Like all good ideas, it started in a pub.
In late 2015, there were a few Cornish guys and gals sat in Covent Garden with a dream of getting to the World Champs in the Isles of Scilly. Several months later, we returned from the Scillies buoyed by a truly incredible weekend and we have built on this year by year with some incredible results in last years World Champs, with our Men’s A crew coming 11th and our Ladies A crew coming 43rd, we’re so pleased with our progress and proud of our crews.
We started with the CPGA Club In A Box Tribute gig and our very first wooden Gig; Fury, adding Rhos a few years later, (both of these built by Ralph Bird, our Coach Patrick Bird’s father), which is a nice connection to the homeland! These were followed by our plastic gig ‘Ansom and our most recent addition to the family, Phoenix, (built by our very own Patrick Bird)
We are the first Gig club to be based on the Thames and are lucky enough to row from two locations in the capital, the East London Docks, which is a pretty spectacular row in the Royal Albert Docks, next the City Airport flight path, those of you who came to our regatta a couple of years ago will remember the fun, and also Richmond, where, in 2018 we are lucky enough to lease one of the boathouses next to Richmond Bridge as our Boat/Clubhouse. If you are ever in Richmond, please feel free to pop in and have a natter and a pint!
Our members range from rowers who have years of experience in gigs and gig rowing to complete newbies who had never even heard of gigrowing until they stumbled across us, but we are always pleased to welcome new people, Cornish or not, to our taster rows, in the hope that they too will be bitten by the bug.
As well as serious competitive rowing, we also cater for the social side by having social rows and themed social rows, whether they be a pub row, a cream tea row and, as many of you know, we are always keen to throw open the doors of the clubhouse and have a party, we don’t need much of an excuse! We love to have a big bash at the end of the Great River Race, so if you are taking part next year, come and find us at the finish and join the party! We also take our social responsibility seriously, this winter/spring we ran some river clean up rows, where quite a lot of rubbish and detritus was cleared from the river and banks, making it safer for the wildlife that we share the river with.
We are a part of the new South East League and have had a huge amount of fun over the winter taking part in this and getting to know the clubs that are closest to us a bit more. After getting all excited for the season at Three Rivers in March, we’re all desperate to get back in a boat again and hope that this will be sooner rather than later.
Our plans for the future include encouraging more members of the local community to give gigrowing a try and, hopefully, offering rowing to under 18’s as well. if anyone would like to get in touch, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line: info@lcpgclub.com
Thank you to Greta Kendall for all the information
Hello,
So great to find your rowing site. I’m coming over to London 9/28-10/3, from Gloucester, Massachusetts—where I row with Gloucester Gig Rowers—and would love the chance to row on the Thames with your club, if at all possible. Any chance?