Courses for juniors: we are starting our rowing courses in the two Evesham High Schools in February. These courses are aimed at children aged 14-15. Younger children may apply for one of our rowing courses in the Spring. Places are limited and a strict waiting list system is in place.

Adults and children who wish to start rowing should apply to: eveshamheadcoach@gmail.com

Twenty-six rowers, assorted parents, friends and dogs worked off the Christmas calories with the traditional Boxing Day run up Broadway Hill to the Tower. Thanks to Claire Malein for mince pies afterwards. All dogs made it down safely (no broken legs this year), and despite a ‘Fenton’ moment the culprit was retrieved without incident. We rounded the morning off with a drink at The Crown & Trumpet.  New Year’s Day run is at 10am leaving from the car park behind The Trumpet.

World champion rower, Alex Gregory, returned to Evesham Rowing Club as guest of honour at the club’s Junior Awards evening. The former-Prince Henry’s High School pupil, who is the stroke of the men’s coxless four, talked about his rowing career to date before handed out cups and prizes to the club’s junior award winners. Last month Alex and his crew mates, Tom James, Ric Eggington and Matt Langridge, won gold in the World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia, capping off a season that has seen them win every race they have entered. Alex talked to the audience of 70 junior rowers and their parents of his battles with illness and injury that delayed his rise to the top of the GB rowing team. At Evesham Alex was coached by Keith Rafter and Dave Perry, who still coach at the club, and by Mark Earnshaw, a former history teacher at Prince Henry’s, who is now a GB rowing coach.

Alex was first selected for GB in 2004 when he competed in the World Rowing U23 Championships in Poland where he finished 11th in the quad. He also competed at the World U23 Championships in 2005 when he was 4th in the double, and in, 2006, came 8th in the single. He has been a full member of the GB squad since 2006 when he graduated from Reading University. As ‘spare man’ for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Alex sat in a number of boats during training, while other athletes were ill or recovering from injury, and discovered his talent as a sweep oarsman.  

In 2009 he won the pair (with Pete Reed) at GB Rowing Senior Trials and in the 2009 World Cup series he won two golds and a bronze in the four. This was followed by victory in the 2009 World Championships against the hotly-tipped Australian crew which contained the legendary Drew Ginn.

Bitter disappointment followed in 2010 when the crew came fourth in the World Championships in New Zealand. The success of 2011 has helped to erase that unexpected defeat. Now all eyes are focused on London 2012.

Evesham Rowing Club was delighted to welcome Alex back and wishes him and the GB squad every success for 2012.

Junior Award winners:

Boys’ crew of the year: J16 squad – Alex Russell, Zac Leavesley, Jack Towers, James Waterhouse, Rupert Malein – and cox, J14 Alex Bartram.

Girls’ crew of the year: Women’s Henley crew – Laura Attwood, Hayley Pawlowski, Emily Waters, Aimee Rutherford.

Junior of the Year: Alex Russell

Coxswain of the Year: Alex Bartram. Highly commended: Katie Griffiths

Captain’s Award (for dedication to the sport and the club): Will Coldicutt

WJ16-18 Rower of the Year: Aimee Rutherford

WJ16-18 Most Improved Rower: Laura Attwood

J16-18 Rower of the Year: Alex Russell

J16-18 Most Improved Rower: Zac Leavesley

WJ15 Rower of the Year: Jasmine Bradley

WJ15 Most Improved Rower: Emily Stranks

J15 Rower of the Year: Liam Tustin

J15 Most Improved Rower: Patrick Sullivan

WJ14 Rower of the Year: Flo Pickles

WJ14 Most Improved Rower: Lauren Caddy

J14 Rower of the Year: James Mackins

J14 Most Improved Rowers: Toby Edwards & Alex Staite

J11-13 Rower of the Year: Chris Gregg

J11-13 Most Improved Rowers: Alex Lacey & Emily Pearson

The first win came from the J14 coxed quad of Alex Staite, Luke Towers, James Mackins and Alex Bartram coxed by Toby Edwards beating a strong crew from Stratford. The girls equivalent boat WJ14 coxed quad of Ellie Smith, Lauren Caddy, Lydia House and Izzy Bridges expertly coxed by Katie Griffiths also beat a Stratford crew to earn themselves the win.

The J14 double scull of Luke Towers and James Mackins were next beating off strong opposition from Upper Thames and Bewdley to gain another win for Evesham.

Next up was the J16 double scull of Liam Tustin and Patrick Sullivan both of whom were racing up as they are only J15, beating Bewdley in fine style to win. Liam then raced up again in the J16 single scull. He raced against another Evesham sculler Jack Towers. Both scullers put in excellent performances but this time Jack came out on top.

Aimee Rutherford was up next racing against Fran Mills-Baker of Stratford in the WJ18 single sculls. Aimee knew what she had to do and did a perfect job to secure her, her pot.

Flo Pickles and Georgii Walklett then went head to head in the WJ15 single sculls, again both of them rowing up a year from WJ14. They raced neck and neck down the 450m course and after a final push for the finish it was Flo who came out the winner on this occasion.

Next it was time for the primary events. These are designed for scullers who have not raced before to give them experience. There were four primary events and Evesham managed to win all of them. Marie Keys and Nicky Perry won the women’s double scull event beating a Warwick crew. Marie then went on to race against another Warwick sculler in the women’s single sculls, again coming out on top.

The open double scull was won by Ed Watkins and Ben Norton beating a crew from Lincoln and the open single scull was won by Joe Lord beating Warwick.

Oxford City Regatta

On Sunday a few crews travelled to Oxford for their regatta. The IM1 coxless quad made up of three Sullivan brothers, Rory, Lawrence and Patrick with Liam Tustin in the bow seat had a close race against Kingston where they were fighting neck and neck all the way down the course with Evesham finally coming out on top.

Liam then went on to race up a year in the J16 single sculls beating last year’s National Championships Gold Medallist to gain Evesham another win.

Evesham also had two adaptive wins coming from Jon Phipps and a first win for Jon Whitfield in their own respective events.

The first came from the IM3 coxed four of Josh Rogers, Josh Sexton, Henry House and Sam Pagett coxed by Emma Attwood who beat off strong opposition from 15 other crews in a very fast time of 3mins 23secs.

Then Henry House teamed up with Chloe Farrar in a mixed IM3 double scull finishing 1st in 3min 44secs making it look easy and a technique to die for.

Evesham had two other finalists both just missing out on wins, Dan Walker and Emma Attwood put in a strong performance in the mixed IM2 double scull and Aimee Rutherford and Colleen Penrose rowed competitively in the WIM1 double scull.

Sunday, over the 500m course, saw two more wins, the first coming from the WIM1 double scull of Aimee Rutherford and Colleen Penrose. After just missing out on Saturday they were determined to prove a point and put in two great rows. They won their semi in 1min.50.7secs and their final in 1min 49 secs one clear length ahead of the rest of the field.

The second win came from the WMAST B single sculler Debbie Staite. She had a neck and neck tussle with a very strong lady from Vesta but after a big push for the line won her event by 1/3rd of a length.

Evesham had five other finalists all just missing out on wins. Debbie Staite teamed up with Jane Mcintosh, they haven’t rowed together for about 6years but that didn’t show in their performance, and came a very close 2^nd with all 4 crews in their race finishing within 4 seconds of each other.
Dan Walker and Henry House won their 1st round in 1.38.5 putting them into the final where they came 2^nd in a nail biting finish, in a time of 1.38.2 missing out by 1/2 a second, where the umpires had to go to a photo finish to see who had won.
Chloe Farrar raced in her first W1M3 single scull, having won her novices last weekend and missed out by 0.12 of a second. She had just jumped out of a mens IM2 coxed four who had won their IM3 race on Saturday and had to move up, they showed fine racing style despite having 3 men and 1 lady rowing the boat they only lost by 1/2 length.
The crew of the day should have been the 8 but they lost their fin on their way to the start they raced very strongly and still managed to come 2^nd.

Stourport

Some of the Junior section travelled to Stourport for their regatta. The Saturday course was over 1100m and the Sunday was over 600m. The only win of the weekend came on Saturday came from the WJ14 coxed quad of Frances Russell, Lauren Caddy, Ellie Smith, Georgii Walklett and cox Katie Griffiths. Despite only one crew winning there were lots of good races against very strong opposition including Silver and Bronze medal winning crews from the recent National Championships.

However the race of the weekend for the juniors, came from the WJ14 coxed quad on the Sunday. The crew of Lauren Caddy, Ellie Smith, Georgii Walklett and Lydia House put in a strong performance and even the brilliant coxing from Katie Griffiths, steering a fantastic line, wasn’t quite enough and they lost by just 2 feet to a very strong composite from Bewdley and Trent.

The next win came from Chloe Farrar in the women’s novice single sculls. She had a straight final against Hereford and rowed beautifully down the course to get her fine china goblet.

The mixed IM1 double sculls was definitely going to be an Evesham win, with two crews reaching the final. Zara Cottrill and Dan Walker raced against Debbie Staite and Josh Rogers in a close race seeing Cottrill and Walker coming out victorious.

The Sunday proved another good day for Evesham, the first win coming from the IM2 double scull. Sexton teamed up with Walker to race against City of Bristol. The Evesham duo took their opportunity and won their second pots of the weekend.

Next up it was Staite’s turn to have another go at winning after her loss on Saturday. She against a lady from Ross Rowing Club showing great determination to gain herself a well deserved goblet.

The last win of the weekend was a second win for Farrar in the womens novice single sculls. This time however she collect her novice point meaning that she earned herself a well deserved swim in the river to go along with her goblet.

Saturday

IM2 Double - Josh Sexton and Henry House

WN Single - Chloe Farrar (non-qualifying)

MxIM1 - Double Zara Cottrill and Dan Walker (beating Debbie Staite and Josh Rogers in the final)

Sunday Sprint

IM2 Double - Josh Sexton and Dan Walker

WMasB Single - Debbie Staite

WN Single - Chloe Farrar.

Special congrats to Chloe for winning her sculling novices!

Forty years ago winning your novices meant that you moved to ‘junior’ status. The men in this photo were all in their early 20s and one (Brian Hay) is still rowing at Evesham. (Courtesy of The Evesham Journal.)

Evesham’s J16 4+ represented England yesterday (23rd July 2011) at the Home International Regatta in Strathclyde. Jack Towers, James Waterhouse, Alex Russell, Rupert Malein and coxswain Alex Bartram, were selected at British Championships last week when they were the highest placed English crew in the J4+ event. The boys narrowly missed out on gold last week to the Welsh National Crew. Yesterday in Scotland the boys beat the Welsh crew with an amazing sprint finish in the last 500m of the 2km race. Sadly they missed out on first place coming in 3 seconds behind the Irish crew. However, the lads and their coaches were delighted with the performance. The crew will now take a well earned rest before serious training resumes in early September.