Last Sunday, the Boat Club made the short journey to race at Wallingford Fours and Eights. Racing took place on the same course as Wallingford Sculls earlier in the term. In the week prior to the race torrential rain forced the river on to red boards making racing look unlikely, but fortunately the weather eased and the river slowed down enough to allow the event to run.
The senior boys raced in two matched eights, one named Bumble and the other Bees. These crews raced well and finished in a respectable 6th and 7th position out of 23 Junior 18 crews. Despite Bumble getting a 10 second penalty for impeding another crew this would not have altered the crews’ finishing positions. The event was won by Kings Chester, who were 36 seconds in front of Shiplake’s first boat home.
After a term where the Year 11 boys have been fulfilling their duties on the rugby pitch, this event was considered a good opportunity to get them together to race in an 8. The crew performed as well as to be expected considering the lack of rowing they have done. They finished with a time that placed them 7th from 11 Junior 16 crews, one minute and eleven seconds behind the winning crew from Winchester. This has given them an idea of where they stand and how much work needs to be done next term.
Due to illness and injury the Senior Girls eight had to pull out from racing and a coxed four took its place. In a scratch boat the girls had an enjoyable race and gained valuable experience for next term, finishing 11th out of 14 boats.
Full results can be found here, while more pictures from the event can be found by clicking on the camera icon at the bottom left of the website menu.
Last weekend, while most Shiplake pupils were enjoying a rest on their exeat weekend, James Love and Oliver Gerrard took part in the Scullers Head event, an annual race on the River Thames championship course from Mortlake to Putney. In total, 500 single scullers took part, making it the largest sculling race in the UK.
James started 228 just in front of Oliver who started 232. James in total passed four crews and Oliver five crews. While the boys faced a nervous wait for the results to be published, their coach Mr Mackworth Praed won his Masters B category and posted a time of 21:43:83 which placed him 25th overall. In the Junior 18 category, Ollie and James finished 7th and 8th respectively, which are hugely respectable results.
These events were a great way to end a long hard term and now the students look forward to some well deserved rest over the Christmas holidays. Thank you to all the coaches for giving up their weekends to support the boys.
Mr David Currie
Director of Rowing
