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Ball Cup Regatta Sunday 10th May 2009
Instructions To Competitors
Dorney
For those that have never been to Dorney, follow these instructions.
From the west, ignore your intuition , which tells you that Dorney is
on the Windsor Castle side of the M4 !
Exit the M4 at junction 7, heading towards Slough. After about
half a mile, turn left at roundabout. Continue about a mile to a
further roundabout; turn left, a supermarket at 11 o’clock.
You will pass back over the motorway, going through Dorney
village. The lake complex is then on your right. If you
approach from the Maidenhead Road, you will see the Supermarket
Roundabout, as before. Reverse instructions coming from London.
Parking
Dorney Lake Services are quite strict regarding vehicles. Please
respect their instructions. Cars should not be parked alongside
the approach roads on the grass. Enter the trailer park, in which cars
must not be left; you will find the car park in the far left corner.
The trailer park is reserved for trailers only. We allow towing
vehicles to be left attached to the trailers. Parking method on other
sheet, basically, towing vehicle nose to centre line; enter park from
either end.
Tents
Good News ! DLS are continuing permission to allow us to erect club tents along the ‘Bund’, that is the raised
area to the right of the approach road, alongside and above the lake.
There are conditions! The permission is dependent upon the grass not
being waterlogged – an announcement will be made the day or so
before the event.
Just
like the Nat Schools – A la Agincourt ! We are not
saying too much at the moment about vehicles associated with the tents,
except to say that supporters must still use the car parks. Any other
vehicle with the tent area must be parked along the edge of the road on
the lake side, not on the grass, and so as to leave complete access to
arriving and departing vehicles, including trailers. You must
completely clear up your sites after the event. Future permission to
tent depends on how we treat the site this year.
Tent charge, to support the event - £15, payable with entries.
Early Arrivals
Trailers may be left at the Dorney Complex on Saturday Evening. For overnight camping, Amerden Campsite is three minutes from the lake.
(
Old Marsh Lane, Dorney, Tel 01628 627461 ) It is a small family
site, immaculately appointed, and will not tolerate noise. Book in
advance. Do not attempt to take a trailer there; you will not
turn to exit! Leave it at Dorney first )
Draw
It is inevitable that with an event this size, there may be errors in
the draw. Please email any mistakes ASAP. They may not all be ours! We
will adjust by race day. Heat times will not change.
Safety
The accident and Red Cross ambulance station is situated at the corner
of the boathouse nearer the car park. Police, Fire and Hospital
contacts ( URN 1633-0103 Tel 0845-8505-505) will be
displayed on the complex notice board at the same point, as will the
circulation plan for boating on the lake. Grid ref is SU
935776. Safety patrol during racing will be by Old Windsor
Life Guards, a professional, fully appointed body.
Facilities
There will be portaloo facilities outside the boathouse.The downstairs
boathouse loos will be locked, but available by key from control for
the disabled. Showers and changing facilities are at the top of
the spiral staircase, as is the cafeteria. Please respect these
facilities. Any school or club abusing them will be permanently
excluded from the competition and reported to the ARA under their
public behaviour ruling. Would coaches please stress this point to
their crews.
Course Circulation Pattern
To view the Ball Cup Regatta Circulation
Pattern please click on Ball Cup 2009.
The
Competition
There will be no
paperwork to deal with on the day. Entries will have been paid for and
completed during the week before. ( Won’t they ?!! ) Simply
report to race control, informing of any scratchings. There will
be no crew numbers, only appropriate lane numbers at boating time.
Vital
Boating Instructions
1) All boats
must have an Empacher slot. Taping
of Race Code and Lane No. on to the side of the boat is a non-starter.
2) Crews must know their race number. They will be filtered by race number and event colour code. Coaches please educate.
Crews
will not be called.
There will be a ‘Current Race’ Board in
operation at the filtering area which tells crews how near they are to
boating. This board overrides any potential start time. You should be
available at the reporting area at least half an hour before race time.
The Race Starters will not wait for late-comers. The first 5 races in
each division should report together at the start of the division.
Speed-up
The timetable operates on a ‘one race per 5 minute’
basis. Please carry your blades to the boating stages before
reporting. You will not be allowed onto the stages without your blades.
Please arrange for helpers to clear blades and boats away from the exit
stage as soon as you finish. The exit stage is somewhat restricted.
If
crews adhere to the above, all else is simple. Remember that The
Ball Cup is run by school volunteers. Hopefully you will have played
your part in the appeal for helpers. We still need more ! This
year we must politely assume that entering crews will all work one
shift, either marshalling on the way to the start, or providing a batch
of 6 pontoon boat holders. Please arrange supporters or whatever
to fulfil this role –we are aware that small clubs are not
heavily staffed, but again, The Ball Cup is run BY schools FOR schools.
The earlier you volunteer to help, the better the choice of your
marshalling session. Names by email ASAP
please,
ghm2@btopenworld.com Nominate a one hour
session on the bank: 8.30 to 9.30, etc, until 4.30, the same for your
batch of starter pontoon people, for whom complete waterproof clothing
will be provided. An adult should accompany and be in charge of these
squads.
Coaches should accompany all crews to the start and cycle during racing on the
control tower side of the lake. Please advise crews how to back onto a
starting pontoon in a side wind. Starters will only allow limited
time at the start for crews that cannot do this. Use the ‘pass
the handle forward’ technique in the bows.
In addition to the above, we stress that an
adult must accompany all crews aged 13 and less to the start and during
racing. Verbal assistance may be given to crews of this age during
racing.
Prizes
may be collected as soon as is convenient after each division.
Competitors will be awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze medallions.
Overall trophies will be presented for Ball Cup points winners and
runners-up. The original Ball trophies will again be presented
for the coxed fours 1st and 2nd events.
Could any images suitable
for inclusion on our website please be sent to the secretary on CD. ( Not email,
please ). We also run a ‘Boat Mart’, if any of you wish to
purchase or sell equipment.
Constructive
criticism of the event would be welcomed, particularly regarding club
inclusion to The Ball; Schools ‘Rowing
Associations’ , Seat number restrictions etc. The Ball Ethics are
clear – we just need a clear way of formulating them.
What do you think of the 3-session split into boat categories ?. It
allows clubs to take advantage of the low entry cost and put children
into more than one event, as many races are straight finals.
Disadvantage is that it precludes boat sharing for many. The
alternative for sharing boats and double entering in a multilane event
is usually a non-starter, but our committee boat pool might alleviate the situation.
To
avoid wasting everybody’s time, we shall continue to make no allowances in the
draw for boat sharing. We sympathise, but there is no multilane
regatta where this is possible.
Does
anybody know of potential sponsors.? The cost of the Dorney facility,
however appropriate, is nevertheless high for a small-schools event.
The Henley Stewards are our annual munificent benefactors, but costs
soar.
We
have heard nothing from the ARA regarding a second ‘Tinies
Champs’ day, to include the J14s excluded from the Nat Schools.
The Ball Schools Event gets bigger. We may not be able to hold the
Tinies races next year. Any influences out there ??
Draw
Comments
Where younger entries have
a marked paucity, we have combined some races, BUT have indicated their
age/status in wrapped text . Prizes will be awarded within such races
for each category. All competitors for such races should report to the
prize centre after their race. Prizes will be given for single entries
for young crews, to any crew that beats another in a category, as well
as the general ruling (above). A crew that enters a category should not
have the right to a prize removed by the fact that others failed to
enter.
Late,
Late, Late Entries When you look at the draw,
if there are any gaps in races that you would like to fill with
additional entries, let me know by email. Only additional
entries taken; we cannot add heats or change entries.
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