A Londoner writes

1) Nearly being removed from HRR by security after our aptly named "Crew Inappropriate" decided to take a tour to watch the pros in action. Some amongst us were inspired to behave similarly, though unfortunately in the sense of prostitute rather than professional. My personal contribution to events was to require physical restraint from swimming across the river, on the (true but irrelevant) justification that "I swam in the Serpentine on Christmas Day". The reception from the good stewards of Henley was nearly as frosty as the lake had been. 

 

2) Being fished from Tideway for the second time by a UL launch accompanied by a sniggering men's pair. Protests that the transition from sweep rowing to sculling necessitated a certain amount of wetness, that I was in fact following the ARA Rules of the Road, and in any case was wearing L plates did nothing to restore my image.

 

It's reassuring to know that though we have managed a certain local notoriety during the last year, this may be an inevitable consequence of low performance rowing rather than a cause for concern (especially being a mature student having sought solace in rowing after several years in the post-school-cross-country wilderness of low performance triathlon).

 

Btw - for future reference, you may be interested to know that as we have so far been unable to intimidate opponents through matching kit (due to the incompetence of our kit officer), our tactic of choice has been to introduce ourselves as 'Imperial College', neglecting to mention the [School of Medicine]. This seems to be effective in reducing not only the performance of said opponents, but also their number, and could perhaps be employed by other crews (talk grandly yet vaguely of 'Tideway', 'London' or 'Thames', refusing to be drawn on specifics).