With Henley Royal Regatta over for another year Ole Tietz joined POD for a reflective drink at the Duke’s Head. He shares a tale of overcoming cultural boundaries in a time of crisis (i.e. the World Cup).
Photo by Nick Ablitt
POD: “How did the racing go?”
TIETZ: “Oh well, you just pull and then you go. Something like that.”
POD: “Your crew was a mixed bag of rowers, how did it come about?”
TIETZ: “We had four guys in there representing IC, and Seb coxing of course, two Germans from the lightweight 8+ I rowed in last year, another German guy and Iain Weir from London RC. It was pretty much a lightweight crew apart from Will, Pierre and Dodds. The fatties kept complaining about rate, they can’t move quickly enough – too much belly. Pierre took a lot of shit for being the junior. As you know, juniors only pull for the first and last ten strokes. We worked on him and got it up to fifteen, he stepped on a lot.”
POD: “You changed boat a few times before racing… why was that?”
TIETZ: “We tried the Stampfli but it didn’t suit us so we borrowed an empacher from St. Pauls on Monday. Then Winchester College were knocked out on Wednesday morning and we got their brand new Hudson. It was the dog’s b-llox”
POD: “Did everyone speak English? Was anything lost in translation?”
TIETZ: “Most of them spoke English, Martin went to Harvard so was pretty good. He was captain of the lightweight squad over there. There was some confusion about boating. The Germans in the crew wanted to push off with everyone having one foot in the boat and the other on the landing stage. Typically German – very efficient. Half of the crew wanted to do it that way. The other half didn’t really know how to do it but agreed that it looks awesome, so were willing to try it. On Monday we decided to teach everyone so we’d look cool against Leander. The first time was actually pretty good. The second time we had Tom Fieldman coxing and we were a bit late. He called ‘1, 2, 3, push’ but Adrian wasn’t ready… there was a clunk and he went straight into the water. There was an Argentinian 2- across the stage laughing at us.”
POD: "England played Germany in the World Cup the week before Henley. Was there any trouble in the camp?"
TIETZ: “It was very tense. We watched the game at Seb’s place where the Germans were staying. We weren’t courageous enough to go to the pubs.”
POD: “What was Seb like coxing?”
TIETZ: “Oh really good. On the pre-paddle on Saturday we were just going along, doing some exercises … half slide, that type of thing, and we suddenly drew level with the Shrewsbury schoolboy 8+. Being schoolboys they obviously went mad trying to hold us off and there was some nice side-by-side paddling. But as we came up to the island towards the start the river gets really narrow and the two crews came closer and closer until we were almost clashing blades. Neither cox wanted to call easy. Then the Shrewsbury cox shouted ‘Oi! There’s only space for one crew dickweed!” And Seb replied ‘I guess you have to stop then.’ So they stopped. Seb said ‘he’s like a little me!’ It was a touching moment.”
POD: “Your race on Saturday was delayed by nearly fifteen minutes - what happened?”
TIETZ: “Oh yeah there was weed flooding before the semi-final on the bank-side station so they started dredging it away. We just paddled around again until they were done. When we got back to the blocks the starter was there with his flag. As the umpire starting calling out the official start a huge steamer came from behind Temple Island pumping out ‘Ride Sally Ride’. The umpire tried to keep going but nobody could hear him so he had to stop and start again.”
POD: “You guys were all staying together in accommodation near Henley. How did that work out?”
TIETZ: “Insane. The dog was retarded, the cat was a killer and the kids were off the chain. There was a lot of Will vs. Dog where they would try and outwit each other. Will was also very popular with the hostess.”
POD: “You guys seem to have bonded over the last few weeks, have you any plans to race again?”
TIETZ: “Yes definitely. We’d like to do the Head of the Charles actually. We thought since we were from so many clubs we could form PAIN CAVE R.C. and all race under that. All the strokeside blades could have ‘PAIN’ printed on the back of the spoon and all the bowside blades could have ‘CAVE’ on the back. Then when we are coming up on another crew all they will see is PAIN CAVE squaring towards them. As well as representing PAIN CAVE R.C. we’d obviously put Imperial stickers everywhere.”
POD: “What do you think of Jamie Kirkwood's accomplishments this year.” POD shows Tietz her notes where Jamie has listed Ole as one of his inspirations.
TIETZ: “Aw, I’m very proud of Jamie. He did amazingly well. I watched the 4- and he was by far the sharpest rower in the boat. It was an amazing performance. They are the best U23 crew in awhile and Jamie has made a great step-on this year. Winning both Sculler’s Head and a Henley medal is not bad for a first year at ICBC. We are all proud of him.”
As are we of Ole Tietz. Congratulations to Ole for all his past achievements at ICBC. Ole leaves ICBC this autumn to pursue a PhD in Alberta Canada. We wish him well in the pursuit of knowledge!
Christina Duffy
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