Great River Race 2007

Photograph by John Cooper and reproduced with kind permission

Here is the GLSW Scout Network Crew rowing in the 2007 Great River Race from Richmond to Greenwich last weekend (Saturday 8th September 2007). This annual event over 22 miles, now in its 20th year, attracted 300 craft, both traditional and modern. Dorney, a Thames Rosalind Skiff owned by Petersham & Ham Sea Scouts, was among them.

This photo was taken in one of the calmer stretches of the Thames and features Sean Weston (Romans Network, Croydon) – bow; Vici Beaton (Unattached or so she says!); Tim Scholtes (Merlin Network, Richmond); Kevin Park (Merlin Network) – stroke; Duncan Walker (formerly Saxons Network, Kingston) – passenger; and Gary Poolman (Merlin Network) – helm. Chris Dean (not shown, and probably just as well!) was boatswain and supporter-in-chief.

The Race was started by Sting who then departed to Twickenham where he allegedly had a singing engagement later in the day! For the record Dorney powered by GLSW Scout Network finished 241st in a time of 3 hours 36 minutes 47 seconds!

There were several Scout crews in the Race this year, but there could be more – next year perhaps?

Chris Dean