While a lot of attention is being focused on the Surrey Police initiative called Project Kraken – designed primarily to encourage a kind of neighbourhood watch on the river to spot possible terrorist activity – many local residents are still unhappy with the lack of a permanent dedicated officer on our stretch of the Thames.
You only have to look at the success achieved by British women rowers at the 2012 Olympics to realise that we are among the best in the world in this particular sport. But it wasn’t always so.
So what do you do after you take early retirement at the age of 54 following a career as a computer systems engineer working for British Airways? That was the question facing Derek Beake from Richmond Drive, Shepperton in 1997…
