Notes from the Great River Race 2023

Five Poplar members (two being newbies and three seasoned participants) took part in the 35th Great River Race, a fixed seat boat race covering a staggering 21.6 miles from Millwall in the east to Richmond in the west under a blazing sun on 16 September 2023.

Here’s their story….

Lizzy Nunn and Simon Perriton both offered to step in at short notice to help get their boats over the line.

Lizzy covered for an injured crew member from Ahoy in a cutter named Emmeline 2.  The composite crew consisted of six female vets including Ania MacGregor from PDRC and Penelope Jarret from Globe. This was the first time that the women had rowed together and Lizzy’s first-time racing in a cutter.

The women refused to let any boat pass them and for their efforts, they finished in 2 hours 41 minutes and won a trophy as the fastest all-female cutter.

“Covering distances such as these, you need a clear race strategy by breaking up the distance bridge by bridge,” says Lizzy. “We passed under 28 bridges in all.  It was exhausting but I felt a real sense of achievement afterwards.”

Simon played his part rowing and coxing for the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists (WCIT) in a boat named CITO.  With 12 hours’ notice, Simon not only coxed the boat but swopped seats with a flagging rower to row for the last quarter of the race.

Simon says: “CITO means “Swiftly”, but the arches of Kew Bridge got in the way and we caught 25 crabs and clashed oars with 15 other crews.  So, we have work to do to live up to the name of the boat!

Despite the stops and starts, the men finished the course in a respectable 2 hours 46 minutes. Meanwhile seasoned participant and PDRC member Joelle Jenny stroked a mixed vet-crew cutter named Deptford Devils, finishing in a respectable 2 hours 33 minutes. They ranked 37th overall position. This was out of 218 different types of boats including Celtic longboats to Cornish gigs.

Joelle says: “Our cox did a brilliant job navigating the best possible line and avoiding the traffic jams at the bridges. We gave it all we had. Can’t wait for next year!”.

Elsewhere Poplar’s very own Bargemaster to the Company of Waterman and Lighterman Robbie Coleman steered a Thames Watermans cutter named Jim Holt. The six-member crew of apprentices crossed the finish line in 3 hours 13 minutes. Not bad for a crew, two of whom had never rowed before, another two had only been on the water once before and the remaining two row for Globe under the guidance of Maurice Coughlin.

A daring Ania finished the annual event in true race spirit – by jumping in the river (and that was after downing a few pints in the beer tent).

We were proud to put out the message that PDRC is willing and able to step in for other crews whenever needed (even if things don’t always work out as planned).