The excitement on Trentside is now mounting as the clubs prepare to do their Moon Row. Nottingham and Union have joined forces with Nottingham Rowing Club to help raise money for Cancer Research and the local clubs.

The Friday “Last of the Summer Wine” gang will start the whole process at 12 am this Friday 3rd November. The youngest crew member is 67-year-old and the oldest 75. They usually spend Friday mornings having a cup of tea and putting the world to rights! They are setting off in the club’s octuple scull which none of them have done before. They will row for 2 hours before handing the “baton” to the club’s Recreational section who will scull in their coxed quadruple scull. Each crew will row/scull up to Farm above Clifton Bridge down to the weir then back to the club, if this takes less than two hours then they will continue upstream until they have been rowing for the allotted time. The Recreational section are handing over to the Juniors who will take the boat into the night. All sections of the club are involved including the World Start athletes as well. Nottingham and Union Rowing are providing over 90 oarsmen of which 70 will be between the ages of 12 and 17 years, needless to say they will not be sculling in the middle of the night. Nottingham Trent University are also joining the fun by providing a mixed eight to row the 2 hours from Saturday midnight until 2 in the morning. The final crew sculling from Sunday 10 am to the close of play at midday will include the clubs two oldest members, Mike Collier and Bill Payne who are current world champions in the over 85’s category.

The moon is ready and full and hopefully so are we. Keith Atkinson also intends to cover 50,000 metres on the indoor rowing machine despite suffering from MS. He turns 80 next month.

President Tony Lorrimer is really pleased that the clubs have come together to help such a deserving cause.