Your oar in?
the other seniors. It works quite well, it gives people a bit of a taste for it.
“Start on a rowing machine, into fairly stable boats, and then into crew boats, which is the main, progressive plan.
“There are different age groups and it’s quite easy to get involved, although we only take people aged from 12 and up. Before that they’re just too small.
“You are putting children out in boats, and technically they’re by themselves, but generally they’re fine.
“Just come down and give it a go – why not? It’s fun, you have to decide whether you want to do it for fun or compete. If you want to compete and compete at a high level, then it takes a lot of dedication, but people enjoy it and it’s becomes very much a second family. That sounds really corny but it is. Try it and you’ll have a good time.
“Our oldest member is going to be 80 soon, so any age, any size.
“The World Masters Championships happen every year and there are people who row that who are 80-plus. If you can do it, keep going.”
“Visit our website at www. strathclydeparkrc.co.uk, or drop an email to secretary@strathclydeparkrc. co.uk to get more information.
“We often have leaflets and the guys who work here are generally pretty good at pointing you in the right direction.
“It’s not so easy just to turn up of a day, but if you let us know, we will try to accommodate you.”
While Gillian would like better facilities for the club, she says they get by with what they have.
She said: “We’re doing OK at the moment. It’s exam season for the kids so there are fewer of them down, but we’ve probably got about 20 to 30 kids and about the same for seniors, so it’s not bad.
“We also have the World Class Start programme as part of the club, so that’s helping to build numbers as well.
“The facilities are OK, we get by. Obviously it’s an international rowing lake, so you have an eight-lane course and you can’t say that about anywhere else in the UK apart from Eton Dorney.
“It’s Fisa-approved and the Glasgow 2018 European Championships are coming here, so you can’t fault the course, but we are restricted in terms of water-use and other facilities.
“We have a boat bay, but we’re not like a Castle Semple or a Clydesdale – we don’t have a boat house, we don’t have somewhere that we can go afterwards, somewhere dedicated.”
Events such as the European Championships help to attract new rowers and most of them stay.
“We have had a huge number of people interested recently,” said Gillian. “So it is really good.
“London 2012 was ridiculous, we had a massive influx. It wasn’t quite so many with Rio 2016 but a fair number. It happens every time a big competition comes along.
“Come down to the park and see it, see what’s happening. The poster girl for rowing for the European Championships [Karen Bennett] used to row out of Edinburgh Uni until just recently, so you can come down and actually see her.”