1st Eight
I had two key aims at the start of the year with the Senior Boys group:
introduce a more structured training programme
promote a greater technical awareness by increasing the level of importance of small boats training, especially sculling
In the end I feel that both were only partly achieved during the year. The boys did roughly follow a pre-planned programme but this had to be adapted regularly due to changing situations within the school. The mixed age levels and the consequent disparity in Games slots made this especially difficult. The small-boats training during the Michaelmas term did go well despite a lack of boats to train in. By the end of the term we had quite a number of accomplished scullers, but it was a little frustrating however knowing that there were a large number of eventual squad oarsmen who were missing out on this small-boats work due to other sporting commitments
Although the Michaelmas term has traditionally not been a particularly important one in terms of racing, some mention must be made of some of the sculling exploits of the senior squad. While Graham Mills and John Greene achieved two good wins in double sculls at Worcester and the Bluefriars Head, Tom Mildinhall who was without doubt the most accomplished sculler in the club, didn't actually manage to win a sculling pot at all! In the last race of the term at the Walton Small Boats Head, he and John won the Novice Doubles division in fine style, but unfortunately since they were one of only two entries, they did not receive a prize!
It was obvious from early on that the eventual 1st VIII would include a number of 5th formers. But after the good progress in small boats shown during the Michaelmas term, initial thoughts were to form a J18 VIII and a J16 VIII up to National Schools' before integrating the two groups to form a 1st VIII for Henley. It soon became apparent however that with two of the fifth-form average, the J16 group were going to be left with only seven experienced oarsmen. Also, the likely fifth-form contenders for the 1st VIII had all played rugby in the Michaelmas term and were consequently technically behind many of those who had been sculling that term.. By combining the groups to form a J18 A and B VIII, it would bring on those who needed it, plus leave enough J16's to form a good coxed four.
This decision was obviously going to present a number of problems, the main one being the difficult in training together as a crew for more than one or two sessions per week. However, with the training programme planned around this, i.e. separate sessions in the ergo, weights room etc., and then outings in the VIII on Thursday and Saturday afternoons, all appeared to be going well. Unfortunately, absences due to illness, interviews and school trips soon began to take their toll on the already few combined sessions. This problem actually got worse as the year went on because of the additional pressure of GCSE and A level exams. Despite this the crew soon began to show their potential and at their first race of the season at the Stourport Head they finished only 11 seconds down on the King's Chester 1st VIII (N.B. King's Chester had finished in the top 7 for the last few years at the Schools' Head). They then showed that this was no fluke by finishing 15 seconds behind St Edward's 1st VIII at the City of Bristol Head a couple of weeks later.
By the Schools Head, the crew seemed to have gelled into a unit. Two days of Tideway training the previous weekend with overnight accommodation on the floor of Walton RC, had brought the eight together more, both in and out of the boat. They set off from the start rating 34 into the headwind and looking like they meant business. By Hammersmith they had caught up quite a few seconds on Pangbourne 1 in front. Unfortunately, however, despite the wind now on their tail, they could not keep up the same sort of pressure and over the second half gradually let them slip away again. They eventually finished 1 second behind Pangbourne and in 21st place overall, a satisfactory result. Unfortunately they could not quite repeat this row a few days later at the Eight's Head of the River, but even so their finish placing of 165 wasn't bad and it will give next year's crew a good start position.
Easter holidays followed and with it the training camp in Nantes, France. The weather was superb (despite being rather windy) and the VIII relishing so much time on the water, got better and better. All this however was about to change... An unfortunate accident involving boiling water, resulted in Toby Jameson being treated for 3rd degree burns in hospital. Hoping his recovery would be fairly quick, we left the 2nd VIII intact and split the remainders of the 1st VIII into a four and a pair for the last few days in Nantes. Back in England it meant that the eight could not compete at Poplar Regatta as planned, but we were all hoping that with luck, he might be fit to row at Nottingham City Regatta two weeks later. Unfortunately the following week brought the bad news that Toby's foot would need skin-grafting, keeping him out the boat for at least another month and with it the National Schools' Regatta. Nathan James was immediately moved in as substitute and seemed to settle well into the crew, but the next couple of weeks was going to see an all time low in crew moral.
Nottingham City was cancelled due to high winds, so the VIII was quickly entered into Coate Water Park Regatta for at least some racing experience before National Schools. It was during that week however that the decision to take both senior eights training at Saltford, resulted in a collision between the 1st and 2nd VIII travelling in opposite directions at full speed! Luckily no-one was seriously hurt in the accident, but the 1st VIII boat suffered two broken blades and riggers, while the 2nd VIII sank! We managed to salvage things just in time for the event at Coate Water, though the race itself was not particularly memorable and they were beaten by St Catherines College, Cambridge.
A week later was National Schools. A training session with City of Bristol on the docks earlier in the week had gone well and spirits were now actually again quite high. Not for long however, as it became apparent during the night before we left for Nottingham, that one of the oarsmen, Nick Baronoff, had decided that an 18th birthday party was more important to him than the main rowing event of the year. I think by this point the rest of the crew had resigned themselves to the fact that the eight was jinxed and although very shocked by the news, soon settled down to the task in hand. Ben Hooton, now fully recovered from the effects of glandular fever, was the obvious replacement and one practice outing later, they prepared to race. Unfortunately their heat was particularly tough and although neck and neck with Eton down most of the course, King's Canterbury, Eton and Shiplake eventually crossed the finish line in front. The latter by only 0.45 of a second. After all that had happened in recent weeks and after such a good race, being knocked-out by such a small margin was a very cruel blow and I must admit I found it very difficult to find many words in the post-race talk.
The half-term break allowed everyone to re-focus their minds on final exams and the next major event, Henley Royal Regatta. At Reading regatta the eight was double-entered into Senior 3 and School/Junior. Their first race against Shrewsbury and the Oratory was appalling. A lack of real fire and aggression combined with poor timing, meant they were convincingly beaten by both crews. Thankfully they restored confidence with a stirring race in Sch/J VIII's against Kingston Grammar and Radley II where all three crews were overlapping all the way down the course. Monkton eventually finished in 2nd place, with Radley being disqualified. Although it ended on a good note, the lack of consistency shown at Reading seemed to be due to a lack of racing experience. I therefore double-entered the eight in J18 VIII and S3 VIII's at Thames Valley Park Regatta the following weekend, simply for them to gain more of that racing experience. In keeping with our luck so far though, we actually ended up with one straight final and no race at all in J18, i.e. one 500m race in the whole day. So much for racing experience! Then, the week before Thames Valley, Alex Partridge went down with the same form of viral meningitis that had afflicted some other members of the Boat Club. Nathan James, who had recently recovered from it, subbed in. The crew seemed to be going well and on the day they were well-psyched up for the race. Even so, the expected big battle against Shiplake College turned out to be almost a non-event with the College crew actually being made up of staff and old-boys. Despite the easy victory it was still a good moment. The 1st VIII had finally won a pot! Even better was the news that they would not be required to qualify for Henley Royal Regatta. Alex was now recovering from the illness and all seemed to be back on track.
Unfortunately there were still to be a few final twists to the tale! During the following week, three more of the crew went down one by one with the dreaded bug. Tom, who was the last to catch it, was actually discharged from the Medical Centre the morning of the day we moved to Henley. Then as soon as we arrived at the famous rowing course, we found out that the crew had been drawn against Hampton A in the first round. Despite the initial disappointment of the draw, the Henley atmosphere and the superb accommodation offered by the Whitfield family soon revived everyone's spirits and we started getting down to the business of training and preparing for the big race ahead. The final blow (literally!) on the day of the race, was when the wind suddenly swung round from being a pleasant tail-wind to become a brisk head-wind, giving the much heavier Hampton crew an even bigger advantage! Anyway, despite all that had happened in the preceding months, every individual really gave of his best during the race and in the circumstances a 4½ length verdict against one of the better crews in the event was a significant achievement.
Reflecting on the season, it is almost certain that the VIII could have been quite a few seconds faster at National Schools and Henley if there had been fewer problems due to illness etc. and had more outings as a consistent crew. They would however still have been some way behind the better schools such as Hampton. Technically, I think we were as good as most other crews but the race against Hampton at Henley certainly illustrated the distinct difference in power between the top rowing schools and ourselves. I realise this difference is something which is always going to be difficult for a small school such as ourselves to bridge, especially when we don't have many of our oarsmen for the Michaelmas term. But there is still no reason, however, why from time to time we should not be able to compete on an almost even footing and I look forward to next year where it is likely that the whole of the 1st VIII will be from within the lower 6th and 6th form.
1st Eight
I had two key aims at the start of the year with the Senior Boys group:
introduce a more structured training programme
promote a greater technical awareness by increasing the level of importance of small boats training, especially sculling
In the end I feel that both were only partly achieved during the year. The boys did roughly follow a pre-planned programme but this had to be adapted regularly due to changing situations within the school. The mixed age levels and the consequent disparity in Games slots made this especially difficult. The small-boats training during the Michaelmas term did go well despite a lack of boats to train in. By the end of the term we had quite a number of accomplished scullers, but it was a little frustrating however knowing that there were a large number of eventual squad oarsmen who were missing out on this small-boats work due to other sporting commitments
Although the Michaelmas term has traditionally not been a particularly important one in terms of racing, some mention must be made of some of the sculling exploits of the senior squad. While Graham Mills and John Greene achieved two good wins in double sculls at Worcester and the Bluefriars Head, Tom Mildinhall who was without doubt the most accomplished sculler in the club, didn't actually manage to win a sculling pot at all! In the last race of the term at the Walton Small Boats Head, he and John won the Novice Doubles division in fine style, but unfortunately since they were one of only two entries, they did not receive a prize!
It was obvious from early on that the eventual 1st VIII would include a number of 5th formers. But after the good progress in small boats shown during the Michaelmas term, initial thoughts were to form a J18 VIII and a J16 VIII up to National Schools' before integrating the two groups to form a 1st VIII for Henley. It soon became apparent however that with two of the fifth-form average, the J16 group were going to be left with only seven experienced oarsmen. Also, the likely fifth-form contenders for the 1st VIII had all played rugby in the Michaelmas term and were consequently technically behind many of those who had been sculling that term.. By combining the groups to form a J18 A and B VIII, it would bring on those who needed it, plus leave enough J16's to form a good coxed four.
This decision was obviously going to present a number of problems, the main one being the difficult in training together as a crew for more than one or two sessions per week. However, with the training programme planned around this, i.e. separate sessions in the ergo, weights room etc., and then outings in the VIII on Thursday and Saturday afternoons, all appeared to be going well. Unfortunately, absences due to illness, interviews and school trips soon began to take their toll on the already few combined sessions. This problem actually got worse as the year went on because of the additional pressure of GCSE and A level exams. Despite this the crew soon began to show their potential and at their first race of the season at the Stourport Head they finished only 11 seconds down on the King's Chester 1st VIII (N.B. King's Chester had finished in the top 7 for the last few years at the Schools' Head). They then showed that this was no fluke by finishing 15 seconds behind St Edward's 1st VIII at the City of Bristol Head a couple of weeks later.
By the Schools Head, the crew seemed to have gelled into a unit. Two days of Tideway training the previous weekend with overnight accommodation on the floor of Walton RC, had brought the eight together more, both in and out of the boat. They set off from the start rating 34 into the headwind and looking like they meant business. By Hammersmith they had caught up quite a few seconds on Pangbourne 1 in front. Unfortunately, however, despite the wind now on their tail, they could not keep up the same sort of pressure and over the second half gradually let them slip away again. They eventually finished 1 second behind Pangbourne and in 21st place overall, a satisfactory result. Unfortunately they could not quite repeat this row a few days later at the Eight's Head of the River, but even so their finish placing of 165 wasn't bad and it will give next year's crew a good start position.
Easter holidays followed and with it the training camp in Nantes, France. The weather was superb (despite being rather windy) and the VIII relishing so much time on the water, got better and better. All this however was about to change... An unfortunate accident involving boiling water, resulted in Toby Jameson being treated for 3rd degree burns in hospital. Hoping his recovery would be fairly quick, we left the 2nd VIII intact and split the remainders of the 1st VIII into a four and a pair for the last few days in Nantes. Back in England it meant that the eight could not compete at Poplar Regatta as planned, but we were all hoping that with luck, he might be fit to row at Nottingham City Regatta two weeks later. Unfortunately the following week brought the bad news that Toby's foot would need skin-grafting, keeping him out the boat for at least another month and with it the National Schools' Regatta. Nathan James was immediately moved in as substitute and seemed to settle well into the crew, but the next couple of weeks was going to see an all time low in crew moral.
Nottingham City was cancelled due to high winds, so the VIII was quickly entered into Coate Water Park Regatta for at least some racing experience before National Schools. It was during that week however that the decision to take both senior eights training at Saltford, resulted in a collision between the 1st and 2nd VIII travelling in opposite directions at full speed! Luckily no-one was seriously hurt in the accident, but the 1st VIII boat suffered two broken blades and riggers, while the 2nd VIII sank! We managed to salvage things just in time for the event at Coate Water, though the race itself was not particularly memorable and they were beaten by St Catherines College, Cambridge.
A week later was National Schools. A training session with City of Bristol on the docks earlier in the week had gone well and spirits were now actually again quite high. Not for long however, as it became apparent during the night before we left for Nottingham, that one of the oarsmen, Nick Baronoff, had decided that an 18th birthday party was more important to him than the main rowing event of the year. I think by this point the rest of the crew had resigned themselves to the fact that the eight was jinxed and although very shocked by the news, soon settled down to the task in hand. Ben Hooton, now fully recovered from the effects of glandular fever, was the obvious replacement and one practice outing later, they prepared to race. Unfortunately their heat was particularly tough and although neck and neck with Eton down most of the course, King's Canterbury, Eton and Shiplake eventually crossed the finish line in front. The latter by only 0.45 of a second. After all that had happened in recent weeks and after such a good race, being knocked-out by such a small margin was a very cruel blow and I must admit I found it very difficult to find many words in the post-race talk.
The half-term break allowed everyone to re-focus their minds on final exams and the next major event, Henley Royal Regatta. At Reading regatta the eight was double-entered into Senior 3 and School/Junior. Their first race against Shrewsbury and the Oratory was appalling. A lack of real fire and aggression combined with poor timing, meant they were convincingly beaten by both crews. Thankfully they restored confidence with a stirring race in Sch/J VIII's against Kingston Grammar and Radley II where all three crews were overlapping all the way down the course. Monkton eventually finished in 2nd place, with Radley being disqualified. Although it ended on a good note, the lack of consistency shown at Reading seemed to be due to a lack of racing experience. I therefore double-entered the eight in J18 VIII and S3 VIII's at Thames Valley Park Regatta the following weekend, simply for them to gain more of that racing experience. In keeping with our luck so far though, we actually ended up with one straight final and no race at all in J18, i.e. one 500m race in the whole day. So much for racing experience! Then, the week before Thames Valley, Alex Partridge went down with the same form of viral meningitis that had afflicted some other members of the Boat Club. Nathan James, who had recently recovered from it, subbed in. The crew seemed to be going well and on the day they were well-psyched up for the race. Even so, the expected big battle against Shiplake College turned out to be almost a non-event with the College crew actually being made up of staff and old-boys. Despite the easy victory it was still a good moment. The 1st VIII had finally won a pot! Even better was the news that they would not be required to qualify for Henley Royal Regatta. Alex was now recovering from the illness and all seemed to be back on track.
Unfortunately there were still to be a few final twists to the tale! During the following week, three more of the crew went down one by one with the dreaded bug. Tom, who was the last to catch it, was actually discharged from the Medical Centre the morning of the day we moved to Henley. Then as soon as we arrived at the famous rowing course, we found out that the crew had been drawn against Hampton A in the first round. Despite the initial disappointment of the draw, the Henley atmosphere and the superb accommodation offered by the Whitfield family soon revived everyone's spirits and we started getting down to the business of training and preparing for the big race ahead. The final blow (literally!) on the day of the race, was when the wind suddenly swung round from being a pleasant tail-wind to become a brisk head-wind, giving the much heavier Hampton crew an even bigger advantage! Anyway, despite all that had happened in the preceding months, every individual really gave of his best during the race and in the circumstances a 4½ length verdict against one of the better crews in the event was a significant achievement.
Reflecting on the season, it is almost certain that the VIII could have been quite a few seconds faster at National Schools and Henley if there had been fewer problems due to illness etc. and had more outings as a consistent crew. They would however still have been some way behind the better schools such as Hampton. Technically, I think we were as good as most other crews but the race against Hampton at Henley certainly illustrated the distinct difference in power between the top rowing schools and ourselves. I realise this difference is something which is always going to be difficult for a small school such as ourselves to bridge, especially when we don't have many of our oarsmen for the Michaelmas term. But there is still no reason, however, why from time to time we should not be able to compete on an almost even footing and I look forward to next year where it is likely that the whole of the 1st VIII will be from within the lower 6th and 6th form.