Scotch College

Cardinal Club Thanked For Tank

Cardinal Club President, Bob Welch (right), looks on as Treasurer, Mark Bernard, presents the cheque for $23,000 to the School's Vice Principal, Ian Savage.

Reasons for Thanks

The Cardinal Club has once again shown its great commitment to rowing and Scotch College with a donation of $23,000. The money has been used to refurbish the school's rowing tank
and to make changes to the Cardinal Pavilion to improve the indoor rowing facilities for the boys.

One of the first users of the tank is 1st VIII coach Geoff Watt, who commented that 'It is great for teaching boys to row correctly.” Members of the 1st VIII squad can be seen using the tank during most lunchtimes as they respond to the challenge to be able to row both stroke side and bow side.

The tank was refurbished by Scotch's boatman Chris Roberts. It is designed so that it can be used for both sweep oared rowing and for sculling. It has already demonstrated its usefulness and boys of all ages are being taught to row in the tank.

Our thanks go to the Cardinal Club and, in particular, the President Bob Welch, and the other members of the committee.

Training Underway

Boys have been training hard in preparation for the forthcoming season. The first serious hit out will be at the Head of the Yarra on Saturday 29 November. This annual time trial from the city to Hawthorn starts at 1.00 pm and will see the first Scotch crews go past the Cardinal Pavilion at around 1.15 pm.

The boys have responded enthusiastically to the new coaches - Geoff Watt (1st VIII) and Matt Long (2nd VIII). Similarly, the Year 10 crews have made an excellent start to the season and the Year 9 quad sculls are on the water with a most impressive coaching panel.

Drew Ginn - World Champion

Drew Ginn continued his stunning comeback to international rowing with an outstanding win in the Coxless Pairs at the World Rowing Championships in Milan. Rowing with his former coach at Scotch, James Tomkins, they dominated the event to score an outstanding win and were delighted to turn the tables on the sparring partners from the UK - Messrs Pinsett and Cracknell. Drew and James are now setting themselves to repeat this result at next year's Athens Olympics.

Other Old Scotch Collegians at the World Championships were Cameron McKenzie McHarg, George Jelbart and Tim Smith. Cameron was a member of the Australian VIII that finished 5th in the final and qualified for the Athens Olympics. George finished a highly creditable 7th in the Lightweight Single Scull - an excellent result given limited preparation in that class of boat. Tim was 4th in the Under 23 Lightweight Quad Scull.

Congratulations to all these young men who represented Australia and we wish them well in their quest for Olympic representation next year.

Greg Baker
Chairman - Rowing