Director of Rowing Mr David Currie provides the following report from an exceptional day of rowing for the Shiplake crews:
‘After last year’s success at National Schools’ Regatta, where the 2015 1st VIII placed their hands on the Child Beale Cup it was now time step up and race in Championship VIII’s. It is here the very best rowing schools do battle in the blue ribbon event. After a successful winter season placing 2nd in the Schools Head of the River, the Shiplake 1st VIII were confident in the company of the ‘big’ rowing schools. In their time trial they posted the 4th fastest time over the 1750m course; this placed them in a semi-final against Westminster, Shrewsbury and Abingdon. The 1st VIII raced well and finished second behind Schools’ Head winners Westminster. The final was raced at 7.30pm and was the last race of the day. Crews that qualified for the A-final were Eton, Westminster, Radley, St Paul’s, Hampton, Shiplake, Winchester and St Edwards. The race got off to a quick start, with Westminster and Eton stamping their authority on the rest of the field, and it looked like it was down to Radley and Shiplake to scrap it out for the Bronze medal. Every move Shiplake made Radley had a counter attack and this carried on down the 2km track, ending in Radley taking the Bronze medal with Shiplake finishing 3 seconds ahead of last year’s Henley Royal Regatta winners, St Paul’s. Finishing 4th in this company is a huge achievement by the boys and Coach Mr. Mackworth-Praed; they have now earned the right to call the College a Championship VIII’s School. The following day the 1st VIII split up into a Coxed and Coxless fours to race again and prove they are not just eights rowers. Again the competition was fierce, with all the Champ VIII’s splitting into fours. The Shiplake Coxed four was made up of Will Dolin, Oliver Gerrard, Christian Hjortland-Marks, Tom Scott and Jamie Pond. Although lacking in the desired power to row a coxed four, these boys more than made up for it with skill and gutsy determination. They just qualified for the A-Final then put on an unbelievable performance to turn over Radley and Abingdon’s top fours finishing in 5th place. Then followed the Coxless four of Will Carey, Sebastian Newman, Henry Blois-Brooke and Tim Waller. This crew qualified for the A-Final in good form and looked on for a medal of some description. After a great race and the 6th 2km of the weekend, the boys managed to win a Championship bronze medal making all the hard work worth it.
The 2nd and 3rd VIII put together some good racing against the ‘big’ schools, both finishing 5th in the A-final. Although a little disappointed the boys should be proud to be so competitive in this company. These boys will now turn their attention to qualifying an VIII for the Temple Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta. James Love raced in the Championship singles event. He qualified for the C-Final and finished 3rd which placed him 17th in the country.
The girls squad had three boats racing at National Schools’: a Coxed four, a Double scull and a Single scull. From the time trial the Four and the Double progressed through to the C-Final and the single of Lucy Walker progressed to the D-Final. The Coxless four put together a great race to win their C-Final by an impressive 9 seconds. The Double of Davies and McNerney also had a fantastic race, beating two crews in the C-Final putting them 19th overall in the country. Although a little disappointed to have qualified for the D-Final Lucy did not let this dampen her spirts in the race as she went on to win the D-Final with great style.
The Year 11’s raced in a Coxed four and two Coxless quads. The Coxed four qualified for the C-Final and finished in 6th place. The A and B coxless quads qualified for the D-Final and finished 2nd and 5th respectively. The Year 10’s raced an eight as the top boat then two Coxed fours followed by a second eight. It was fantastic to have so many Junior 15’s racing at National Schools, gaining valuable experience. The A VIII had been looking good in training up to the regatta and hoped to have a successful regatta. The boys did not disappoint by producing so great racing over the day to finish 3rd in J15 1st VIII’s taking the bronze medal. The A Coxed four qualified for the B-Final and finished 6th ranking them 13th overall. The B Coxed four qualified for the D-Final and finished 6th. The J15C VIII were racing other school’s B crews and qualified for the B-Final. In the B-final they beat 2 crews and finished in a creditable 5th place.
This was the Year 9’s first major regatta experience: the top boat was an Octuple followed by a Coxed quad scull. The Coxed quad unfortunately missed out on qualifying for the D-Final by 0.1 seconds in their time trial. The Octuple had a great regatta qualifying for the B-Final and finished 2nd this ranked them 8th in the country.
