The College had its most successful National Schools’ Regatta to date last weekend, winning medals in 7 different events, including silver in the Championship VIII and the school’s first medals for the girls.
Last weekend saw Shiplake Boat Club head to Eton Dorney for the annual national prestigious event: National Schools’ Regatta. 72 students were competing over the three days with 39 students winning medals, which is extremely impressive for a relatively small school. The College won medals in 7 different events: 3 Bronze and 4 Silver. And all crews certainly lived up to their expectations.
Friday’s racing saw three J14 octuples take part, which was impressive considering the boys had only learnt to row in January. J14 A boat, consisting of C Keena (cox), R Logan, F Fox, L Swinburne-Johnson, J Dyason, E Floyd, L Byca, T Madden and S Edwards, placed 4th in the time trial, with the top 4 crews all within a second of each other. The final was tight but Shiplake clawed back and won silver, just missing out on gold by 1 second. The J14 B boat reached the B final and took the win, with the C boat finishing 3rd in the second boat C final. These are the best set of J14 results the College has had to date.
Saturday saw the J15 Eight and J16 Eight take to the water first. The J15s produced their best time yet, although just missed reaching the semi-finals. In the time trial, the J16 Championship Eight of L Lawrence (cox), A Hunt, R Humphris, A Wood, B Acton, K Sarkytbayev, L Batty, T Coles and J Newton, produced a strong time placing them into the semi-finals. By coming second in their semi-final, the boys were in a good position for a medal. After a nail-biting final, the crew finished 4th just missing out on a medal by a second but beating rivals St Paul’s.
Having won the Schools’ Head earlier in the year, the pressure was on for the 1st VIII of J Kirby (cox), S Burnand, R Ash, D Brown, S Hjortland-Marks, R Adams, T Boret, B Brockway and M Brown. They placed 4th in the time trials, and were just behind Radley in the semi-final. Shiplake did not have the best lane for the Championship final but that did not stop them from pulling away from 5th to winning a silver medal, making history by achieving the best result seen by Shiplake. . The 1st VIII were only a quarter of a length down to St Paul’s, with both crews beating the course record which had been held since 2013.
With the 2nd VIII category not being as big as the other events, the boys, C Gass (cox), F Focosi, T Fox, J Wombwell, M Waller, J Rayner, H Allan, B Howard Jones and T Wilkinson, had to produce a strong time to guarantee a spot in the A final, which they did. Coming 2nd in the time trial, put them into an excellent lane and position for the final. The top three crew were neck and neck until the last 250m, where Radley and Eton edged away but Shiplake held on and secured a bronze medal, just a second behind second place.
On Saturday a boat naming ceremony was held for the College’s new Filipi 4+, in which the Championship Coxed Four would be racing in the next day. The boat was named after the Headmaster’s wife, Alison Davies to honour everything she has done for Shiplake rowing over the years.
Girls’ rowing has continued to build year by year, which was shown by some fantastic racing by L Morgan, who won the time trial in the Championship Girls Single Sculls. After a close final and with the top three girls breaking the record from 2012, Morgan won a bronze medal and became Shiplake’s first female medallist. A Girls 4+, made up of M Sharman, A Keighley, I Wasdell and E Batchelor, with T Broadbent helping out as cox last minute, put down their fastest time to date in the time trial but narrowly missed out on semi-finals.
The girl’s success continued into Sunday when M Sharman joined L Morgan for the Championship Girls Coxless Pair. The pair put an impressive time in for the time trial coming third, securing them a good lane for the semi-finals, in which the girls took the win by over a length. In their final race for Shiplake College at National Schools’, after a brilliant row the girls did not disappoint, and won a well-deserved bronze.
Shiplake girls were also there participating, representing Henley Rowing Club, S Hahn and E Nolson (cox) winning silver in the Championship Girls Eights, with S Hahn taking the win the Championship Girls Quad.
Sunday saw the 1st VIII split into 4s, entering Championship Coxed and Coxless Fours. Both crews put excellent times down in the time trial, with the Coxless Four coming tenth and the Coxed Four coming fourth, meaning both crews made it through to the semi-finals. A close semi saw the Coxless Four come fifth, putting them into the B final, which they came fifth, only 4 seconds behind the winners. Shiplake lead the pack with Eton in the Coxed Four semi-final, securing a place in the A final. With the use of their new boat, Shiplake were determined to medal. This was seen as they stormed out in front from the start, battling against Eton the whole way down the course, however, Eton made a push at 500m to go and took the lead, Shiplake took a well earnt silver medal.
Similarly, the J16s narrowed their crews down into a Coxless Four of A Hunt, A Wood, R Humphris and L Batty. The four came second in their time trial, ahead of crews like St Paul’s, Hampton and Eton. This set them up for a good lane in the semi-finals, where they convincingly won, again enabling them a strong lane for the final. After just missing out of a medal in the 8+ the day before, these boys were not going home without one. A very strong row in the final, saw the J16 4- take a well-deserved silver.
Director of Rowing, Mr David Currie, commented: ‘I am delighted by the performance of the whole boat club, it’s great to see the strong foundations that have been laid down paying off. These results are a fantastic reward to the rowers, coaches and school for the hard work they have out in over a number of years. We now turn our attention to Henley Royal Regatta and look forward to having as much local support as possible.’
Headmaster, Gregg Davies, added: ‘What a fabulous memory for me to have in my last term of Shiplake rowing. I am immensely proud of all the Shiplake rowers, including those who raced for other clubs. However, without our dedicated coaches we would not have achieved so much.’