Recreational rowing on the Thames at Lower Basildon. Beginners and new members welcome!
Over the summer we have been exacavating a slipway for launching boats into the Thames. At about 3pm on Sunday, courtesy of the rain and a rising river, it began to fill. By 5:30pm it was full!
The trench and most of the core team on Wednesday:
The slipway is not quite finished, but it is not a major problem as all the steel sidings are in place and we can precast and install a concrete apron later.
We restarted club sessions last weekend. Due to COVID-19, we are using Fitclub.me to organise ourselves. We had our first eight out in 10 months.
A quieter month, but there is still a lot of sculling and quads and fours are going out regularly. The fun boats initiative has been a real success and Water Vole and Snuffy are probably the busiest boats in the club.
The COVID situation is volatile, but so far rowing has been exempt from the new Rule of 6. Therefore we have decided to restart our regular sessions. We must record our outings and keep sessions under 30 people, so we will use Fitclub.me to manage crews. Sessions need coaches and session managers, so we will ask for volunteers. Richard Berkley will send out an email explaining how it will work. As COVID regulations are changing constantly, we may need to cancel this at short notice.
Goring Gap News are looking for a volunteer Sports Editor to report on the local sports clubs, including ourselves. If you like GGN and want to help the local community, contact Paul Bradstock.
These attractive, high quality GGBC mugs are still available. £8 each or 6 for £40. Proceeds go to the club. Email Ros Crowder if you would like some.
The big news this month is that British Rowing are allowing us to row in coxed or coxless fours and quads.
Eights should be allowed from 29 August if nothing changes.
To allow track and trace we have to keep records of who has been in which boats. If you want to go out in fours and eights, organise a crew and reserve your boat at FitClub.me.
Stuart Cowen updated the circulation plan to make it clear that scullers are allowed to set off downstream from the bridge pontoon so long as it is safe.
Thanks to the efforts of Richard Berkley and the coaches, we now have 55 members rowing in club singles.
Boathouse
Huge progress has been made on the slipway. We hope it will be complete by September. Massive thanks to Stuart Hunt, Roger Moore and Brian Barnes among many others.
Doug Hamilton is working on the mezzanine and it is nearly usable.
Goring Gap Boat Club has been awarded £5,498 of National Lottery funding from Sport England’s Community Emergency Fund towards supporting the club during the on-going COVID-19 pandemic.
The outbreak of the virus and the consequent shutdown of businesses from March 23 has left the sport and physical activity sector facing a period of uncertainty.
In response, on March 31 Sport England announced a £195m package to help the sport and physical activity sector through covid-19. Within the package is a £20m Community Emergency Fund, of National Lottery money to deliver immediate funding to those who have a role in supporting the nation to be active but are experiencing short-term financial hardship or the ceasing of operations due to the impact of coronavirus.
The grant was awarded to GGBC to cover essential running costs for the period March 23rd to July 31st 2020, helping to ensure the club could maintain their place in the community.
Tim Hollingsworth, Sport England’s Chief Executive, said:
As the body responsible for the growth of sport and physical activity participation, we want the vital grassroots organisations that make sport and physical activity happen in this country to not just to come through this crisis but to be in a position to thrive again in the future. The £20m Community Emergency fund, made possible by National Lottery players is part of a multimillion pound package of support we are providing to ease the pressure on a huge number of the organisations who are central to the nation’s health and wellbeing. We are proud to be able to provide vital funding to Goring Gap Boat Club to help it through these extremely challenging times.