Shiplake College was delighted to enter five crews to this year’s Henley Royal Regatta of which four qualified for their respective events, making it the most number of crews in the competition from any one school. In total, 24 pupils raced at HRR this year with at least one crew racing every day until the semi-finals on Saturday 1 July.
The boys’ eight and the girls’ quad had pre-qualified for the Princess Elizabeth and Diamond Jubilee Challenge cups respectively, but the other crews all took part in the HRR qualifying races on Friday 23 June before the regatta began.
The Princess Elizabeth Cup
With the boys’ VIII having already pre-qualified for the PE Cup, the crew consisting of Fin Worthington, Freddie Middleton, Harrison Harper, Callan Wallis, Ned Floyd, Seric Critchley, Fred Fox, Luke Byca and Charlie Keena (cox) took on Green Lake, USA in their first round. It was a rather fitting draw as Green Lake had been using the College as their basecamp for training. Despite training on the same stretch of water, it was our boys that took the win.
The VIII’s next race was against Deerfield Academy, also of the USA. In what was a thrilling encounter, our boys were behind for the majority of the race only to find another gear to take the win by a length. In the quarter-final, USA's Marin Rowing Association were also put to the sword which set up a mouth-watering semi-final draw with St Paul’s School. One of the most exciting races of the Regatta, both crews were side by side for much of the race. It seemed that all was set for a grandstand finish only for St Paul’s to take charge for the final sprint and finish ahead by ¾ length much to the devastation of our Shiplake boys.
The Diamond Jubilee Challenge Cup
With the ‘A’ boat of A Merritt, M Jackson, Jessica Weir and Sophie Foreman already qualified, the ‘B’ boat consisting of Lara Vahle, Emily Over, Emily Downing and Georgia Catlin knew they had to put in a strong performance in Friday’s qualifying to join their peers. And, with a strong performance and quick time, they only went and did just that leaving the College with two crews entered into the Diamond Jubilee Challenge Cup!
On the Tuesday, both crews made light work of their oppositions to advance with wins greater than 2 lengths. On the Thursday, our ‘B’ crew fought valiantly against Henley Rowing Club only to miss out on progression by 2½ lengths. For the ‘A’ crew, it was a different story as they put in an even stronger performance than on Tuesday to beat Nereid Boat Club.
In the quarter-final, our ‘A’ crew took on Wycliffe Junior Rowing Club ‘B’ and despite trailing for much of the race, our pupils found another grew to storm past Wycliffe to take the win by an impressive 2 lengths. Returning the following day for their semi-final, Tideway Scullers’ School stood in the way of an appearance in Sunday’s final. However, it was not meant to be for our ‘A’ crew as they were beaten by Tideway by 1¾ lengths. As some consolation, Tideway went on to win the event the following day.
The Fawley Challenge Cup
The College entered two crews – the ‘A’ boat consisting of Jack Duggan, Tom Madden, Johannes Meiswinkel and Nick Summerfield; and the ‘B’ boat consisting of Leo Creighton, Oliver Smee, Harrison Walton and Ben Brooks – with both having to go through qualifying on Friday 23 June. With only 7 crews out of 42 looking to qualify, it was a fantastic achievement for the A Boat to get through to the Regatta itself. On Tuesday 27 June, the boys had their first race against Leander Club ‘B’ and despite pushing them all the way, our boys narrowly succumbed by ⅔ length.
Flickr album: HRR 2023 |
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