A crew of four Shiplake College Old Vikings took to the water on Saturday 8 August to rekindle a passion for a sport intrinsically linked to their College days: rowing. James Hanson, Jack Harvard Taylor, Charlie Ingham Clark and Jack Thompson were back in the boat to represent Shiplake College at the Maidenhead Regatta, taking on experienced crews from the South East in the super sprint 4x.
The four Vikings that made up the Shiplake crew hadn’t raced together since representing the College in the Fawley Cup, at Henley Royal Regatta in 2007. However, they were out to prove that time away from the sport made little difference to their ability as a crew.
The quad took on the Ardingly College crew in the first round of the super sprint. Following a couple of practise runs to the start line, the first race saw the Shiplake crew take a convincing lead over Ardingly, before moving through to the final, against the well-respected Maidenhead Junior quad.
The final proved to be an incredibly close race, with both crews battling to inch ahead of the other on the short course. Maidenhead led the race from the start, but the Shiplake crew refused to be easily beaten. As determined as they were eight years ago on the world-famous Henley Royal Regatta stretch, the Old Vikings delivered a burst of power in the last few strokes, overcoming the well-drilled Maidenhead boat in the final seconds of the race and claiming gold!
Charlie Ingham Clark commented that ‘it was an emotional day. We came here for a paddle but to all our astonishment we won! Shiplake prepared us well and we are forever grateful to the fantastic coaching staff at the College.’
