Our rowers had a great weekend in mid June, with both the Marlow Regatta and the Thames Valley Park regatta on the agenda.

On Saturday 17th June, the 1st VIII raced at Marlow Regatta, the last big regatta before the Henley Regatta entries. They raced a consistent time trial to come 8th out of 12 schools, but less than 10 seconds from first. They then raced in the B final, which ended in a battle with Oratory School. They were almost a length down at halfway, and rowed back to lose narrowly by 0.3 seconds, in a time faster than most of the A finalists. The next challenge for the 1st VIII will be the Henley Regatta Qualifying event on Friday at 18:40 in the evening, where they must come in the top 10 out 16 crews to qualify for the main event the following week.

On Sunday 18th, most of the younger years of the Boat Club raced at Thames Valley Park Regatta, a local event entered by schools from all over the country. The J15 squad had a tough run-up to the regatta, with two days away on their Duke of Edinburgh’s trip, but raced well in VIIIs and IVs against tough opposition. The J16 squad surfaced after their weeks of revision and exams, racing in two fours and a quad in the morning. Both fours made their finals, and  the A crew of Tom Crook, John Morgan, Tom Edmondson, Charlie Bryce, and Harry Hayes, won their final, beating crews from The Oratory, Canford, Dulwich, and London Oratory along the way. Some of the boys went on to race an VIII in the afternoon, narrowly losing by half a length to Dulwich in the final. Our J17s raced in a four and lost in the final – and a double of Max Ashwanden and Matt Shimmin, who won. Matt also won in his single later in the day.

 The J14s were arguably the most successful squad of the day, racing in three quads in the morning. The C quad lost in their quarterfinal and the B quad lost in their semifinal, but the A quad went on to win all three of the races with some impressive sculling, and won their final by three quarters of a length. Well done to Will Mackean, Barney Thompson, Harvey Roper, Ed Bindoff, and Sid Komathukattil. 18 of the squad then raced in two Octos in the afternoon, both making it through to a three-boat final, against St Georges. The crew from St Georges had a fantastic start and both Blue Coat crews were unable to haul them back in, but there was a fantastic performance by the whole squad to represent the school in the final.

Mr Edmondson – Head of Rowing