I started coaching mainly by accident. After the lightweight boatrace I was a bit ill. It can happen when, at 6'3, you slim down to 70.4kg (11st 1lb), then row the hardest race of your life. The result was over training syndrome. Which I can thoroughly not recommend.

So, unable to do almost any form of exercise without collapsing for the rest of the day I started gently pedalling my bike along the tow path shouting at the Sidney Mens 1st VIII. They did OK in the end, going up two place in may bumps.

Not the prettiest sight ever to grace the cam, but they got the basic idea.

After Mays the Cambridge University Women's BC were looking for coaches for their summer developement squad, so I went along. I didn't think I really got much done; there really isn't much time to make any worthwhile changes, but despite this, they wanted my help the next autumn with coaching the traillists.

I ended up coaching the lightweights, which was bloody hard work, horrible hours, no pay, in the pissing rain, howling wind, one one occasion my hair actually froze. It was great. The boat was generally a bit slow and sluggish, until just after christmas, when the pattern that had been coached into them all winter started to emerge. All of a sudden they picked up speed and started to take some scalps in races. Mortlake, Anglian and Alpha succumbed, as did some of the Thames RC boats who visited for a day.

Training out at Ely. The weather was quite kind this year, so we got some nice days like this. The photo was taken by Pete Twitchett, who was a general helper, raising stacks of cash, getting the oars for the crew, and just being a general legend.

In the end things didn't go quite to plan. A nasty crash put Karen and Kat out of the boat for a while, and we basically lost a crucial 10 days. Unfortunate really. The crew rallied brilliantly and gained some impressive speed for the boat race. A powerful Oxford crew were just too much for them in a nasty headwind, but they went down fighting. A sad end to a really enjoyable time. But boat races are lost as well as won, and you have to accept it.

The crew about 300m gone in the boatrace. Neck and neck at this point.

Me and George (chief coach) with the crew at Ely.

There were all kinds of goings on in CUW after that. Whitewashed two years in a row is a bit unfortunate. I'm not entirely sure if I was sacked or not, the president seemed to forget about my existence in the whole shake up that happened. I didn't really appreciate that after the hours that I'd put in, but then, I did it for the crew, not the committee. A rough time, but it led on to the next exciting project.

Before that though was an fun stop gap coaching the Girton 1st Women's crew. It was the first time I had total leeway to do what I wanted, and knew what I really wanted to achieve. It went really well in the end, they were very open minded and took all the changes on board. They eventually went up three in Mays, denied blades by a very shoddy row on the Thursday. They made up for it with a heroic charge to catch Selwyn on Friday.

Despite appearances, they were tiny! Like Sidney though they got the idea. Kath (Str) was in the lightweight crew, Veronique (5) and Helen (6) are trialling this year. Best of luck to them.

So then it was WCS, asked by Adrian Cassidy, who had coached me in the mens lightweights, to help out. I was assigned as a WCS Satellite coach to Anna Bebington. I also help out with the rest of the group. Good entertainment, with monthly camps in Nottingham, and the chance to work with both gifted athletes and coaches. I'll update this site with any results that we get. With plenty of race opportunities coming up it should be an exciting time.

So 2004 in summary so far. Rob Roy clean up. Anna comes 7th at GB trials. Girton get blades. Anna wins Lucerne.

Rob Roy racing at the trent head. Into a foul headwind they won by 30 seconds, underrating everyone else, but making a solid job of it. Lizzie Grose, Miriam Taylor, Cherry Nolan, Annie Vernon, Anna Bebington, Mary Hood, Kerry Swift, Antonia Van Deventer, Emilia Ruiz.

This was good fun this year, and they basically wiped out everyone in front of them inside 3 minutes. Cath Abbot, Helen Taylor, Lindsay White, Kath Farmer, Lorna Collins, Charlotte Clifton, Veronique Marx, Helen Umpleby and Hannah Craik.

Left to right. Alison Knowles, Anna Bebington, Beth Rodford, Tash Page.