The squad of nine oarsmen contained two who were over age (one only by two weeks) so a J16 Colts VIII was really never an option.

They were all very keen and competitive and had trained fairly hard as J15s the previous year, coached by myself and DRJ. They were already competent scullers, but had no sweep-oar experience.

The sculling training held them in good stead at the first race of the year, our own Bluefriars Head Race in October. Josh Perkins and Rupert Johnstone-Burt won the J162x event against formidable opposition from Bryanston, Canford and Eton. The J16 4+ started in front of Eton, who gradually caught them, but could not get past; this was a tremendous effort as it was our first race in a sweep event.

Serious training continued throughout October and early November with 2K ergo tests, long and low rate ergo's and GPR's tough circuits. We suffered from high swirly waters and several rowing outings ended up in the gym or the rowing tank, the latter being extremely useful; it was the foundation for everyone in the squad learning to row competently on both sides of the boat, which I consider to be essential, as is the ability to steer coxless boats. The Wycliffe Head Race in December is always bleak, cold and very hard to win. There was a good entry of J16 and novice coxed fours and double sculls. The novice four of Tom Cheater, Tommy Yip, Keith Law and Josh Rogers managed to win against formidable school and club opposition. This crew was selected by the squad themselves on the day; the race was their first outing, and they had all raced at least once before in different boats that day. They proved to me that our squad system was working well.

The Spring Term saw more serious flooding and many cancelled rows because of the high water. Schools in the Thames Valley were forging ahead with outings at Dorney Lake instead of on the Thames. This was brought home to me at the National Schools Sculling Head race held at Dorney when the Thames was red-flagged yet again. I entered a very strong J164x-, who despite sculling technically very well were quite a long way off winning pace, mostly because of lack of river time. The same week, a J164+ was entered in the Schools Head Race on the Tideway, over the Boat Race course of 4 miles. Stroked very ably by Tommy Yip, they faired rather better and finished towards the top of the J18 division.

I now knew that a sweep oared boat was to be our event at the National Schools Regatta, and it would probably have to be a coxless boat. Before that event we all enjoyed and benefited greatly from the fantastic training camp in Nantes in April. The camp firmed up selection of the J16 Coxless Four. Peter Leach finally booked his seat in the crew after playing catch up technically with the rest of the squad.

They rowed very well in terrible conditions of Nottingham, narrowly missing qualifying for the final of J16 coxless fours and recording the same time as Eton second and third crews (who also did not make it!) The standard in all events was awesome. Josh Rogers came of age as a coxless boat steersman, doing as good a job as anyone in this event.

We managed to race twice in an VIII - once at Birmingham where we lost to Royal Shrewsbury School I by a third of a length in J16 with a J15 oarsman on board as a substitute. We entered S4 VIIIs at Reading where we beat one club crew and lost to another in the semi-final -- a very good effort indeed.

This was a very good squad of Colts, who I know will go on to become part of a splendid Monkton 1st VIII, coached by GPR. I wish them all well in their future rowing careers; I enjoyed every minute of the long hard road we trod together -- yes, even the cold and rain of Nottingham.