The Ardingly Rowing club's competition squad was started in February 2004 when 3 men turned up to the first outing. Since that small beginning the group has grown to a core group of about 16. This is made up of a mixture of senior oarsmen, novices who have learnt from scratch at Ardingly and a strong veteran group. In the last 4 seasons we have raced at many Thames regattas and heads claiming 3 wins , 6 wins , 21 wins and last season 23 wins at senior, novice and veteran level. Last season's wins included 5 men losing their novice sculling status, 7 wins in Senior events, and 12 veteran events (including the Veteran D double defending their titles at the National Veteran champs and Henley Veterans). In 2007/2008 we are not expecting quite such a big total as we intend to race at higher level events on the tideway and at Dorney, and who knows maybe even Henley.

In the last two years we have taken delivery of four new boats, two new Janousek boats, both with rowing and sculling riggers, a quad scull/coxless four and a double scull/coxless pair plus a new heavyweight single and lightweight double. These new racing boats, along with another convertible double/pair, 3 other double sculls and 5 single sculls, mean that we have a competitive and flexible boat stock available for our adult members. (As a project Oarsome club there are a further 8 Janouseks available for the junior members). The size of the fleet also means we can accommodate more members in the group and we are always keen to welcome any experienced oarsmen who having left university or moved out of London find themselves in this beautiful part of South England.

The geography of other rowing clubs gives us a huge potential catchment area, approximately bounded by the M25 and the south coast. Our location is very easy to reach from Haywards Heath, Crawley, East Grinstead, Horsham and the south coast ( 7 current squad members live in the Brighton, Worthing areas). Ardingly reservoir is ideal for rowing with about 1400 metres available and a large hill sheltering it from the prevailing south westerly winds.

The squad follows a training programme based on 4 sessions per week, with a mixture of coached sessions and personal sessions giving a fair degree of flexibility. Within 12 minutes of the reservoir the club chairman has converted a building that contains 7 ergos and these are available at most times. In the winter coaching is provided at 3 of the sessions, namely Thursday evening's ergo at 6:30pm, Saturday's and Sunday's, with both weekend sessions on the water starting at 8am. In the summer this changes to 4 coached water sessions on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and Saturday and Sunday mornings.

The group is coached by Mostyn Field, who previously represented GB at junior, under 23 and world championship level as well as being a multiple Henley winner. He previously had 15 years coaching experience at the University of London, before moving to Sussex. At UL 4 of the crews he coached were selected for the GB under 23 team (winning a gold and a bronze medal) and 6 of his crews fought their way through to Henley finals (winning the Thames, Visitors and Britannia cups). As this experience was all in sweep and with students, since coming to Ardingly he has claimed three new coaching milestones.

If you are interested in joining the squad or would just like more information please contact Mostyn; e-mail mostyn.field@btconnect.com, or phone 01444 811498.