New lease of sporting life

A GROUP of local footballers have swapped their boots for rowing oars this summer. Simon Johns, Chris du Feu, Shaun Kelling and James Coquelin have all played football to a high level in the island. Together with cox Tony Clarkson, they form the Close Funds fours team.

Apart from Johns, who skippers the boat, they are all rowing novices.

'I rowed about seven years ago but all the others haven't rowed before,' said Johns.

'My brother-in-law is Joe Paul, the rowing club captain, and I spoke to a couple of the lads and they said they were interested. We all went to school together.'

The 29-year-old Johns has seven Muratti caps to his name.

The North left back has been plagued with various injury problems over the years but he will feature in the chocolate-and-blue strip next season.

Kelling was an island player until a serious back problem cut short his career.

Coquelin has been a regular feature in Vale Rec's defence for a number of years and Clarkson is a youth two and three coach at Rec.

Du Feu also played Priaulx for Vale Rec, but the Grammar School PE teacher is better known in his role as Guernsey's Star Trophy manager.

He had to stop playing due to calf problems.

'It gives someone old and crocked like myself something competitive to do,' said du Feu.

Rowing is well regarded as one of the more technical sports and the new team have benefitted from the help of the rowing club coach, Lloyd Le Page, and experienced rowers Paul Montague and the de Kooker brothers, Sam and Tom.

'Loads of people have been willing to help us improve,' said du Feu.

'I liken rowing to skiing. Every time you go onto the water, you improve.

'Our technique is getting better.'

Johns agreed with his teammate and added that they struggled at the start of the season as they could not get the whole team out on the water at the same time due to other commitments. Substi-tute rowers have had to come in at times.

'We've got a more settled team now,' he said.

'Our fitness is good but where we've struggled this year is with our technique. We're starting to improve.

'We do two hours a week training in the boat and then race at the weekend.

'We've had the same team for the last few weeks so there has been a jump in our performance.'

At last weekend's 40th Sark to Jersey race, Close Funds came sixth in their class and eleventh overall when they completed the 14-mile course in 2hr 16min. 56sec.

The rookies found the choppy conditions at the beginning hard going.

'The race was OK,' said Johns.

'At first it was pretty lumpy. We were a bit off the pace because our technique isn't great and the others dealt with it better than we did.

'We finished pretty strong because the conditions were better at the end of the race.'

This weekend, Johns and his crew are taking part in the Herm weekend.

On Friday evening the competitors row the 5,740m from Guernsey Harbour to the small island and then Saturday sees the around-Herm race.

The weekend is wrapped up with the 10,370m Trident Trophy race on Sunday.

The team have enjoyed the season so far and they are looking forward to Herm.

'It's a great club that's well organised and with a good social side,' said du Feu.

'We're hoping to carry on next year.'