Shiplake College’s girl rowers completed their incredible season in style last Sunday, winning the Diamond Jubilee Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta. This added to their already impressive wins at National Schools’ Regatta for both the A and B Quads, Henley Women’s Regatta, Marlow Regatta and also the British Junior Championships in which they won the Sculls, Doubles Sculls and Quad events. The Henley Regatta history-making win topped off an already record-breaking year for Shiplake Boat Club as they entered a record six crews, a record four crews qualifying to race, with not one but two girls’ crews competing at Henley for the first time.
Shiplake College’s girl rowers completed their incredible season in style last Sunday, winning the Diamond Jubilee Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta. This added to their already impressive wins at National Schools’ Regatta for both the A and B Quads, Henley Women’s Regatta, Marlow Regatta and also the British Junior Championships in which they won the Sculls, Doubles Sculls and Quad events. The Henley Regatta history-making win topped off an already record-breaking year for Shiplake Boat Club as they entered a record six crews, a record four crews qualifying to race, with not one but two girls’ crews competing at Henley for the first time.
The Henley qualifying races took place on the Saturday before the regatta itself started, this time behind closed doors at Eton Dorney. Three of the six entered crews had pre-qualified but three took part in the qualifying races hoping to reach the main HRR draw.
The Fawley Challenge Cup
Louis Swinburne-Johnson, Tom Madden, Harrison Harper and Rocco Pritchard made up the boys’ quad looking to qualify for the Fawley Challenge Cup, which had one of the largest entries of the regatta, with 48 crews needing to be halved to form the draw. Nineteen crews were pre-qualified leaving 29 crews for the remaining five spaces. Whilst the Shiplake boat included three of the winning J16 crew at National Schools' Regatta they were up against crews with older school rowers and were unfortunately the eighth fastest crew not to qualify.
Diamond Challenge Sculls
Charlie Crisp was the first Shiplake pupil ever to enter this event for men’s single sculls and Mr Mackworth-Praed, who first competed in this competition 20 years ago in 2001, was also hoping to make the draw. It was, however, a tough entry, and Charlie and Mr Mackworth-Praed were not one of the seven scullers from the 35 taking part in the qualifying races to progress to the draw.
Diamond Jubilee Challenge Cup B
The Girls’ B quad, consisting of Casey-Jane Green, Scarlett Maleham, Megan Hadfield and Ellie Webb, were one of the seven crews, out of 14, that qualified for the draw of the Diamond Jubilee Challenge Cup, joining the A Boat which had pre-qualified. They were given a bye for the Wednesday racing and met Trentham Boat Club for their first race on Day 2 of the regatta, rowing excellently and winning by 3¼ lengths. For the quarter-finals the next day they lost to a strong St Edward’s School by 1½ lengths, but kept their bow ball on the stern of the Teddies’ boat throughout the race and the commentators remarked on their gutsy row and how impressive reaching the Friday in this event is no mean feat in what is one of the most competitive events at the regatta.
Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup
The boys’ 1st VIII were not one of the selected crews for this event and therefore were required to race on the Wednesday, whilst the eight selected crews had an extra days’ rest due to a lower number of crews entering. The boys, Freddie Middleton, Jake Birch, Ed Tayler, Danny Mulligan, Angus Wood, Dan Hallsworth, Matthew Johnston, Toby Rackett and Wallace Fisher (cox), were up against Radley College and the crews were neck and neck for the first half of the course, Shiplake keeping slightly ahead, moving to half a length lead for the second half of the race and finishing by ¾ lengths as they crossed the line. Shiplake’s draw was not kind to them and they met St Joseph’s Prep School, the US national champions, the next day. The boys dropped behind from the start but they kept within reach and closed the gap from a length to half a length in a thrilling last quarter of the race, really giving the crowds something to shout for in the last 15 strokes of the race but Shiplake’s final charge wasn’t quite enough to take them to the quarter-finals.
Temple Challenge Cup
The Temple Challenge Cup is a student men’s eight event for smaller university boat clubs and schools and is normally one of the most highly entered cups, although this year fewer crews entered due to the later timing of the regatta, the majority of them still from university clubs. The Shiplake second VIII consisted of Lucas Morgan, Adam Hunt, Dylan Hillier, Luke Byca, Ed Dallas, Fred Fox, Felix Arkle and Ned Floyd, with Christa Scott as cox making her the first Shiplake girl to cox at Henley Royal Regatta. They were drawn against Shrewsbury School in the first round and took the lead early on and rowed well to win by 3½ lengths, reaching the second round of the Temple Challenge for the first time in Shiplake’s history. Their next race was against one of the selected crews, University of London A, but they gave the students a hard time, going out fast and keeping on their heels so that the university rowers couldn’t relax until the final. Not bad for a crew in which three of the boys had collected their GCSE results that morning.
Diamond Jubilee Challenge Cup A
Shiplake’s A Boat, Merry Oakes, Izzy Blake-Hurworth, Nicole Dunn and Mia Vickerman, went into this regatta as the favourites for this event but the extra pressure didn’t impact the girls and they took each race day by day. They were one of the selected crews so given a bye to the Thursday, beating Newark Rowing Club with a verdict of ‘Easily’ in their first race. Friday’s quarter-final saw them beat Hartpury College by 3¼ lengths but it wasn’t until the semi-final on Saturday in their race against Peterborough City that they were really given any challenge. Peterborough City went out fast and took a canvas lead but Shiplake kept their rhythm and worked their back through, increasing the distance between the boats on each stroke and then reducing their speed in the final stretch to finish 3¾ lengths ahead. This win took them through to Finals Day, meeting Marlow Rowing Club, a crew which they had met a number of times over this season including in the final at Henley Women’s Regatta. Marlow had a sharp start off the pontoon and the Shiplake girls soon found themselves almost a length behind. They edged themselves back in and were level again just beyond the Barrier mark, just over a quarter of a mile into the race. The girls kept their technique and remained calm to ease through to a half a length lead at around half-way, eventually crossing over the finish line 2¾ lengths ahead with big smiles on their faces.
Well done to all the Shiplake rowers who committed their summer holidays to train for the regatta, you have done Shiplake College proud. Thank you also to all the coaches who also gave up so much of their time, including Mr David Currie, Mr Hugh Mackworth-Praed, Mr Dan Safdari and Dr Gemma Prata. Thank you to all the supporters who cheered the crews on from the riverbank or via posts on the College's social media channels which kept everyone informed of each day's results.
In addition to the four Shiplake crews, there were a number of Old Vikings participating in the regatta with their club and university crews.
The Grand Challenge Cup
The Grand is the top men’s eight event of the regatta and this was a straight final between Oxford Brookes University and a composite Taurus Boat Club and Tyrian Club crew. Old Viking Henry Blois-Brooke (17S), who has been coaching at Shiplake this year, was in the 5 seat to help ‘the best eight that Oxford Brookes has ever had’ row to an easy victory. The commentator remarked that ‘there is no finer accolade for the oarsman to win The Grand Challenge Cup at Henley’. We wish Henry, who was recently at the U23 Rowing Championships, well as he goes on to join the Royal Marines.
The Ladies’ Challenge Plate
The Ladies’ Challenge Plate is an open event for any club and is the second most senior event for men’s eights at the regatta. Old Vikings Seb Newman (17O) and Michael Glover (13E) were in the Oxford Brookes University boat, racing Molesey Boat Club and Twickenham Rowing Club in the final, the Brookes crew having beaten Leander Club in the semi-final the day before. They started to draw away from their opposition early on and extended their lead as they went down the course, winning by 3¾ lengths.
Visitors’ Challenge Cup
Having recovered from the morning’s Ladies Challenge Plate race that morning, Michael Glover along with three of his crewmates were back in the boat again after lunch for the Visitors’ Challenge Cup final for men’s coxless fours. Michael was in the bow seat for Oxford Brookes, racing Leander Club. A slight steering challenge from the start of the race kept them behind for the majority of the course, but they made a sensational comeback in the final stretch to move through Leander and take the victory.
Other Old Vikings taking part in the regatta include Oli Gerrard (16S), racing for Henley Rowing Club in the Visitors’ Challenge Cup, and James Halsall (01S) for Oxford University Lightweight Rowing Club in the Prince of Wales event, both losing in their races on Thursday.
We look forward to the next Henley Royal Regatta in less than a year’s time!
Flickr album: Henley Royal Regatta 2021 |
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