(UK) Walton SBH cancelled
Kit
http://www.waltonrowingclub.co.uk/latest/wsbh-start-order-2009.html
No move to Dorney this year & all cheques will be destroyed.
So, you lucky people, an extra hour in bed dreaming of how you would
have beaten all-comers with your magnificently powerful yet
surprisingly smooth technique.
Kit
carolinetu
bawling at the poor unsuspecting competitors whilst furiously waving
our flags.
Hopefully the waters will have receded by 23rd January so you can all
take part in the Weybridge Winter Head - same reach, opposite
direction. Lots of events in doubles, quads, fours and eights. No
single sculls though, bearing in mind the usual weather and water
conditions in January.
Details here www.weybridge.rowing.org.uk/winterhead.htm
Caroline
Carl Douglas
On a separate line of thought, in this very Thames/UK-centric thread:
Does anyone have a year-by-year record of cancellations for all events
due to stream conditions?
It is my growing impression that there has been an upward trend in the
number of event cancellations over the years, but I can't put my finger
on the data.
TIA -
Carl
--
Carl Douglas Racing Shells -
Fine Small-Boats/AeRoWing Low-drag Riggers/Advanced Accessories
Write: Harris Boatyard, Laleham Reach, Chertsey KT16 8RP, UK
Find: http://tinyurl.com/2tqujf
Email: ca...@carldouglas.co.uk Tel: +44(0)1932-570946 Fax: -563682
URLs: www.carldouglas.co.uk (boats) & www.aerowing.co.uk (riggers)
pdb
> URLs: www.carldouglas.co.uk(boats) &www.aerowing.co.uk(riggers)
We could provide data on the Marlow Fours and Pairs which proves that
our recent moves to Dorney have at least enabled us to offer
competition in November. It is not just the stream but also the
waterlogged state of our traditional boating area at the Longridge
Scout Boating Centre.
Christopher Anton
>> Caroline
>
> On a separate line of thought, in this very Thames/UK-centric thread:
>
> Does anyone have a year-by-year record of cancellations for all events due
> to stream conditions?
>
> It is my growing impression that there has been an upward trend in the
> number of event cancellations over the years, but I can't put my finger on
> the data.
>
> TIA -
> Carl
>
You can reckon on 3 in 5 heads on the Severn being cancelled in recent
years. I suppose it's what makes the Wycliffe heads so popular - they never
get called off, except this year (because of snow)!
carolinetu
1993, and we postponed it by a week one year (can't remember when)
because of strong stream conditions. Conditions usually are worst in
my experience from the end of November to the end of February.
2008 was the worst summer I remember, with lots of regattas being
cancelled, including Weybridge Ladies and Walton & Weybridge.
Caroline
Carl Douglas
Many thanks to Peter, Christopher & Caroline. Please keep feeding in
similar info and let's see what it might mean.
Cheers -
Kit
> URLs: www.carldouglas.co.uk(boats) &www.aerowing.co.uk(riggers)
Walton has suffered a bit in recent years. We went through several
years without being able to hold it and I cannot find results for 2000
- 2002 so I think that may have been it. Also 2006 is missing. I am
only going on availability of results, mind.
But I don't know how this compares with, say, 30-40 years ago.
Kit
David Biddulph
news:2ad4dcfc-237b-4f5e...@l13g2000yqb.googlegroups.com...
> On 10 Dec, 17:38, Carl Douglas <c...@carldouglas.co.uk> wrote:
> > On a separate line of thought, in this very Thames/UK-centric thread:
> >
> > Does anyone have a year-by-year record of cancellations for all events
> > due to stream conditions?
> >
> > It is my growing impression that there has been an upward trend in the
> > number of event cancellations over the years, but I can't put my finger
> > on the data.
> >
> > TIA -
> > Carl
> Walton has suffered a bit in recent years. We went through several
> years without being able to hold it and I cannot find results for 2000
> - 2002 so I think that may have been it. Also 2006 is missing. I am
> only going on availability of results, mind.
>
> But I don't know how this compares with, say, 30-40 years ago.
> Kit
One place to look for data is the usually unreliable source:
http://www.rowing.biddulph.btinternet.co.uk/rowing.htm#calendars
Further back from that it might be a case of trawling through Almanacks as a
Christmas break project.
As far as your Walton SBH questions are concerned, Kit, 2000 & 2001 were
cancelled, 2002 was postponed to Jan 2003 but cancelled then, and 2006 was
cancelled.
Going back 30 - 40 years I certainly don't remember the river being
unrowable very often, but of course for the effect on head races there were
nothing like as many heads 40 years ago as there are now. Walton SBH, for
example, started in 1978, and is older than many events in the current
calendar.
--
David Biddulph
Rowing web pages at
http://www.biddulph.org.uk/
Kit
wrote:
> "Kit" <davies....@googlemail.com> wrote in message
Thanks David. I knew Biddulphapedia would have all the answers!
carolinetu
boats head on the non-tidal Thames. The fact that the first
cancellation was 1982 must be significant (or perhaps people were less
bothered about safety in the early days).
Caroline
Andy McKenzie
at Kingston since the 1880s ( to 2008). I chose a fairly arbitrary
'high flow' (200 m3/sec) and looked at the number of days/year when
this flow was exceeded - assuming that this would be in some sense
proportional to the probability of a cancelled regatta. Allowing for
the fact that such a long flow record is subject to many
uncertainties, and both the river and measuring techniques have
changed a lot in the last 130 years - the picture is interesting.
There are 15 years when there are more than 40 days (against an
average of 25 days) with flow >200 m3/sec - 1883 , 1903, 1910, 1912,
1915, 1916, 1919, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1936, 1937, 1951,
1960, 1995, 2000, 2001 and 2007. 1915, 1961 and 1951 top this
particular league table. The 1960s, 1970s and 1980s were notable in
that it was a period without many hydrological extremes, (drought and
flood in 1976 excepted!) . This pattern of quiescence in the hydrology
of SE England at this time has been recognised in other datasets.
The dataset doesn't support a hypothesis that high flows are
increasing overall, and in fact you would probably have suffered more
if you had been rowing in the 1920s - pity the rower who started a
competitive career in 1924!. In fact the 1910-1930 period is the only
decade in the record when there were never less than 10 high flow days
a year.
It does suggest that many current veterans will have learnt to row
during a period when the number of high flow days was generally low. I
am sure thatthis is coupled with an increase in risk aversion on the
part of organisers, and perhaps less opportunity to reschedule events
in a more complex world!
Andy McKenzie
Carl Douglas
Andy -
That is most informative, for which many thanks! Interesting in what it
tells us and also in what, by its very nature, it leaves out.
Thus years 1894, 1947 & 2003 do not feature in your selection, although
these saw the worst Thames floods on easily accessible record.
Clearly there may be a number of weekends in any year during which flows
are considered high or too high for rowing, but the incidence of such
may bear no relation to whether that year also had exceptional peak
flows. For a brief view of the historical perspective, it is worth reading:
http://www.eng.ox.ac.uk/samp/slides/OxJan08-MarshTerry.pdf
The period 1091 to 1093 might have been bad for rowing events ;)
I can recall a Weybridge Silver Sculls when there was so much stream
that it was somewhat dodgy racing up through the old Walton Bridge,
indeed there was a fair bit of chaos after one sculler got it wrong
under the narrow arch.
I have a feeling that more events do get cancelled now under conditions
where once they'd have been raced - not so long back we didn't have red
& yellow boarding. It is not always clear that the risks are really
that high, & the flow speeds when cancellations of upriver events, &
upriver training in general, occur are often slower than on the Tideway
with a good ebb running - at which times a lot of upriver crews descend
on the Tideway for training.
Carl
--
Carl Douglas Racing Shells -
Fine Small-Boats/AeRoWing Low-drag Riggers/Advanced Accessories
Write: Harris Boatyard, Laleham Reach, Chertsey KT16 8RP, UK
Find: http://tinyurl.com/2tqujf
Christopher Anton
"Andy McKenzie" <a...@bgs.ac.uk> wrote in message
news:a7f4ff62-81f5-4bc3...@k4g2000yqb.googlegroups.com...
Andy interesting but I'm not sure you're onto something. Looking at the data
(http://www.nwl.ac.uk/ih/nrfa/webdata/039001/g.html if anyone is interested
and, but not including 2007 or 2008, and points further upstream also
available), if you look at the period Nov-Feb when most of the head races
take place and average the flows for each head season then of the 124 head
seasons covered by the data then the seasons 1992/3, 1993/4, 1994/5 were all
wet ranking 24th, 22nd and 20th respectively and we haven't had such a
consistently wet three winters in a row since. The number of head seasons in
each decade wetter than the long term average are
2000s 3 (out of 7)
1990s 4
1980s 4
1970s 4
1960s 5
1950s 4
So the 2000s doesn't seem to be out of the ordinary. Of course the west
might have been wetter.
Christopher Anton
"Carl Douglas" <ca...@carldouglas.co.uk> wrote in message
news:7onh1uF...@mid.individual.net...
1947 certainly has the wettest March and 1894 the wettest November but
January 1915 was considerably wetter than January 2003. One thing does stand
out in the figures is most of 1976 particularly August and September; the
Thames can have been little more than a muddy ditch in those two months.
Were any regattas cancelled for lack of water?
David Biddulph
news:fTwVm.5$RF...@newsfe02.ams2...
Fortunately, with all the locks the level in the Thames doesn't drop much if
the flow drops.
We managed to get plenty of regattas in during August and September of 1976,
both on and off the Thames, as my trophy cabinet confirms. :-)
Neil.W.James
Or perhaps the clientele has changed and thus the applicable safety
standards.
Observing the results from two old almanacs, the following categories
were presented in those years:
1965:
Novice, Junior, Junior Senior and Senior (All singles)
(That is, no specific age-related event.)
1985:
Novice, Novice Tr (whatever that was), Senior A/B/C, Elite, Veteran
B/C/D/E singles
Junior, Novice, Senior B, Elite, Womens Junior 16, Womens doubles
Junior U16 quads
And now
2009:
57 different classes from J13 onwards.
Neil
Carl Douglas
You'd be right, I think, to believe that fewer youngsters raced in
winter heads 40 years ago - junior & novice not then signifying any age
qualification.
I suspect that Tr may stand for "Tracer" - a passing attempt to create a
class of more stable shell.
And I do think it has been made harder to hold events in stronger stream
conditions.
Something for the statisticians to chew on here:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/stationdata/oxforddata.txt
I'd suppose these Oxford rainfalls may be taken to reflect rates of
drainage into the upper Thames?
It would be interesting to know how river rise rates respond to heavy
rainfalls now and in the past, including the influence of abstraction
rates. Rise rates might be higher now due to greater urbanisation &
road-building in the catchments & the effects further downstream of
upstream flood alleviation schemes. I guess the abstraction may,
intentionally or otherwise, reduce peak flows except where reservoirs
are already full.
Cheers -
Carl
--
Carl Douglas Racing Shells -
Fine Small-Boats/AeRoWing Low-drag Riggers/Advanced Accessories
Write: Harris Boatyard, Laleham Reach, Chertsey KT16 8RP, UK
Find: http://tinyurl.com/2tqujf
Andy McKenzie
trends it is fairly certain that river velocities in the lower Thames
will be faster for a given flow than they were in the 1920s, as the
river has been 'cleaned up' - i.e. there are fewer weirs, jetties,
fish traps and assorted junk, and a shorter and steeper path - so
velocities increase and the river can carry more water without causing
over bank flooding.
Direct abstraction can also be very significant and will have reduced
peak flows substantially.
I had another look at some of the Kingston data, and looked at flows
in Oct/Nov/Dec - interestingly the 'quiescent ' period in the 1970s
and 1980s is not so visible in the autumn - although there is still
nothing I would class as a trend.
Andy
> Email: c...@carldouglas.co.uk Tel: +44(0)1932-570946 Fax: -563682
> URLs: www.carldouglas.co.uk(boats) &www.aerowing.co.uk(riggers)- Hide quoted text -
>
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