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Total replies to date : 89 [42%]

I summarise the non-contentious parts first , then go into a bit more detail on the areas
where there was – arguably – scope for improvement or change .

Response  -  has been predominantly from smaller clubs ;
38 1-crew and 30 2-crew ones , which is almost exactly in line with the profile of club entries
[replies : 43% & 33% respectively , entries: 46% & 31%]

Agreement on :

a) The current closing-date-then-draw format is strongly approved by 71% of respondents,
and slightly preferred by a further 22% (total 93%).

b) The top-200 guarantee is approved by 90% , with no correlation between size of club and reply .
The 7 suggested alternative figures range 125-280 , with average 222 .

c) The guarantee of one place to every club is similarly approved of,
91% in favour and only 6% against .

d) Exclusion of statuses is not welcome either with 82% being in favour of the status quo,
again not correlated to club entry size .

e) Guaranteed all-entries-accepted for Tideway clubs had only 19% in favour,
although half of this came from such clubs themselves .

Less agreement on ...

1. The 65 foreign crew quota was approved as being "about right" by some 76%,
but the spread of suggested alternatives varied from 20 to 100 ,
with an average of 55 hiding that more than twice as many favoured a reduction than an increase .
This year there were 43 in the top 200 .

2. The maximum number of entries from a single club question was split .
48% felt no limit was called for , although the remainder suggested maxima of
between 2 and 8 , with 5 predominating and an average of 4.82 .
There was no bias according to club entry size .

3. Scratching roused strong feelings , and 46% felt that it should attract some form of sanction
(often adding their own detailed comments !), at the same time making it clear that
"genuine" (= medical , boat damage) reasons were much better than
"tactical" ones such as entering more than a club can raise in expectation of being balloted-out .
Last year there were about 20 scratchings , mostly unadvised , this year 9 out of 14 were advised to me .

4. The curiously close one was between traditional and cumulative draws
(47% vs. 49% currently), with the majority preference changing regularly .
I think this has to be seen in conjunction with a limit on the number of crews a club may enter .

A number of comments were made , to the effect that part of the
problem of over-subscription comes from "trying to cover all areas" (as someone put it) –
granted that we are for international crews , good club rowers and beginners ,
to what extent should one of the three areas give ground if numbers are going to stay high ?

The replies seemed to show no correlation whatsoever between entry size
and type of response , even on those questions where there could be a strong presumption –
e.g. clubs with their single crew guaranteed .

These results have been used to inform our discussions on an amended entry/draw format ;
see the November Regatta for full information on the changes .

AP Ruddle