18 December 2025

By Greg Denieffe

Greg Denieffe finds that as you age, you ache in the places that you used to play.

It’s been a while since my last nonchronological autobiographical tale (May 2021). However, I now wish to take advantage of the title of my recent HTBS post, The End is Where We Start From*, admit that my rowing days are behind me, and reveal that in 2025, I found myself back in the driver’s seat, a seat that I have occupied on and off since 1974.   

And for the most part, it was enjoyable (not sure my hips would agree), but the biggest surprise for me was watching those you saw work so hard in the boat (and in the gym) get their deserved rewards, be they pots, medals, or just the satisfaction of reminding them that even if they fell short, they would not be counted amongst the timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

If you want to know how my rowing and coxing adventures began, you can read about them in Tales of the Unexpected III – Bringing it all Back Home, but be warned, there are photographs.

There was an almighty gap between racing for Carlow Rowing Club between 1973 and 1986 and my first outing in a Milton Keynes Rowing Club boat in September 2000. There was also an almighty gap between the two clubs, with Milton Keynes barely five years in existence. In a club that young, with very few members and very little know-how, it was active participation on every level: rowing, coxing, coaching from within the boat whilst rowing, and the small matter of being an active committee member.

What started out as exercise soon became training, and before I knew it, I was racing. The head season was fun; row in one division, cox in another. Scrub that bit about head season being fun; I clearly remember the 2001 Head of the River on the Tideway and asking the river gods to save me mid-race.

By early 2008, the body had had enough of rowing, and that season I coxed men’s crews in training and in the occasional race.

So, roll on another almighty gap filled with work, family, thousands of kilometres on the ergometer, many regattas as a spectator, and, of course, HTBS posts.

In 2024, after a few months of easing myself back on the strings, I got to race at a new venue, Ely – my 34th (if my memory serves me well).

The Isle of Ely Head of the River, held on a crisp Sunday morning at the beginning of November 2024, was my first race coxing a MKRC Women’s Masters crew. Ely is famous for its cathedral, being home to one of Cambridge University’s boat houses, the Oxbridge Boat Races of 1944 and 2021, and making the cover of Pink Floyd’s 1984 album, The Division Bell.

The race, on the River Great Ouse, was over a 5000m course known as The Queen Adelaide Straight. The start was 6½ kilometres from the boating area, and as a firm believer in warm-ups, this was a big plus. It was a shame that there was no direct competition for the W. Mas D8+, but a good row and a decent time, followed by freshly brewed coffee (other clubs take note), sent us home in a happy mood.

I’m not sure that I will ever fully embrace the term, Masters. To me, that signifies some form of mastery, which is often lacking in crews. I also struggle to accept that in World Rowing terms, you are a master when you are 27 years old. Anyway, I must return to the matter in hand – celebrating my first coxing wins in 50 years. But first, a brief reminisce.

In 1975, I collected several head wins coxing a men’s maiden four, rowing in the now defunct class of Clinker Fours. I was still only 13 years old when we stacked up wins in Carlow, Cork, Coleraine and New Ross. Back in those days, clubs received pennants for winning head races, and all but Bann Rowing Club (Coleraine) gave miniatures to each crew member as well as the main pennant. Considering the tat that regattas (not Metro or Trinity) dished out as presentation prizes at that time, these were worth winning, despite what Yossarian felt in Joseph Heller’s novel, Catch-22.

Fifty years later, I finally added to my coxing haul with wins at Bedford Small Boats Head and a bronze medal at the British Rowing Masters.

In a follow-up piece tomorrow, a special guest writer will review the 2025 racing year of the ‘MK women who sweep’ and their wins at Bedford Head, both Peterborough Regattas, the British Masters in Nottingham and the World Masters in Banyoles. I was delighted to have the opportunity to help them prepare for these events and even more delighted that I got to steer them in several races.