Introducing Evesham Rowing Club which was founded in 1863. It is situated on the beautiful River Avon close to the border between Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Gloucestershire. It has an easily accessible stretch of water, which spans just over 4km from weir to weir.
Above the boathouse, we have a large licensed function room which is open for breakfasts to fill the most hungry of rowers at the weekend. It’s a time to debrief with our coaches, socialise and in the winter warm up with hot chocolate. Our senior/masters section train from 07:00 at the weekends, so it’s often a sprint to the landing stage to be first in the queue for food. The junior squad sessions start from 09:30 and continue into the late afternoon. Weekday training is a combination of water sessions and weights. When it gets too dark to row or the river is too high we head to the ergo room or use one of our three squash courts for circuit training.
For training sessions, the best part of the river is the marina straight which is a 1km stretch from the downstream weir and is reached by going through a series of bends. The ‘bends’ are a place of tranquil beauty: trees on both sides; herons and kingfishers competing for food; fish jumping; occasionally terrapins sunning themselves on the bank and the various water birds raising their offspring. It is a great place to wonder at the beauty of nature as we wind down from a hard session, or prepare to start the second half!
The course record for our 4km stretch was set in November 1994 by Redgrave and Pinsent at 14:48, despite prizes being offered nobody has beaten that record in any type of boat. Although in recent years we have had so much rain that the event has been cancelled several times. An alternative time of year is being investigated.
With such a picturesque stretch of water, we get a lot of river traffic and have to keep our eyes open and ears attuned to the noise of a diesel engine. There are also canoes, kayaks, paddle boarders, wild swimmers, swimming dogs, birds and fishermen to contend with. Roll on winter season, when much of the river traffic evaporates.
At Christmas we have a “fun” day, when everyone turns up in Christmas jumpers / hats – the brighter the better. All the big boats come out of the boathouse and scratch crews are randomly made up from each squad. We all head up to the weir and have a head race back for mince pies and other festive food.
Talking of competitions, during the first May bank holiday we stage our regatta. It is one of the first in the calendar and hosts rowers from across the country. The weather can vary wildly from year to year, but most years we have been very lucky. Unfortunately, this year was not one of them, on Friday night we were told to expect a sudden flash flood of several meters and we had to take the drastic action of cancelling at the very last minute. That came on top of a very wet winter with water entering inside the main building several times over a couple of months. We were all feeling quite low.
Our regatta course is upstream and runs along the meadows, so supporters have full access to view racing. There is also a road bridge shortly after the start which gives a great viewing position. On the Sunday we reverse the course and have a stakeboat start sprint from the old bridge in the town centre.
Our autumn head is on the second Saturday of October each year, this year it is on 12th October. For the first time this year it is open to all age groups – juniors, seniors and masters. Racing the 2k distance from the Rugby Club to the Rowing Club with spectators able to view racing the whole length of the course from the footpath.
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