It was a successful day of rowing for the Boat Club at the Schools’ Head of The River in London. Over 300 crews took on the Championship Course on Tuesday 25 March in which Shiplake had seven crews competing – two more crews than last year.
In the Boys’ Championship 8+ category, the crew consisting of Ed Galer, Rupert Evans, Finlay Rhys-Jones, William Harper, Luca Hunt-Davis, Henry Day-Clark, Josh Barnes, Isaac Dean, and Ben Loggie (cox) finished second place behind St Paul’s School. It was second place also for our Girls’ Championship 8+ with the crew of Freya Smith, Ava Lowe, Annunciata Ings, Alice Dargue, Amelia Westbrook, Eva Rootkin-Gray, Alice Knight, Katie Proudlove, and Charlotte Hodgkinson (cox) coming in behind Headington. These two finishes in the senior categories - coming in behind single-sex schools - further strengthen Shiplake’s position as the top co-educational rowing school in the country.
And it was second place in the Sch 1st J16 8+ category where the crew consisting of Charlie Scott, Max Shevlane, M Perry, W Houldsworth, H Howe-Davies, William Nicholas, Jack Terry, Z Young, and T Cockings (cox) finished behind Windsor Boys School.
In the other races, the boys’ School/Junior 2nd 8+ (Ben Schroeder, Kai Critchley, Inigo Markham, Will Tavinor, Oliver Nash, Tomos Weighell, Otto Berj de Kerangal, Oliver Bennet, and Charlie Watkins (cox) came 6th, the boys’ Championship 4x (Isaac Powell, Inigo Markham, Aston Phillips, D Wilson) came 22nd, the girls’ School/Junior 2nd 8+ (Bethan Thompson, Honor Fackrell, Abi Hutton, Tilly Foreman, L Fiddy, Lucy Green, Felicity Hudson, Flo Dallas) came 5th, and the boys’ Sch 1st J15 8+ (B Maggs, Alex Bowater-Rubio, Oscar Spearing, Callum Gibbings, A Lee, Barney Maskell, Luke Leamon, Joe Swankie) came 9th.
Speaking after Schools’ Head, Director of Rowing at Shiplake Mr Dave Currie said, ‘I'm really pleased with the results from our team. To finish 2nd in the boys’ and girls' Championship VIIIs really shows the strength of our co-ed rowing programme. Our second boats also produced strong results, and this really shows the strength of our programme and the depth that we possess at a senior level.’
Then, on Wednesday 26 March, it was the Schools’ Sculling head at Dorney Lake. For many of our rowers competing at this event, it was their first time experiencing a rowing event and what a way to start with over 3000 rowers from 550 crews involved!
Nine crews raced at Dorney, and highlights included a 3rd place finish for our J18 4x-, a 5th place finish for our WJ18 4x-, and an 8th place finish for our WJ17 4x-. Other finishes included a 10th place finish for our J17 4x-, a 20th place finish for our WJ18 4x- B crew, a 36th place finish for our J15 4x+, a 37th place finish for our J14 4x+, an 18th place finish for our J14 8x+ A crew, and a 27th place finish for our J14 8x+ B crew.
Well done to all pupils who competed:
- J18 4x-: K Critchley, O Nash, W Harper, J Barnes
- WJ18 4x- A Crew: A Dargue, A Ings, K Proudlove, A Westbrook
- WJ18 4x- B Crew: F Smith, F Dallas, A Hutton, T Foreman
- J17 4x- A Crew: B Schroeder, W Tavinor, O Berj De Kerangal, A Butler
- J17 4x- B Crew: O Bennett, I Markham, I Powell, A Phillips
- WJ17 4x-: A Knight, F Hudson, L Green, A Lowe
- J15 4x+: C Sookha Wiliams, J Swankie, L Leamon, B Maggs, E Murphy (cox)
- J14 4x+: L Bowater-Rubio, F McIsaac, M Britton, A Curtis Green, D Pires (cox)
- J14 A Octo: O Owens, J Thomas, B Dean, O Scofield, Z Harrison, O Thorpe, O Houldsworth, G Dallas, C Craig (cox)
- J14 B Octo: A Richardson, J Howard, L Mckenna-Mayes, Z Hashemi, W Wackerle, G Silver, M Terry, F Jenkins, T Lane (cox)
