24 December 2020
Dear HTBS Readers & Rowing Friends,
2020 was a trying year. Who in the beginning of the year thought it was going to be so chaotic on so many levels?
With barely any rowing regattas being organised around the world due to the COVID-19, it seemed 2020 was going to be a bleak year when it came to writing about rowing – a doomed mission to say the least.
However, while HTBS writes about regattas, for example the Boat Races, the Yale-Harvard Boat Races, Henley Royal Regatta, Doggett’s and Wingfields, we mostly concentrate on yesteryears’ rowers, rowing and regattas. When rowing clubs closed and the rowers went into lockdown, they needed something to read. It seems HTBS was one of the websites rowers and those interested in the sport turned to in their need of armchair rowing.
To fill this website with articles, ‘extra’ writers came to our aid. Some wrote an article or two, others became members of a group of irregular contributors who kept on writing for HTBS.
I am immensely grateful to all regular and irregular contributors whose articles offered entertainment and comfort in a time where we all tried to ‘keep our wit and stay sane’ to slightly re-write a part of HTBS’s motto. It would not have been HTBS without you. Thank you!
I also would like to thank you wonderful readers who stayed with us. Some of you wrote comments to articles, and other wrote e-mails telling us that what we did mattered, filling a gap especially in these uncertain and strange times.
Who knows what the next year will look like and what it will bring when it comes to rowing and regattas – and writing about the sport? I hope there will be some kind of normalisation. Whatever happens, I promise you readers that we at HTBS will do our best to continue to educate, amuse and entertain you.
I wish you Happy Holidays, stay safe and healthy wherever you are in the world!
Warm regards,
Göran,
editor, HTBS