Electronic Payment
Members should now be in receipt of their badges and ticket forms for this year’s regatta.
Any member wanting to pay for tickets via online bank transfer are requested to contact the ticket secretary directly for the details.
Annual Dinner 2010
This year’s dinner will be in London RC on Friday, April 23. Tickets are £36, more details from Rupert Hare, or from the poster.
Remenham Challenge 2010
On a fine day on the Tideway, the Remenham Challenge was re-invigorated on a course from Chiswick to Hammersmith.
Congratulations to Molesey for their men’s crown and to Thames for their win in the women’s section.
A report will follow …
[Results] and [Photos (from Birdman)]
The winners – Molesey BC
(warning 2.6Mb file) – photo courtesy of Birdman Photography.
Remenham Challenge 2010
As you will already know, the Remenham Club has decided to reinstate the Remenham Challenge as a separate winter head race between the Founding Clubs. This will be held on the Tideway on Sunday 24 January 2010 at 11:30, over a downriver course from Chiswick to Hammersmith.
Remenham at the Fours Head
Remenham Club will be awarding a prize to the fastest men’s and women’s crew from a Founding Club at the 2009 Fours Head.
The prizes will be awarded at Vesta RC, Wednesday, 9th December.
[details]
New Membership Form
There is now a new membership application form and Direct Debit form, which can be found here. Please use these forms for all future applications (as of October 2009).
The changes are:
- we have decided to impose a minimum age for new members of 18 years, so the form now says this and asks for date of birth
- we now only require a cheque for £30 with the application – this cheque will be banked as soon as the committee has accepted the application onto the waiting list. The Direct Debit, which should be left undated, will not be sent to the bank until the applicant is elected, at which time the first sub (currently £30) will be taken. This procedure avoids problems with cheques and Direct Debit forms being considered to have expired by the bank. The only change to the DD form is that it asks for the date to be left blank.
AGM 2009
The minutes from the 2009 AGM are available here.
Centenary
From the centenary fly past ...
And there are more photos.
Supermarine Spitfire TA805
Supermarine Spitfire TA805
Supermarine Spitfire TA805 was built at the Castle Bromwich Aircraft Factory in late-1944 and after being accepted by the RAF was put into storage until after VE Day when in June 1945 it was transferred to 183 ‘Gold Coast’ Squadron at Chilbolton near Andover in Hampshire wearing the Unit’s ‘HF’ codes. The Squadron was tasked with converting from Hawker Typhoons to Spitfires ready for peacetime Service during June and July. At the end of July TA805 was sent to 234 ‘Madras Presidency’ Squadron, based at Bentwaters, near Ipswich in Suffolk with the unit codes ‘FX’. This Squadron was also in the process of converting from the Mustang IV, August being spent at Hawkinge at a Practice Armament Camp where gunnery and bombing methods were practiced.
The Squadron returned to Bentwaters soon after and took part in the Air Parade over London in September, TA805 probably taking part in the proceedings. In late 1948 the South African Air Force bought a batch of Spitfires and TA805 was one of them, going on to see five years service before being struck-off and sold for scrap to South African Metal and Machinery Company at Salt River, Cape Town where she lay for almost thirty years when the mortal remains of a number of Spitfires were discovered and some bought by UK collectors, TA805 being one of them. Steve Atkins, the new owner stored the remains until 1996 when the aircraft was bought by the current owners. The restoration to flying condition commenced shortly afterwards with Isle-of-Wight based Airframe Assemblies who restored the structures and passed them on to the Duxford based Aircraft Restoration Company who returned the aircraft to flying condition, the first flight taking place in December 2005.
Now based at Biggin Hill airfield in Kent it has been christened the ‘Kent Spitfire’ and regularly performs at many airshows and events around the UK and Europe.
Last Minute Tickets
The ticket secretary reports that any orders from members for tickets received today or tomorrow will be available for collection at the Treasurers Box.
The entire ticketing operation will be transferred to the club from Tuesday evening. The ticket secretary will only be contactable via the club.