MINT IMPERIAL

After a pleasant evening out lighting up the dance floor as only IC boys can, several of the lads travelled back to Putney on the night bus, after which goodbye's were said to Rich, leaving Will, James and Nick to stumble their merry way home.

Nick decided, given the heat generated by some of his dance moves had made him somewhat moist, to have a shower before going to bed. As the first picture shows this entailed climbing over James who had chosen the door of the toilet as a suitable resting place.

The shower went well, leaving Nick feeling clean and refreshed if somewhat tired (due to it being 3:30 in the morning rather than any exertions in the shower).

Nick then ventured towards his room just across the landing (climbing over James again on the way) to go to bed. Having left some music playing in his room, you can imagine his surprise when he found this waiting for him (Cick on the picture to see the movie):

There isn't an explanation which sufficiently explains Rich's Actions, especially as he had earlier left to go home, but came back as he didn't have keys and couldn't get into his old house. But why was he in his pants dancing suggestively in the corner of Nick's room, is a mystery. Suggestions welcomed.

DAILY HERALD CUP REAPPEARS

Readers may remember a recent plea for help from Bideford ARC, who were trying to locate the "Daily Herald Cup" - the old N.A.R.A championship senior fours cup.

Well it seems that said cup - and a fine lump of silver it looks too - is now winging its way to the far south West, courtesy of ARA HQ after it was discovered gathering dust in a corner at Hammersmith - though nobody knows quite how it got there...

A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE INCIDENTS

The Upper Thames men's eight who was racing at Henley Town & Visitors at the weekend, were cursing the Leander old blokes, rowing as Star and Arrow, who kept stopping them picking up pots, but all was not lost, as the 8 split into two coxless fours and headed out to race again...

Or rather it wouldn't have been lost, if they hadn't come together again in a somewhat ill advised crunchy manner, as the two UTRC fours collided head on by the island, when one of the steersmen got a bit confused about the navigation pattern.

Luckily nobody was hurt, mainly as the Empacher involved took the brunt of the crash, the bows somehow managing to go under the backstay but over the mainsaty of the bow rigger on the other boat (best get that accident report filled in soon boys).

Now, coxless fours aren't really designed for knitting and the bows of the Empacher soon turned to mush, indeed, so well managled were the boats, that the rowers had to get out in order to pull them apart...

Elsewhere at HT&V, a Vesta women's S3 eight, had a run in with one of the inflatable safety launches in attendance. It seems the launch came off worst in the encounter, after the bows of the eight punctured one side, going between the legs of the driver, who was sitting on the edge at the time, then pierced the other side too... The driver was last seen clinging to the engine as his, by then, un-inflatable, slowly sank beneath the waves.

The slug was interested to note on Sunday morning that the remains had been rescued from the river as an engine attached to a large pile of red plastic was in evidence along the towpath...

Oops.

BUMPS REVEALED

A few pics from the recent Cambridge town bumps: a spot of nekkid rowing and that poor 99's boat sans bows...
(all of these are quite disturbing, though luckily the nude ones are a bit blurry)

OOMPAH?

Apparently some of the NCRA guys didn't realise that the new FISA lwt event mentioned below was a hoax, and have already started training...

http://www.dodsworld.com/mambo/index.php?

On the left is Sean Meehan and on the right is Tom Cannon - the chap who tried to take out Ron Needs' head with his boat at trials.

The slug was also quite disturbed to find this picture of an Oompah-Loompah in what looks like a Scrubbers gimp suit...

PURPLE UPDATE

Some news from the super furry purples situated somewhere on the Lower Thames. You may have noticed after a flurry of merkin action at the beginning of the year, its been all quiet on the western Thames front.

Have the merkined one's gone to ground? Have they disappeared into their Putney cave complex to amass new WMD's (Weapons of Merkin Destruction), trimming and preening in preparation for flaunting them on South Beach, Long Beach and maybe Peterborough beach? Well for those of you labouring under that illusion.....

We all thrive on a bit of royal scandal... but we didn't realise how far the purple love-tendrils had reached until non other than Prince Harry was spotted flaunting his new purple get-up yesterday at a social engagement. We can just imagine the headlines - 'Plucky Prince's purple party' or 'Harry - cod-piece or minnow-piece?'.

What will be next: Camilla wearing one as a head adornment, the Queen walking one through Windsor park, William turning up to his first job in the City with one in his packed lunch?

We didn't know purple was part of the Royal Standard.

INJURY AND INSULT

From the recent Cambridge Town Bumps, we now have a new definition of the term 'bastards':

"People who don't easy after bumping you, hospitalise the cox and break the bow of your boat. Then nip in after racing is over, steal the broken bow as a trophy and sign it."

ah.

SEWAGE NATION

Figures have just been released by the Environment Agency for the raw sewage discharge into the Thames at the end of June - just over one million tons of the stuff.

A few localised storms were responsible for flushing out the sewer system into the river and left Putney embankment with a brown water line for days afterwards. The resulting mess then took more than 2 weeks to clear the upper tideway.

Tom Kelly, Head of wastewater ops at Thames Water, suggested helpfully afterwards that perhaps rowers should stay off the river after strong rains and sewage discharges.

With an average of 50 such events every year and an estimated 2 weeks to clear out after every event, that doesn't leave is with much time to row.

If either Thames Water or the Environment Agency would like to aid river users in assessing the hazard to their health, we would be delighted if they could let the rowing community know when discharges are likely or have happened.

RATS have even offered to post warnings on their Rowers Against Tideway Sewage website (www.thamessewage.com).

They are also calling for action NOW from Thames Water and DEFRA, to start work on expanding the capacities of sewage works, building alternative drainage solutions, soak-aways and promote widespread small-scale rainwater catchment systems to divert rainwater from the sewers and reduce the volume of the problem.

UNIFORM KIT?

An snippet of lettuce from Amsterdam where one of the GB female FISA umpires, attending the U23 regatta in her extra role as an occasional reporter, was up at the start taking pictures on Thursday with the other snappers at the Bosbaan.

With her encyclopaedic knowledge of FISA rules, it wasn't long before she started complaining that one of the German crews "didn't have the right uniform on", ie no matching kit.

Without a second's hesitation NLRoei's Sybrand Treffers quipped back
"but we don't like Germans in uniform round here".

NEW LWT EVENT

FISA have announced plans to amalgamate all non-olympic lightweight events.

More details HERE