Australian eights make finals at HRR

Published 7th July 2018

Both the men’s and women’s eights made their respective finals today with superb performances. Your correspondent thought that the men’s eight was one of the best races he has seen. The Australians raced hard and superbly. They raced displaying true ANZAC grit and relished the toughness. They went off at 48 and struggled to get below 40 anywhere down the course. You could tell that they enjoyed the race and the spectators had the privilege of seeing it. If you were the Romanians, you would have enormous respect for their prospective opponents.

Go Mercs, and Australia. Mercs four starts Henley Royal Regatta very well

Published 4th July 2018

The Mercs four of stroke Angus Maloney, 3 Mitchell Hooper, 2: Jack Kelly and bow Ben Canham raced superbly today to easily win their first round. They flew off the start and settled down well many, many lengths in front.

Some images to set the scene for the rest of the week.

Off the start

At the barrier

Coming past the crowd

Hearing pearls of wisdom from David Pincus

Alex Clarke, a late inclusion into the Australian Under 23 team

Published 2nd July 2018 has recently announced the selection of an under 23 Men’s to the U23 Australian Rowing Team set to compete at the 2018 World Rowing U23 Championships in Poznan, Poland from 25 to 29 July 2018.

Alexander Clarke, Kane Grant, Fraser Pensini, Zac von Appen and coxswain, Sarah Ben-David will represent Australia and join the already selected U23 Women’s Eight, U23 Men’s , U23 Women’s Pair, U23 Women’s , U23 Men’s Pair, U23 Lightweight Men’s Double Scull, U23 Lightweight Women’s Double Scull and U23 Men’s Single Scull.

Congratulations Alex and best wishes for the Championships.

Above: Alex on the far right at the National Championships Go Mercs Mercs compete at the Under 21 Regatta

Published 2nd July 2018 At the end of the first leg of the Trans Tasman Series, Australia held a slight lead over New Zealand. The two teams will compete again at to finalise the series. Australia is defending the Rusty Robertson Trophy, a point score team trophy.

Your club members in the Australian team are Sky Froebel and Kirstie Green and coach Brigette Carlile. Vale Paul Harding

Published 2nd July 2018

Since advising members of the death of Paul Harding the following message has been received from Paul’s family. The Club was represented at the funeral by Phil Batters.

Thank you so much for attending Dad’s funeral yesterday and waving the Mercantile flag for everyone. The club was probably the greatest times of his life and over the many years we have all become well versed on what it meant to him.

Could you please pass on to everyone the many thanks for all your kind word and thoughts over the past week or so and particularly to Jim Harvey.

Finally, we do have a collection of Dad’s Mercantile gear and would be delighted to see it go to the right place. We will sort this out over the coming weeks and be in touch. Thank you so much again.

Cam Harding

The 1960 Victorian Penrith Cup crew with Paul in the stroke seat

Mercantile races at Henley Royal Regatta

Published 2nd July 2018 The Australian men’s and women’s eights will be racing at HRR and so will include the following members:

Australian men’s eight • Gus Widdicombe • Liam Donald

Australian women’s eight • Kat Werry • Addy Dunkley-Smith • James Rook (cox)

Scenes from HRR

In addition to our members in the Australian men’s and women’s eights, Mercantile has had accepted by the Henley Stewards an entry in the .

The crew is:

Angus Maloney Mitchell Hooper Ben Canham Jack Kelly The crew is coached by David Pincus.

Above: Our crew training through winter at the Club

The Wyfold Challenge Cup was first presented in 1847 and is an event for genuine club crews. Our crew clearly meets that criterion.

The Cup has an interesting past. The old rules for Challenge Cups resulted in all challengers racing off against each other for the right to race the winner of the previous year. Originally this cup was for the winning of the challenge crews for the Grand Challenge Cup. In 1855 it was used for the four oared event.

In 1995, the same rules for the applied to this race, namely for genuine club crews.

Our crew deserves your support and many Mercantile members will travel to England to see them and our other club members race.

The blazers do stand out

Mercs Masters cause havoc in London

Published 2nd July 2018 A group of Mercs masters joined up with some other old and bold to row down the Thames from Oxford through the city of London finishing at Greenwich. Someone forgot to tell them about seeking permission to row through the centre of London, a matter which did stop them doing it despite the protests of officialdom along the way.

The eight day journey took in 38 locks and roughly 200 km of rowing.

Above: your Captain having passed through Tower Bridge

Your club members taking part were Bill Webster, Jeff Lawrence, Rod Edwards and Andrew Guerin. The group rowed two quad sculls, one coxed and one coxless.

Above: The crew heeding the warnings not to enter Windsor Castle grounds – Bill Webster cox, Jeff Lawrence stroke and Rod Edwards in the two seat

The Lightweight Curse

Published 2nd July 2018

Our senior lightweight oarsmen have been bedevilled by injury this year resulting in both Red Matthews and Michael McNamara missing out on Australian selection through injury. Fortunately, both are now well and back into training. This has been a difficult time for them, Red having been on the team in 2017 and Michael being a first time selection. National team members

Published 24th June 2018 Now that most of the selections have finished, we can now see all those Club members in national teams.

Senior team Women’s eight – Kat Werry, Addy Dunkley-Smith and James Rook

Men’s eight – Liam Donald and Angus Widdicombe

Under 23 team

Mercantile’s Ria Thompson was selected. Ria has had an outstanding year and finished it with good performances at trials. Now also Alex Clarke is also selected.

Under 21 team

Our outstanding under 21 girls had a great season and so it was no surprise that two of them, Skyla Froebel and Kirstie Green, were selected as the women’s pair, and their coach Brigette Carlile, again selected as a coach.

Junior team Andrew Cleary’s fine work with his support of Geelong school rowing paid off with a junior pair of Hamish Wynn-Pope from GGS and Jack Thornton of GC being selected with Andrew as coach. Member Profiles

Republished 2nd July 2018

Each month more profiles are added.

We wish to record profiles of all current and past members so please submit others to [email protected]. Subject to editorial review, they will be published with the author’s name and date. The latest profiles added are that of Roger Wilson, the voice of rowing and Arthur Lingham, a member who died in WWI and who was remembered at this year’s ANZAC service. Tuesday night masters ergo night

Republished 1st July 2018

With the masters now doing ergos on Tuesday nights, the gym is getting crowded after 6pm. Every ergo was used on 1st August and there was not even a need for an ambulance.

Tuesday night is ergo night

Thursday Masters Nights

Republished 1st February 2018

Reminder that all masters rowers are welcome for a row on Thursday nights followed by a sausage sizzle and refreshments. Row at 6pm and sausage sizzle at 7.30pm. All welcome. Please call Andrew Guerin on 0417 554799 to get put on the weekly email.

Thursday nights after the row