On Saturday 11 April 2015 the Bate Races was (sorry were) rowed in London
and most people will have noticed that the rowers were covered in glory (well, in t shirts blazoned
with the motif of BNY Mellon - even the boat(s) were titled BNY Mellon)
our heroic sponsors are based for the most part in New York but the London Branch was right then in the process of being taken to the cleaners (well, a fleck of dust flicked off their lapels) by a Financial Conduct Authority ...
the FCA website (no date offered on the web page than a nostalgic "yesterday") gives most of the details you might like to know, about this episode, ...
I didn't notice what it may have told us about where all this DOSH actually GOES.
Does the money go to the Treasury?
Or to the vigilant mandarins at the FCA itself?
Might some of the money go to BNYM's sponsees - such as the ever needy CUBC (as indicated in this paragraph from a website of an outfit called Rowing?
Does the public or the press and/or broadcasters (happens to be the BBC, with their reputation to preserve) know or care about the sponsorship and the sponsors - who, one supposes, are hoping to improve their public "image"?
It has to be said that the BBC were perhaps first in reporting the fine - although tucked away in their business section of their News website ..
but most of the other entries in the google page listing reports of the fine, were in other specialist press outlets and or in the guardian or independent - though the telegraph also, though not the tabloids or Mail or Express...)
What do rowers and their organisations think or propose to do about these shenanigans?
A rowing website includes the paragraph:
Experience
For programmes that start with a different set of athletes every September, the previous experience and physiology of their respective squads is undoubtedly one of the largest factors behind potential success come April. In this respect, there has been a clear preference for athletes with international pedigree to choose Dark over Light Blue. Delivering athletes of a more developed physiology who are better experienced in the highly competitive and pressurised environment of international competition will have a hugely positive affect on a squad throughout the entire year—not just race day—setting a high-standard for others to aspire to and becoming role models for what are commonly a younger group. It was no coincidence to see Oxford's two most decorated and physiologically gifted performers sitting in the respective stroke seats of their crews, as both Sean Bowden and Christine Wilson looked to benefit from both the experience and talents of Caryn Davies and Stan Louloudis. Improving recruitment is therefore the first place that Cambridge can look to make inroads; but as was seen in the controversial case of Thorsten Engelmann, this cannot be at the expense of the academic reputation of an institution such as Cambridge University.
For programmes that start with a different set of athletes every September, the previous experience and physiology of their respective squads is undoubtedly one of the largest factors behind potential success come April. In this respect, there has been a clear preference for athletes with international pedigree to choose Dark over Light Blue. Delivering athletes of a more developed physiology who are better experienced in the highly competitive and pressurised environment of international competition will have a hugely positive affect on a squad throughout the entire year—not just race day—setting a high-standard for others to aspire to and becoming role models for what are commonly a younger group. It was no coincidence to see Oxford's two most decorated and physiologically gifted performers sitting in the respective stroke seats of their crews, as both Sean Bowden and Christine Wilson looked to benefit from both the experience and talents of Caryn Davies and Stan Louloudis. Improving recruitment is therefore the first place that Cambridge can look to make inroads; but as was seen in the controversial case of Thorsten Engelmann, this cannot be at the expense of the academic reputation of an institution such as Cambridge University.
________
so, if things carry on as now, there will be no competition in future - as battle hardened giants from the Charles River and who knows where else will gravitate to Oxford (and presumably ensure wins forever) leaving Cambridge to paddle around as best they can, in the fens
perhaps there is scope for a shallow water PUNT RACE
suggestions welcome for whom to nobble as a sponsor....
(mind you, the BBC ran a team sheet on Saturday which showed where the rowers had come from - and for the life of me I can not retrieve a website which repeats this information, but I am sure that Cambridge fielded (or watered?) 7/8 foreign rowers, mostly Americans while Oxford had 4/8 - I think - British ...) ...
so it may not always be true that packing the bate with Americans is all one has to do ...
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