A sunny afternoon on Bunkers Hill

The Chairman presenting the Cox with her prize

Richard enjoying the weather

The Cox and the First Lady. Drink had been taken.

“A particularly good year for Norton Anti-Virus this year, Chairman”

The Chairman & Margaret, who will be 40 this Wednesday, would you believe

The Cox, disapointed by the "Batteries not included approach of our sponsors"

As ever, there is nothing that warms your Chairman’s heart more than a large lunch, a good cellar and old friends enjoying a summer’s day. Luckily enough, the garden party held in honour of the Antipodean Ambassadress’s visit to her parental home held last Saturday ticked every box, and although the Chairman neglected to photograph the sumptuous fare provided for the guests, you will no doubt accept my assurance that it did exactly what it said on the tin. Not only was the Chairman delighted to present the Coxswain with “I Predict A Riot” for winning the Henley Quiz by failing to get any of the questions wrong, but he was delighted to observe that despite the changeable summer we have enjoyed in the UK thus far, the Cox’s had managed to grow a splendid crop of CD’s already this summer, many of which looked ripe for harvesting……

A State Visit

The Antipodean Ambassadress reclining after a fish pie & Eton Mess.

Dinner in N.21

The Chairman is delighted to include some photographs of the recent State Visit to the UK by the Antipodean Ambassadress for your inspection. The Chairman and First Lady had the pleasure of 28 hours of the Antipodean Ambassadress in the Metropolis, during which time she attempted to redress the balance of payments deficit between the Motherland and the Antipodes, and managed to squeeze in 2 lunches, one dinner, ¼ gallon of wine and a visit to Tate Modern. As ever, it is always a pleasure to receive a State Visit, and one day we hope to reciprocate once again. The likelihood of the Chairman & First Lady “turning left” upon entering the aeroplane (in much the same way as Charlotte did) would be, however, decidedly unlikely!

Olivia Marie Dorethy Clark

The Chairman is delighted to present for inspection Olivia Marie Dorothy Clark, born to the sister of our very own Chair of the Wines & Spirits Committee on 30th June 2008. Mother, Father and child all appeared to be doing well when we visited them last week, although the gardens at 10a Latymer Road were somewhat more overgrown than when we last visited. The phone message is still the same though. Never were truer words said in jest than those of the CWSC on the answering machine message which has remained in use since 2002, and which states "Hi, we're not around at the moment".....

Caught circular

Wrap up warm, Charlotte. It's a typical British summer, after all.

The Chairman is delighted to announce the imminent arrival of the Antipodean Ambassadress to the land of her birth, and providing she manages to squeeze us in, both the First Lady and your Chairman are very much looking forward to her presenting herself in the Metropolis early next week. Welcome "home", Charlotte. It seems only 10 months since you were last here.....!

With family and friends like these......

Time to wake up and smell the coffee, Captain!

As ever, your Chairman was overwhelmed with responses to the “Caption Campion” competition I announced yesterday. The speed at which the emails came in defied even my expectations – haven’t you all got jobs/tea shops to go to? Anyway, in no particular order, the responses included


“Captain Campo” (everyone)

“My darling boy”

“Oberon” (King of the Fairies, Captain, from A Midsummer Nights Dream, which of course you slept through at Tolthorpe. Twice)

“They will boot you out of the mess, son, if the committee see you dressed like this. Airmen didn’t dress like at in my day. The whole country’s gone to pot. I must write a letter to the U3A Gazette” (Anonymous, Hawthorn Road)

“Ya bloody poofta” (The Ambassador, via his secretary on conference call)

“Would you like to borrow our nail varnish, Daddy?”

“You’re a bloody rotter, Campo. I think I now have an idea where to stick a particularly large firework I was saving up for my grand finale at one of my concerts this summer.” Tricky Wardmill, Hertfordshire

A sympathetic response from the Captain’s family and friends, then. And, of course, from Dickie. On the blog tomorrow, we will be having the Captain’s tips on how to beat the credit crunch (and the Chairman for his impertinence) with the Captain’s new column, “Look after the pennies (and spend all the ones you have saved (and the rest) in the Innovations catalogue without telling Bev) with the Captain”. “Short, pithy and to the point, Chairman – rather like yourself”, as the Captain retorted to me earlier today. I mean to say, the bloody cheek of it……

Today’s Captian caption competition

Your caption here?

Prizes at the Chairman’s discretion will be awarded for the best caption to apply to the photograph of the Captain of Boats as presented above, taken in June. Did you know they even let him into his club for lunch on a Saturday looking like that? Without the hat, of course. I mean, he wouldn’t want to be blackballed, would he? Or propositioned by light-footed airmen for that matter.

The 2008 Henley Quiz - we have a winner.

For some quiz entrants, the glass will always be half entry.

The Chairman relaxing after a vigorous bout of quiz setting

I don't know what the Captain's got to smile about. Guess how many he got wrong this year?

The Chairman is delighted to announce the results of the 2008 Henley quiz, for which he received an unprecedented number of replies. Well, six in total. Highlights of the responses received by the Chairman included those of the First Lady, who was unsure quite why she married the Chairman on 1st June 2002. The Chair of the Wines and Spirits Committee was under the misapprehension that the Chairman arranged the date of his marriage to the First Lady in order that “It didn’t clash with Henley”, which he thought rather cheeky, especially bearing in mind she was, of course, our bridesmaid. If that’s what nine months of absence from ones post does for you, then I’m glad I’m sitting down to write this. The Vice Chairman was under the mis-apprehension that the WRC had only been invited to Tolthotpe once. He was, however, so sloshed on the Cox’s home-distilled vino that he probably forgot the first time we attended. The answer was, of course, twice. My dear Mama managed not to trouble the scorers, but it was her first time of entering the quiz, so allowances should, of course, be made. The Captain came last as usual. Suffice as to say that he managed to fail in the question of whether or not Campion strength Pimm’s was the right answer. The answer, of course, is no, was no at the time and should forever be so. He even got the Dickie Millward anagram wrong.

The Antipodean Ambassadress is, as custom dictates, someone whose finger is on the pulse of Club activities, and put in a flawless performance as ever. However, there can only be one winner, and the Chairman is therefore delighted to announce that the winner of the 2008 Henley Quiz is the Coxswain, who managed to get no questions wrong whatsoever, which the Chairman considers being an admirable achievement for someone whom the Ambassador regularly refers to as our “oldest member”.The prize, which will be presented at the Garden Party to be held in honour of the impending visit of the Antipodean Ambassadress (shortly to embark on her whistle-stop European tour), can best be summed up as the sort of thing money cannot buy, and which would not exist without the Cox’s presence on this planet. A worthy winner, I’m sure you will all agree.

Hooray – It’s Henley 2008

" The sun always shines on the Witham."

A Leander crew winning their race easily.

Chin chin. The Chairman & Captain of Boats under "the tree" at the Champagne bar.

Prince Michael of Kent. It is Henley ROYAL Regatta, after all.

In the Leander Club. Taken by a Steward, who was deligted to help.

The Captain under Henley bridge

The WRC were represented by a coxless pair at Henley Royal Regatta yesterday, and as you can see, the sun shone as is customary. The Captain brought a new hat, we were photographed by a lady from Totally (a poor man’s local Hello! – well, as poor as one gets living in Henley), the WRC legend was passed on to interested attendees we met along the way, Tom at Godfrey was awarded for his trouble with a can of Pimm’s, Leander was "visited" for a sun-downer (at the second time of asking) and we both made it home in one piece. All in all, a vintage year. All that was missing were absent friends, who were remembered in the time-honoured fashion.

VIVAT WITHAM!

Every cloud has a Silvers lining (Where DID you get that hat?)

The Captain in his new hat with the Chairman and Brigitte Smith of Silvers


The Captain at the Leander Club in the late afternoon in his new hat.

The Captain wanted a new hat. “Chairman”, the Captain said, “I want a new hat”. Just to make sure that I had not got the wrong end of the stick, I asked him if it was a new hat that he was after. “You’ve got it in one”, the Captain replied. “I don’t know how you do it.” Well, having sorted that matter out, I managed to ascertain that the Captain required a straw boater, his original cheap straw Henley hat having flown into the Thames during the 10th anniversary cruise of 1999, and his 30th birthday panama hat (lovingly brought for him by the Chairman, First Lady, Vice Chairman and the Chair of the Wines & Spirits Committee) having rotted on the parcel shelf of their Dawaeo after having been left there in a slightly damp fashion by its “careless” owner (the VC’s phrase, not mine). So, a boater. Well, where would one start? Luckily, the Chairman had a few ideas, and was delighted to share them with the Captain, and in the spirit of generosity, I thought I might share them with you.

You might be interested to read that there only appears to be one manufacturer of the traditional straw boater with a stiff brim in the UK, this being a firm called Olney Headwear of Luton, who charge their trade customers £17.00 plus VAT per hat according to a milliner we met on the towpath at Henley. Upon closer inspection, the Chairman’s very own boater is indeed an Olney, and based on information ascertained on their website, it would appear that they also supply Lock’s of St James with their boaters (presumably marked as Lock’s as opposed to Olney). Lock’s being outside the price range of the Captain (they retail their boaters at £109.00 if you please), the Chairman approached Bates of Jermyn Street (£62.00), only to be told that they did not stock the Captain’s 7 ¼ hat size. A brief trawl of the internet introduced your corrrospondent in co-respondents to the Olney site, only to find that they ask £47.25 plus postage for the same hat, but the Chairman had one more idea. Well, where would you go to look for a boater? To Henley itself, of course, and the Chairman knew just the shop.

Silver’s have been dressing the discerning gentlemen in regatta fashions for the past 80 years, and were delighted to offer the Captain assistance. Not only do Silver’s provide Olney straw boaters for the comparatively nugatory sum of £39.50, but also offered to trim the boater in club colours for a mere £5.00 per hat. The lady to whom this job was entrusted, Brigitte Smith, did a marvellous job, and trimmed our two hats in less than 45 minutes. “I don’t think I’ve done any from your club before”, she said, but members will be delighted to note that should you ever require a boater trimmed in the club colours, a trip to Silvers would seem to be essential. You will be made most welcome, our boater ribbon details are now held in their archives and the service and value for money is second to none.

Tempus Pro Henleyquizio

Your Chairman is delighted to announce, in much the same way as the Chair of the Wines and Spirits Committee announces the arrival of Beaujolais Nouveau, the 2008 Henley quiz est arrive! If you have half as much fun in working out the answers as the Chairman has had in compiling the questions, you will be in your element. Enjoy.

The Henley Quiz 2008 – The First Eight

The founders of the Witham Rowing Club, 1990

(1) The Chairman and First Lady married on 1st June 2002, but why did the Chairman think that this might make a particularly suitable date to marry?

(a) He loved his wife to be, and could not wait any longer to get married to her?
(b) He wanted a date that he was unlikely to forget?
(c) He wanted to ensure that his wedding anniversary never clashed with Henley?
(d) All of the above

2. A cockney is strictly someone born “within the sound of bow bells”, but which is the only member of the WRC born during the regatta itself?

3. Campion strength Pimm’s. Yes or no?

4. How many times have the WRC been invited to Tolthorpe in the 20 years aprox. that the Bunkers Hill Mafia have been attending Tolthorpe?

5. Re-arrange the letters to discover the name of the two-time attender of Henley from the following anagram

Dickie Millardw

Clue – He likes playing with fireworks, and the Captain was too busy to go to his wedding, despite having accidently invited him on both occasions.

6. To the nearest 1, calculate the number of times the Antipodean Ambassador has attended Henley.

7. The Chairman of which rowing club was the first person in the 154 year history of the boat race to be banned by the organiser from attending all subsequent races between the ancient Universities from 2008 henceforth?

8. In the immortal words of Carly Simon, who, if anyone, “does it better” than the WRC?

Answers on an email to the Chairman at the usual address. Prizes may be awarded at the Chairman’s discretion.