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A guide to some of the more common terms used in indoor rowing can be found at http://www.concept2.co.uk/rowing/glossary.php.

This year sees the launch of the Indoor Rowing League for Schools. The league is a national tournament in which pupils race as a team in relay format on a single Indoor Rower. Rows can take place anywhere, so there's no need to travel. Simply row each round at your school or another venue anytime before the closing date, and then submit the result via the website.

There are five different rounds, with different distances for Years 6,7,8 and 9 and Years 10,11,12 and 13:

Entry to the Schools League is free, and you can join at any point. To register, or for more information, go to http://www.concept2.co.uk/league/.

If you're not at school and you're feeling a bit left out of taking part in a team relay league over the winter, then worry not, for the Winter Team Relay League returns shortly.

A worldwide tournament, there are separate competitions for teams of four and teams of eight, as well as subcategories for men's, women's and mixed teams, as well as Junior, Open, 35+ and 60+ age divisions.

The five rounds are:

Last year, 412 teams from 16 different countries took part. Full results and standings from 2004/05 can be found at http://www.concept2.co.uk/8gp/results_2004.php and http://www.concept2.co.uk/8gp/standings_2004.php.

If you took part last year, there's no need to re-register, but if you haven't already done so then you can join up by visiting http://www.concept2.co.uk/8gp/.

Eddie Fletcher: "The fourth Evesham Golden Mile Indoor Rowing Championships were held on Saturday 9th July at Evesham Rowing Club. This year's entry was the largest ever with over 167 entries. The day as always was planned to coincide with the River Festival in Evesham, which provided an additional interest for competitors, especially those staying overnight for the frolics and fireworks!

"The Golden Mile is already earning an excellent reputation for a friendly and well-run 'out of season' event, and its unusual mile distance (1609 metres compared with the standard race distance of 2000 metres) is an added attraction.

"The heat and humidity of 2003 returned and the clubhouse became warmer as the day progressed. Rowers were able to warm up in an outdoor tented area. Once again there was some stunning rowing with two British Records recorded and four men under the magic five- minute barrier. Jon Goodall and Robin Walker provided entertaining commentary throughout the day. There were many first time racers and some brilliant individual performances. The support of the crowd was amazing and spurred the rowers to give their all.

"This year 15 pupils from Colmers School in Birmingham came to race after only a few weeks training and went away with seven medals.

"British records were set by Tracy Watkins (30-39W Hwt) in a time of 5.44.6 and Peter Norman (60-69M Hwt) in a time of 5.38.5. Fastest row of the day went to Matthew Balch (19-29M Hwt) 4.55.4 and three other rowers went sub 5 minutes - Neil Ridge (30-39M Hwt) 4.57.1, Graham Todd (40-49M Hwt) 4.57.5 and Andrew Walker (19-29M Hwt) 4.58.1. Julian Potts (30-39M Hwt) and Nick Rockliff narrowly missed out with 5.00.1 and 5.00.8 respectively.

"All competitors received a certificate and photograph to take away on the day.

"Thanks to Robin Walker and Mark Dewdney of Evesham Rowing Club, Eddie Fletcher and Frank Birch and Neil Gear for excellent organisation."

Full results can be found at http://www.concept2.co.uk/racing/result.php?race=evesham2005

This year's British Indoor Rowing Championship is on November 20th at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham. On-line and downloadable entry forms are available at http://www.concept2.co.uk/birc/entryform.php.

You can see an up-to-date list of who has entered at http://www.concept2.co.uk/birc/events.php. Like last year, we'll be running a Text Message Results Service, although unlike last year we'll hopefully get the results out on a more regular basis throughout the day. To get an individual's results sent to your mobile, visit http://www.concept2.co.uk/birc/results_service.php. Like last year, this is a free service.

Also making a reappearance at the 2005 championship is the Redgrave Team Challenge, a four- person 1,000m team event. There are two categories in the challenge, J16 (Year 11) and Corporate/Fitness, and these both have male and female subcategories. The J16 event is open to anybody under the age of 16 as of August 31st, 2005, while the Corporate/Fitness event is open to all businesses, health clubs or fitness clubs. It is not open to rowing clubs, universities, or indoor rowing clubs.

The Redgrave Team Challenge will be run under a heat and final format, with the fastest 10 teams going through to the final. Engraved tankards will be awarded to the first, second and third placed teams in each event.

The entry fees for the races are £50 for the Corporate/Fitness event and £25 for the J16 event. All entry fees go to the Steve Redgrave Trust.

An entry form for the Redgrave Team Challenge is at http://www.concept2.co.uk/birc/entryform_team.php.

The endurancelife 7x7x7 challenge sees seven marathons completed on seven consecutive days over seven different distances. Competitors score points in each event with the winner being the competitor with the highest points scored in all seven events

The inaugural challenge started on the 3rd of July, and saw Joe Green emerge as the overall winner. A full report on the event can be found at http://www.endurancelife.com/races/seven/dailyupdate.asp. The third day saw an indoor rowing marathon take place under the canopy of the Marine Hotel in Salcombe. The results for this part of the event were: 1st, Iain Lamont, 2:50:25 2nd, Jonas Nilsson, 2:53:00 3rd, Peter Welby Everard, 2:53:10 4th, Shaun Callaghan, 2:55:10 5th, Joe Green, 2:56:55 6th, Graham Walton, 3:05:16 7th, Schalk Herselman, 3:08:45 8th, Ray Ziel, 3:10:10 9th, Neil Thubron, 3:11:40 10th, Dave Berridge, 3:29:10 11th, Richard Griffiths, 3:29:20 12th, Natasha Ballard, 3:56:40 13th, Dave Thomas, 3:57:30 14th, Ruth White, 4:02:00

The Concept Ranking, the annual collection of all the best times in the UK, is now available to download in a PDF format. If you go to http://www.concept2.co.uk/ranking/ you can find the PDF, as well as the original on-line version.

This Sunday sees the first race in this year's Rowathlon Series, at Castle Combe on the 24th.

A rowathlon race is similar to a triathlon except drier as the swimming leg is replaced by an indoor rowing one. Points are awarded at each of the events in a similar way to the British Triathlon Association Grand Prix scoring system with the overall winner in each of the four senior race categories winning a trip to Copenhagen for the Concept 2 European Open.

The Castle Combe race consists of a 2k row, a 16k bike ride and then a 3k run.

For more information on the triathlon series, or to download an entry form, visit http://www.concept2.co.uk/rowathlon/ or email info@rowingtriathlon.com.

Herbert Leah: It was interesting to read the letters from Karen Hambly and Cliff North regarding their recovery from operations and the part that the Concept 2 Indoor Rower has played in their recovery and their commitment to it's continued use as their experiences are very similar to my own.

I started to use the machine as a tool to further my recovery from a left hip joint replacement. In the late 1970s I was diagnosed as having early O/A changes in my left hip joint that continued to deteriorate slowly, finally being operated on in June 1990. At this stage I had little or no movement in the joint; putting a sock on the left foot or tying a shoelace was out of the question and I had long since given up my cycling. With this restriction I used to swing the leg forward when walking by flexing the lumbar spine. The foundry lads at the company where I worked were notorious for giving personal nicknames; mine was Herr Flick from "Hello, Hello".

Previous to this period I had been a keen cyclist and I was introduced as an early teenager to lifting weights. I attended Loughborough College (as it was known then). Later I volunteered for the Army and served first in an infantry regiment and later in the Army Physical Training Corps so my early years hadn't been sedentary.

After the army (1952) I did much hill walking/trekking, canoeing, some rock climbing, weights and cycling, now with my wife on the back of a lightweight tandem. All this went by the board as the hip deteriorated although I kept up the weights, modified to the restrictions of the hip. Once a leg is out of the picture it is very difficult to influence aerobic fitness and as time went on there was much muscle wastage around the hip, buttock and thigh.

After the operation I started cycling as soon as I was allowed and once back at work (Social/Recreation Manager) weight training section of the Social Club were, coincidentally, considering purchasing an aerobic training machine. I recalled on one of my annual visits to the Birmingham Exhibition Centre to the Recreation and Leisure Industry Trade Fair I had been impressed with a certain rowing machine that seemed so superior to other machines on display, although I couldn't try them because of the hip. Needless to say the committee were soon in possession of an Indoor Rower around April 91. It proved a great success and is still operating.

It was, of course, just what I needed to work on my wasted musculature and mobility of the joint but I got hooked and eventually decided to enter the 1992 British Championship at Shiplake College and to my surprise I came away with a Silver at a heavyweight, but only just, which was the beginning of many future hours of training and all as a lightweight. Whatever success and satisfaction I may have experienced must be attributed to Mr Hodgkinson the consultant who operated on me and given me 15 years of a better quality of life than I would have had without his skill and constant interest in my progress over the years.

As a small token of my appreciation I gave him one of my World Championship 'Hammers' which is in the museum of the John Charnley Hip Centre at Wrightington Hospital; John Charnley, of course, being the famous pioneer of hip surgery.

Four years ago 39 year old rower Mark Obeney weighed 25 stone and was struggling with his weight due to lack of exercise following a serious car accident. He was left with multiple leg fractures and had limited mobility making it difficult for him to exercise, especially as he even found walking very painful.

Following extensive treatment at Addenbroookes Hospital in Cambridge Mark had his last operation to remove the pins, plates and screws from his legs in 2002. His doctor gave him the go ahead to start light exercise and in a bid to get his fitness levels back up again he began using the Concept 2 Indoor Rower.

Mark had owned an Indoor Rower since the early 1990s when he was a member of Broxbourne Rowing Club in Hertfordshire so he already knew the benefits of the machine. Under strict medical supervision Mark began using the machine for five or 10 minutes a day and didn't feel any pain.

A year later and Mark was really beginning to feel the benefits of exercising again. He felt brave enough to join the Carrefour Health Club in Norwich where he set up a training programme with personal trainer Hayley McIvor. Taking into consideration Mark's improving but still limited fitness, he began a training programme of free and fixed weights alongside workouts on the Concept 2.

"After the car accident my Concept 2 got put away to gather dust in the cupboard as I was in too much pain to even walk let alone row," explained Mark.

"Once the final operation was out of the way though, I was really keen to get back on the machine again. I dusted it down and moved it into the dining room where I could use it every day. Training at home, and then joining the gym, has made such a difference and to date I've lost six stone and am continuing to do so."

Mark has steadily lost around one pound per week and today weighs just 18 stone 13 pounds. Although he's found the last few months pretty tough, he's still training and aims to get down to 16 stone. That would result in a total loss of more than nine stone. "My weight loss has recently hit a plateau but I've noticed that my clothes are fitting better than ever and in some cases are getting loose. It's not just about the scales though, it's about inch loss too!

"Nowadays my weekly routine is using the Concept 2 for 30 minutes or an hour each day supplemented with light weights and swimming. I'm entering the British Indoor Rowing Championships this year, I'd also like to total two million metres on the machine and row a marathon - on and off the water!

"I'm hugely competitive, I've got to keep going and beat my previous time!"

The 21st of June saw the Prison Service run its first ever Gener-8s race. A new concept, the race format is for teams of eight to race 4,000m (500m each), with the teams being composed of two 20-29 year olds, two 30-39 year olds, two 40-49 years olds and two 50+ rowers. Three teams took part, and the final results were: