CLUB WAIKATO Club Waikato Supporters Inc.

Hi All, from the President, June 2012

These are exciting times. It is just Two Months until the start of the London Olympics. Our team has many arms of brilliance with some being cycling, athletics, canoeing and of course rowing and the triathlon, our hockey teams may be the dark horses. Our thoughts and support go out to our rowing lightweight 4 and men’s 8 who just failed in a final qualifying opportunity. Duncan Grant, one of the 4 rowers, is already talking about his next opportunity in 4 years – amazing dedication and positivity from our athletes. On the home front, we report a very successful awards night held at our town house and the proposal to build in our upstairs terrace, to provide more room to work on ergs, ect. The New Zealand Secondary School Champs at Maadi at produced medals for Boys High and Waikato Diocesan. Girl’s High proved to be very competitive in fields with up to 45 entries. Well done to all! The Club offers a big welcome to our new school and rowers from St John’s College. Ross Tong, a well known rowing identity will be leading the coaching and care of our new members. This will boost our daily activity of school participation to around 150 athletes per day, with Club activity, including the boating of men and women 8s and 4s, plus a full boat shed at , which also houses our Waikato RPC. We are privileged and proud of be part of the Waikato Club family.

Cheers, Gil.

Other Notices: > The 2012 Waikato Rowing Club AGM will be held on July 17th at 7:30 at the WRC town sheds. > Waikato Rowing Club is also in the process of planning an extension onto our rowing club as our numbers continue to build; the first stage of this involves extending out the eastern wall of the erg room.

Waikato Rowing Club well represented around the country by Barry Robinson

While attending the regatta at Lake Ruataniwha in March this year, I noticed a number of Waikato Rowing Club members and past members who were coaching rowing at various levels. When I looked into the numbers, I was amazed at the quality of the people who were improving the standard of rowing at all levels in N.Z. The following is a list of those who I knew.

Mark James - Central RPC Gill Cawood - Hamilton Girls High Nigel Atherfold - Rangi Ruru Girl’s School Ron Satherley - Hamilton Girls High Selwyn Cleland - Cambridge High School Mike Rodger - NZ High Performance Roger Batley - St Peters Alan Cotter - NZ High Performance - Waikato RPC & NZ Charlie Graham - Wellington Bruce Holden - Hamilton Boys High Gary Roberts - Waikato Dio, Waikato RPC and NZ Steve Menzies - Hamilton Boys High Mike Gilbert - Waikato Club & WRPC Herb Stevenson - Tauranga Boys and Girls Duncan Smith - Waikato Club Ross Tong - St John’s College Marion Horwell - Central RPC & NZ

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St John’s College Hello to you all at the Waikato Rowing Club. The St John’s College has chosen to conduct its rowing program under the Waikato Rowing Club banner. I wish to thank the Waikato Rowing club executive for making the move possible and things have progressed that we now have our boats in the town shed. The move has all gone very smoothly. The parents were most impressed when shown around the club. The College, Rowers, and parents are excited about the move and looking forward to the coming season. St John’s currently has 18 athletes but hopes are this will grow to 24 for the coming season.

Ross Tong Director of Sport St John’s College

Maadi Cup Highlights Thank you to cattle scheme Our WRC schools were out in force at the New Zealand We would like to thank the people who are a part of the Secondary Schools Rowing Champs in March. Waikato cattle scheme. This initiative helps fund club facilities Diocesan, Hamilton Boy’s High School and Hamilton Girls which our rowers benefit greatly from. This can be seen High School all raced in a range of boat classes and age from the outstanding results achieved in the past groups and proved that they are still going strong in the season. very competitive School rowing scene. Detailed results of these schools can be found at http://www.rowit.co.nz/

Waikato Regional Performance Centre Highlights

Gary Roberts becomes assistant coach and joins Ian Wright on the WRPC coaching team this year. Gary has previously headed a very successful programme with Waikato Dio rowing and is currently coaching the NZ U23 Lightweight Women’s Double and Heavyweight Women’s Pair. The WRPC are now heading into a strong winter training programme run by Roger Batley in preparation for trials in September

New Zealand Junior Team Announced: New Zealand U21 Team Announced: Congratulations to WRPC athletes (Te Briar Murphy (Cambridge RC, WRPC), Ashleigh Awamutu RC, Waikato RPC), Natalie Hill (John Paul College) Hodge (Cambridge RC, WRPC), Matt Dunham (St and Hannah Maher (St Peters School) on their selection into Peters School), Eloise Dowse (St Peters School) have the NZ Junior Team which compete at the Junior World been selected into the NZ U21 team which will Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria 14-19 August. compete against the Australian States at the end of June in Penrith.

2012 Samsung II in Lucerne, Switzerland The world cup II regatta revealed some both expected and unexpected results for our elite athletes. New Zealand took home 5 medals in total. Our women’s pair of fell off the pace in this regatta taking the bronze, with Great Britain stealing the gold and USA taking the silver. Having not lost a race since 2009, our men’s pair showed their ongoing strength winning gold once again. The lightweight men’s double finished in second to France, showing they are on track as they gear up for the London 2012 Olympics. New Zealand’s Lightweight Women’s Double gave China a run for their money in the final, gaining silver in the final, with China holding onto gold. They also set the new world’s best time in their boat class during their heat – outstanding results for their first international race together! Mahe Drysdale, our men’s single sculler took silver in his final, with one of his main rivals Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic taking the gold. The women’s double gained 5th place, as did the men’s quad. The men’s double finished 4th in the B final and the women’s quad was fourth in the A final. The men’s four finished in 6th while in the women’s single took 5th. A successful regatta for our country’s best as they lead up to their ultimate goal, the London 2012 Olympic Games.

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Waikato Rowing Club athletes headed for the London 2012 Olympics:

The following WRC athletes are racing in Elite Crews; we wish them luck for their Europe Campaign and the London 2012 Olympics.

> (Waikato RC) - Men’s Pair > (Waikato RC) - Women’s Quad > Tyson Williams (Waikato RC) - Men’s Four

Interesting information about the New Zealand Rowing Association

In 1887 the decision was made to form the New Zealand Amateur Rowing Association. The eleven clubs which formed the Association were Canterbury, Lyttelton, Union (of Christchurch), Nelson, Union (of Wanganui), North Shore, Blenheim, Avon, Timaru, Wellington and Star Boating Club. Between then and now, the numbers have grown to 61 active clubs affiliated with the Association. In 1902, the association decided to administer the sport on a regional basis under a central managing body. Nine local provincial associations were established a year later; Auckland, Canterbury, Hawkes Bay (now East Coast), Marlborough, Nelson, , Southland, Wanganui and Wellington. Nelson then absorbed into Marlborough and in 2000 Auckland split into three; Auckland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty.

The first New Zealand Rowing National Championships were held in 1888 for fours and singles (men only), with more boats classes added over the years. The first women’s race at a National Champs regatta was held in 1967. The first interschool race was held in Wellington in 1889. 1947 saw the first Maadi Cup held in Wanganui and was the point at which school rowing began to flourish; this growth initiated the formation of a New Zealand Secondary Schools Rowing Association in 1967 and secondary school rowing numbers continue to expand in leaps and bounds today.

New Zealand rowers began international racing in 1919 and in the following year our first Olympic medal was won by Darcy Hadfield in the . Our New Zealand elite squad continue to do us proud with their world class level of rowing being the envy of many countries and prove to be a threat at international regattas. The introduction of regional performance centres have lifted the standard of rowing across the country. An important milestone was the opening of our Gallagher High Performance Centre at in 2010 – a world class facility that allows our international crews to excel. The success of our Karapiro based crews in the past few years has delighted us and we look forward to following their success in the coming Olympic Games.

Ron’s Funny

A blonde, wanting to earn some money, decided to hire herself out as a handyman-type and started canvassing a wealthy neighbourhood. She went to the front door of the first house and asked the owner if he had any jobs for her to do.

"Well, you can paint my porch. How much will you charge?" The blonde said, "How about 50 dollars?" The man agreed and told her that the paint and ladders that she might need were in the garage. The man's wife, inside the house, heard the conversation and said to her husband, "Does she realize that the porch goes all the way around the house?"

The man replied, "She should. She was standing on the porch." \ A short time later, the blonde came to the door to collect her money. "You're finished already?" he asked. "Yes," the blonde answered, "and I had paint left over, so I gave it two coats”. Impressed, the man reached in his pocket for the $50. "And by the way," the blonde added, "that's not a Porch,3 it's a Ferrari. "

Chloe Macfarlane. 8 Joffre Street, Hamilton. Phone: 0273058097. Email: [email protected]