Medal Honours at National Schools' Regatta

Shiplake College attended the National Schools' Regatta in force last weekend after months of preparation. The Shiplake entry was one of the largest at the regatta as 62 competitors raced in 15 events - achieving entries in every age group and class. In addition, the College was delighted to hear the Championship Coxless Pairs had been renamed 'The Nick Bevan Cup', to commemorate former Shiplake Headmaster Nick Bevan, who had an illustrious coaching history at Shrewsbury School, Shiplake College & St Edward's School and who served on the NSR committee for many years.

The J14 squad entered 2 octuple sculls, which was a great achievement given so little time on our flooded river this year. The J14A boat missed out on qualification by a few seconds whilst the J14B boat qualified for their event and represented themselves well in the semi-final, narrowly missing out on a place in the final.

The J15 squad showed their potential with both eights qualifying for their respective events and the A crew coming a respectable 4th place in their final. Individuals from both boats then went on to race in the J15 coxed quads event which resulted in the A crew of Adam Fletcher, Seb Newman, Hugo Oglina, Tommy Mottram and Henry Blois-Brooke gaining a bronze medal.

The J16 squad managed to put their demons to rest from last year by qualifying for their events in both J16 1st eights and J16 coxless fours. The girls qualified for the championship quads race on the Sunday and achieved an impressive 4th in the semi-final, which was not quite enough to progress to the final.

The highlight of the weekend's racing came in the form of the 1st eight racing for the Child Beale cup. After dominating their semi final, the 1st eight were looking good for a medal. So much so their coach, Hugh Mackworth-Praed, made the trip up to Nottingham at the last minute after looking after his poorly son in the morning. After a tight race the boys came home with a silver medal and this set the scene for the next day's racing.

On the Sunday the boys competed in the championship coxless fours and coxed fours events. The coxless four did well to make their semi final, whist the coxed four showed early promise in the opening round and that, coupled with the silver medal in the eight, gave the boys enough fire to go for another medal. After another exciting and tight race, the boys won silver again, narrowly missing out to Monmouth School.

After this weekend of racing Harry Vardigans in Year 13 can now claim to be the most decorated rower Shiplake College has had whilst still rowing at school. He now holds a gold and 3 silver medals from National Schools representing Shiplake College, as well as 2 golds and 2 silvers from the Coupe de la Jeunesse, representing Shiplake College and Great Britain.