George Parsonage’s Henley memories

• Being there to see Sean Drea win his hat trick of Diamonds
• Watching 17stone+ Vladimir Eshinov in the pair
• Stroking the Scottish Rowing 8 against Cornell University
• Beating Dick Findlay in the Diamonds
• Racing in the finals of the Double Sculls
• Getting turned away from the Stewards because my kilt was above my knees
• Watching Patrick Delafield catching champagne corks in his cap
• Managing to blow up the engine of my caravanette just as I parked in the Leander car park and being allowed to live in it all week while the engine was fixed
• Signing 400+ people into the pub I was staying at as my guests on finals night
• Looking after Sean Drea’s Pineapple Goblet for a night after one of his wins
• Being held upside down and having my head dipped by the Russians into the Grand Challenge Cup
• Winning the Minors Bowl for spare pairs, rowing with a complete stranger, beating the Harvard spare men
• Coxing the Boatmen’s/Watermen’s 8 over the Henley Course
• Watching the Americans paint 150BMA on the Leander wall
• The Tri Colour fly above Leander when the Garda won the Thames Cup
• Lending my scull to youngsters to compete in the cox-boys race
• Finding one of my sculling blades broken on the morning of the race and having to scull with a borrowed pair
  Cold showers
• Being coached by Charlie Newens
• Asking 2 young boys not to run about the Boat Tent, not realising they were Royals
• Dining the night before finals in the Catherine Wheel pub
• Asking Alberto Demidi if he had a 2,000m straight to train on and being told the river he trained on was over 2,000m wide.
• Watching east end of London boys doing their traditional “runner” at the end of a meal
• Holding a sculpture Exhibition at the River and Rowing Museum
• Trading with Timoshinin and Korshikov for Black Sea caviar
  Downing College celebrating my sculls win
• Practicing in the double with Sean Drea before we went later in the month to race in Dublin
  Becoming friends with Peter Coni
• Listening to an American who on being asked to say grace at a Henley Lunch stood up and said “rub a dub dub thank God for the grub”
• Support the Glasgow Humane Society’s work rescuing people from waterways
• Learn about George Parsonage’s life on the water