Alright?,

This is an open invitation for all Welsh rowers around the world (wherever they may be) to join TAFF ATTACK. The TA was formed by 3 rowers from Gwent in South Wales, to provide motivation and support in this most painful of pastimes.

We want to reach Taffy rowers everywhere to share experiences, workouts, glory and PAIN!!! Because of the obvious onslaught of interest we have to impose 3 pre-requisites:

1. Be a rower,
2. Have an online profile,
3. Be Welsh, OR have a Welsh parent, OR have a Welsh grandparent, OR have lived in Wales for more than two weeks.

We appreciate this seems harsh but we must have standards!!!

To apply send us a PM, or if your name appears on the pre-selected list below just enter Taff Attack into the university section of your profile. Good Luck, Row On!!

Names for automatic entry:
Stanley Baker; Flossy; Rhys Ifans; St Patrick; Blake (from Blakes 7 - he was welsh!); Antony Hopkins; Richard Burton; Dylan Thomas; Ian Woosnam; Mark Hughes; Phil Bennet (or any of the Llanelli squad who beat the All-Blacks); Lloyd George (Coz he knew my father!); John Toshak; The woman who wrote the Harry Potter books; The welsh bloke from Dad's Army; Jones the Steam; the courageous dragon that had a nasty stomach flu the day St George turned up; anyone from Llanfairpwll......; you get the picture.

How about fans of Sharon Penman's Welsh history trilogy "Falls the Shadow", "There Be Dragons" and "The Reckoning"? Welsh by association?

Carla

Carla,

Anyone who reads books about dragons would have to be considered a first class team member. Congratulations you made the grade.

Stick Taff Attack in your logbook and Row On!!!

Welcolme to the TA.

Chris,
Rob,
Ricky.

I lived in Wales for a little over two weeks in both 1980 and 1981. The whitewater world championships was held on the Terwerwyn River in Bala Cynwd (sorry for my spelling) It took me two weeks to learn all the rocks in the river! I am not sure if you consider long term tourists as really living in Wales.

Cheers,

Paul Flack

Paul,

You have met the criteria by living in wales for longer than the required two weeks, however your spelling is total crap!!!

Copy and paste "River Tryweryn, Bala, Gwynedd." 10 times and your in.

Cheers, good luck with the challenge!!!

Chris,
Rob,
Ricky,
Rob.

Os rydych yn Gymru, pam na allwch siarad Cymraeg?

Steve V's 100% Welsh Wife!

What if you're of primarily Welsh desent and have a Welsh last name? Does that count?

Gee thanks, wife wouldn't be seen dead near a C2

Congrats chris on cracking 7mins

Cheers Chip!

Any budding sadomasochists (looked that up in dictionary, coz us welsh boys can't smell!) out there can take a leaf out of chippy's book:

Working on lowest damper setting
10 * 1 min @ 36+SPM
Any set lower than 300 meters should be repeated.

Nice one chip, do you listen to hospital radio often?

Taff Attack welcomes 3 new members:
Rob from North Wales, and Jasmine and Andy both from Aberystwyth.

We would also like to announce the 'founder members marathon day'

As the lowest new member meter total is greater than the 3 founder members added together - we thought it a good opportunity to boost them up.

Are you feeling guilty enough, how about next week? oh yeah - Ricky, you should really do this in one sitting so bring some pillows babe !!!

[COLOR=blue]Cheers Chris i will try and sort out a pillow for my Long Rows. Just like to say Welcome to the new members of Taff Attack. Lets do our country proud and show the rest of the World what we are made of!!!!

Granny Gate
The WRU might have had rules about who can play for Wales and who can not
but at TAFF ATTACK as long as you can fit in to the rules Chris (the scribe) has laid down you are ok.Basicaly there are no rules as long as your name is not Nigel Starmer Smith your in.We have jumped from 178 to 21 in 5 weeks so who knows where we will be by crimbo.Do not miss the boat.The Taffs are coming
Rob (chippy}

Would i Qualify? Not Welsh in any sense but currently welsh J18 HWT champion and Welsh championship record holder!

Taff Attack scores not 1, but 2 international members and moves into top 10!

It is with great delight that we welcome Martin Wood, from Victoria, Austrailia. Martin was originally born in Aberystwyth (many moons ago), before moving to Oz in 1966. Martin currently rows 2k in sub 7, but will have to work hard to retain his 1 second margin over myself and Ricky. Martins achievements are huge, and accordingly shall be known as 'Super Taff'.

We are also proud to anounce that we have succesfully poached Dwayne Adams from the Arizona Outlaws. Dwayne has been under intense pressure to sign with constant nagging, pleads, and offers of bribes and backhanders from the TA management after learning of his Welsh Grandfather. Dwayne is already a legend, but will have to work hard if he is to retain his 1 minute 23 second lead over Rob Redmond. Dwayne shall be hereby known within the team as 'Speedy', or just plain Sir!

Thanks and good luck to both in attaining their goals - Love the pain!

Dwayne to answer your question from the PM:
Taffy (also Taff); (plural Taffys) noun: a Welshman.
ORIGIN representing a supposed Welsh pronunciation of the man's name David (in Welsh Dafydd)

Thanks for the welcome. First time I've ever been poached. At least you all were gentle.

May the TA be have a glorious and productive season.

Row hard all!!!

Dwayne (Speedy)

Thanks Chris, Ricky and Robert for rolling out the welcome mat.

Not sure about 'Super Taff' as a moniker (fits better on Dwayne I think!), how about 'Ancient (Mariner) Taff or 'Tie me kangaroo Down' Taff!!

Haven't got a clue how to use this 'post a reply' system so here goes!

Martin

Hi guys, not that you will really notice my meters, now that you have kidnapped Sir Adams, but I'm on the bandwagon.

Carla

Carla,
Everyone's meters count whether it's one meter, or one hundred million meters.

Dwayne

Mine should count for more than yours, they take longer to go by!
Carla

Carla
Welcome to Wales carla.
We will get Chris to send you a welcome in Welsh as he is a true valley boy even though you will not understand it.
Every meter counts.

Dwayne
Have you started training harder now you know i only have 1 min23 sec to catch you up?

Chippy.

Martin
How about taffaroo
Chippy.

I have Welsh blood running through my vains. My Father was born in South Wales

Sir Pirate

Chris
Congrats on completing your first marathon,hope you can not sit down for a week.
Have you got a motor bike ride this week? Ouch.
Chippy

Cheers Chip,

Couldn't have managed it if there wasn't 6 hours of Rugby on TV. Butt very, very sore, mucho respect to anyone who does this any regularity.

No training this week as competing in the Welsh Enduro at Llandrindod Wells Thurs/Fri (300 timed miles of Welsh woods and mountain tops on a dirtbike!). Good chance for you to make some ground on me, I see you have passed Ricky's total but some way to go yet you blouse wearing pansie!
Ash, and Sir P - you would both be welcome to join but you appear to be rowing for what has to be seen as our 2 biggest rivals - MAD, and Oarsome. I can feel another poach coming on!

The Attack has broken the top ten. Let's keep it up fellow Taffians!

Dwayne

Chris
Ricky called me today asking where all my meters had come from this week as iam under doctors orders to take it easy.My new rower came wednesday and i can
not get of it.Hopfully the doc will give me the all clear tomorrow so you will need that toy town motor bike to get away form me.

Team mates
Speedy as urged us on so lets get rowing.

Chippy

Hey everyone that great news inside top ten. Speedy's orders must be followed. Lets get the rest and be the best!!!!!!

Done some Hard interval training today, Sir Tom Jones was on the music system, it made me Row harder and faster. Fellow Taffs should try this motivational technique it works!!!. Bye for now Train Hard!!!! Rickster

Team mates
Chris and myself recently went down to London town to the sutton arena for the
big row down.I was lucky enough to win a heat and a prize.Saturday i got my Ultra
Fit mag through the post to find i had a mention in some of the results.All excited
I grabed my mobile and sent Chris the following message.
Chris
" My name is in the Ultra fit mag this month"
His reply

Rob
"What 4? eating pies"
.......................................................
There is nothing like mates to make sure you keep your feet on the ground.


Chippy

Dwayne
I might have to take my wife away this weekend for a break,got any tips on how to get a cp2 in your luggage without out her knowing,?
Chippy

Queen's U Belfast is within sight. Erg on fellow Taffians!!

Speedy

Prynhawn Da Fellow Taffers!

I've been trying to hold up my end on the daily metres stake. Following on from the Solstice row, I've managed a half marathon every day for the last 5 days in a row.

I'm planning to keep the pace up for the next couple of weeks, as I'm just 200k short of my first million metres.

It's been a tough week though. How do you manage to fit so much in Dwayne? I could maybe see my way to adding in a short morning session on top of my evening workout, but that's about as far as it goes for now!

On with the attack...

Andy

Andy,
I do a stint in the morning, and another in the evening. I think the biggest advantage that I may have that alot of others don't, is that I don't have any children. It's just me and the Mrs., and the numerous pets (nine total!!).

Every meter counts. Whether it's one a day, or one hundred thousand.

Speedy

I'm also about 200K from my first million (actually 219992, but who's counting?) but I'm rowing about 3x a week for an approx. total of 22K a week. It will take me about 10 weeks to finish at this rate! But it will feel great to wear that shirt!

Last night I did my first 6K (+1k warm up and 1K cooldown) since the beginning of the season (and since breaking left wrist); I was slower than molasses, (26:12.3) but steady, and felt pretty strong.

Carla

Well Done Andy great effort keep it going. Go for the million!!!!!


Speedy how many meters are you doing a day someone in my local Gym asked me this morning when i was in work?????


Rickster

Sorry......double post.

Sir pirate
As you are spending more and more time in Taff Attack waters why not join us, we
love the banter and will give you as much stick as you want .
Are you the Mady who trains at St Pierre? if so Rickster and myself only live 4 miles away in sin city{Caldicot} W e can call over with a gun and MAKE YOU A OFFER YOU CAN NOT REFUSE.

Chippy

Hi Chippy. No, I don't live near St Pierre, thats Jon Goodall. I have been there a couple of times with the MAD Team when we where training for the 100k relay World Record.

Next time i'm up we should do a session

Sir Pirate

Noswaith Dda Taffers!

We've just taken Queen's Belfast in the rankings - 8th place and rising.

I think Dwayne takes the credit for most of this one, but Jasmine and I have managed to both do half Marathon's today which hopefully gave us a bit of a nudge.

7 to go...

Hwyl,

Andy