The Indoor Rowing News has seen various crazes sweep the playgrounds of Great Britain in its time. Quite frankly, most of them have been rubbish. Hula hooping was pointless, difficult and led to a very inferior crisp product; football stickers were monopolised by spoilt kids and the less said about those electronic key fobs pet type things the better. We never understood Pokemon and we bet Harry Potter is bobbins as well. Anyway; grumpiness aside, fingers are being crossed and wood is being touched that the latest hip thing for the kids to get down to will be the Schools Indoor Rowing League.The Schools League is a national tournament in which boys and girls race in year group teams in relay format on one Concept 2 Indoor Rower. Teams race in their own school, submit their results via the website and entry is absolutely free. Round by round and overall results are then available for the separate year group leagues within a day of each round closing. The tournament consists of 6 rounds from September to March. Each round has a different race format and a team doesn't need to consist of exactly the same rowers in all rounds.RoundYears 10/11/12-13Years 6/7/8/9Closing DateRound 12,000m - (8 x 250m)1,000m - 8 x 125mOctober 3rdRound 23,200m - 8 x (2 x 200m)1,600m - 8 x (2 x 100m)November 7thRound 34,000m - 8 x 500m2,000m - 8 x 250mDecember 5thRound 46,000m - 8 x (3 x 250m)3,000m - 8 x (3 x 125m)February 6thRound 58,000m - 8 x (2 x 500m)4,000m - 8 x (2 x 250m)March 6thRound 616 minutes - 8 x (4 x 30secs)16 minutes – 8 x (4 x 30secs)April 3rdThe closing date for Round One is October 3rd, so teams have plenty of time to complete the first distance. For more information, or to register for the League, go to http://www.therowingcompany.com/league/. We'll also have downloadable posters for each round up by the middle of next week in order to spread the craze. Cough.