Shiplake College News

Shiplake College Boat Club enjoyed a successful three days at the National Schools’ Regatta over the May bank holiday weekend. Shiplake entered 15 crews in total, which is impressive for a relatively small school. Whilst a little windy at times for the rowers, it was perfect conditions for the spectators, of whom there were many Shiplake families, staff and Old Vikings on the banks of Dorney Lake to cheer the competitors on.

For Friday’s racing, Shiplake had two J14 octuples taking part. The A crew came 12th out of 26 crews in their time trial, then 5th in the B Final, making them the 11th fastest J14 crew nationally. The B crew came 15th out of 28 crews in their time trial, then 2nd in the C Final (14th overall).

Saturday saw the J15 eights take to the water first. The A crew came 7th out of 26 crews in the time trial, however they were disappointed to come 5th in their semi-final, missing out on a place in the A Final. They came second in the B Final, making them the 8th fastest J15 crew in the country. The J15 B crew 15th out of 21 second eights, and they held this position by coming third in their C Final.

Shiplake was the only school to enter the Schools 2nd VIII, 3rd VIII and coxed four competitions, showing great depth in the boat club. Whilst these crews didn’t get the results they would have liked, the rowers put in some fine performances and a number of the boys will no doubt be competing for a seat in the 1st VIII in due course. Special mention to Lonnie Lawrence who coxed both the J15 A crew and the 2nd VIII.

For the J16 Championship Eights, the boys produced a fantastic time trial, coming second out of 18 crews and only 12 milliseconds behind St Paul’s School. The Shiplake crew had a convincing win in their semi-final and then established a length’s lead within 500m in the final, eventually taking gold with five seconds to spare to become national champions in this age group, ahead of St Paul’s and Abingdon. The last time Shiplake won this trophy was in 2004, when Old Viking Charlie Jenkins, who is now also the Girls’ Rowing Coach, was in the boat!

The Championship 8+ started their day with the second fastest time trial. They were unable to hold off Radley in the semi-final, which led to them having an unfavourable 4th lane in the finals. The 1st VIII were level with Bedford School for much of the final but were able to pull away in the final stretch to take a fantastic bronze for the second year running. St Paul’s School, which has been dominating school-boy rowing this season, led the field from the start and won the final by a clear 15 seconds, with Radley taking silver.

Girls’ rowing at Shiplake continues to build, shown by a fantastic time trial for Liv Morgan in the Girls Single Sculls, coming in third out of 39 competitors. She then put in an impressive performance in the semi-final to earn herself a place in the Championship Final. Having been in 6th place during much of this race she dug deep in the final stretch and managed to finish an agonising fourth. Liv was joined by Molly Sharman on Sunday for the Championship Coxless Pair, coming 7th in the time trial, out of 25 crews, and third in the semi-finals to again reach the A Final, in which they came fifth. There were also Shiplake girls representing Henley Rowing Club, with Sophia Hahn and Ella Nolson (cox) in the winning Championship Girls VIII, with Sophia also in the winning Championship Girls Quad. Ella also coxed the Gold medal winning J16 girls eight and Silver medal winning J15 girls eight.  

Success continued into Sunday when the J16 eight split into an A and B crew Coxless Fours. Despite only coming sixth in the time trial the A crew won their semi-final and also took the bronze medal in the final, meaning these boys are among only a small group of rowers who took home more than one medal from the weekend. The B crew were moved into the B Final after the semi-finals but convincing won that race, making them seventh overall.

Similarly, the 1st VIII split to enter the Championship Coxed and Coxless Fours on the Sunday. The Coxed Four just missed out in a place in the final, coming second in the B Final. The Coxless Four came fourth in their time trial and second in the semi-final but unfortunately were unable to gain a medal position in the final.

The Headmaster, Gregg Davies, had a busy weekend himself, being in the umpire rotation, having recently become an Apprentice Umpire, as well as on the commentating team. He states: “I am one very proud Headmaster. This was another tremendous weekend for Shiplake rowing. Molly and Liv performed exceptionally well. The bronze for the Championship 8s is a good result in the lead up to Henley Royal Regatta and the J16s gold shows there is depth in the ranks and that we are certainly ones to watch for the future. The 1st VIII were delighted to have their medals presented by Olympic rower and Old Viking Will Satch, who also kindly wore a Shiplake T-shirt for the occasion.”

Twitter was alight with updates from the weekend's racing from the College account as well as Boat Club Supporters, Rowing, Headmaster and the Shiplake Sports Fans, along with various coaches and proud parents! Click here for a selection of the best tweets.

Thank you to Luke Theophilus, Martin Waller and other parents for contributing to the photo gallery.