Great Marlow Swans Latest News

Monkton Bluefriars Success!

This weekend Great Marlow School Boat Club descended on the River Avon near Bath in force, to compete in the Bluefriars Head of the River race. We had over 60 students, competing in over 35 crews, taking part in this popular west country event. Students competed in singles, doubles and quads, as well as pairs and fours,
with many entering more than one event. In total we won 16 events, with multiple wins in every age category from year 9 to sixth form. Our year 9 students, competing over a slightly shorter course, won the girls coxed quad event and the boys coxed quad and double sculls. The year 10 girls won coxed quad ,coxed fours and the double scull,while the boys won coxed quad and coxed fours. The coxed four also beat all year 11 crews at the event. The year 10 boys double had to race in the year 11 event and came a very commendable 3rd. The year 11 girls laid waste to all opposition and won every event for their age group. The sixth formers, performed true to form, winning no less than five over all titles. While this overwhelming success is exciting on many fronts, it is particular pleasing to see the year 9 squad winning so much after a disappointing summer with so many events rained off.

A list of winning crews is below:

Year 9

Girls 4x +
> Thomassen Holiday
> Mollie Simons
> Leanne Beswick
> K Lee
> Lauren Neal

Boys 4x +
> Nick Collingwood
> Mohan Bains
> Will Cunningham
> Cameron Lawrie

Boys 2x
> Alex Moss
> Joe McNamarra

Year 10

Girls 4+
> J Lawrence
> H Hammond
> R Neale
> E Peers

4x+
> Olivia Gooddy
> Holly Barnes
> Kate Matthews
> Emily Paul

2x
> Holly Barnes
> Kate Matthews

Boys 4x+

>George Oliver
> Alex Green
> Eric Sjostedt
> Ed Nunn
> Sam Money

4+
> Harry Engall
> Dan Magnussen
> James Wheal
> Ross Honey
> Charlotte Money

2x 3rd in year 11 event
> Dan Magnussen
> James Wheal

Year 11 Girls

2-
> Fran Reynolds
> Georgina Smyth

2x
> Jess Ogboli
> Emily Pimlott

1x
> Emily Pimlott

Year 12s (as J18s)

Girls

4x-

> Abbie Collingwood
> Beth Osborn
> Ellie Osborn
> Georgina Smyth

2-

Ellie and Bethany Osborn

Boys
4x-

> Sam Haynes
> Vinay Narang
> Jack Head
> Graham Lyons

2-

> Jack Head
> Vinay Narang

1x

> Sam Haynes

First ever Inter-House Regatta was a great success!!

The inaugural Great Marlow Inter-House Rowing Regatta was held at Longridge on Saturday afternoon. Despite forecasts of torrential rain and flooding rivers, hundreds of competitors and supporters turned out to enjoy the afternoon. In reality, apart from a short sharp shower early on, the weather was very pleasant, enabling rowers and spectators alike to relax and enjoy the event. Racing started at 2.00 pm and carried on throughout the afternoon with finals finishing around 5:30pm. Students competed in boys, girls and mixed crews across the year
groups. The year 7s who have been learning to scull this term had their own regatta which went on throughout the afternoon. Jamie Jack Westfold came out on top as the winner of the year 7 event. The other single events were won by Ben Warren in year 9, Ellie Osborn for open girls singles and Graham Lyons in the boys open event. A highlight for the spectators, in terms of entertainment value, was the parents race, where four coxed quads competed. The eventual winning crew was made up of Bernie Oliver, Kim Yale and Heather Ryan, ably supported by cox Catherine Oliver and Bow, Lucy Donovan, During the finals at the end of the day, it was clear that Endurance House was looking in a strong position as they were in the vast majority of the finals. They emerged as overall winners with 350 points, 100 points clear of their nearest rivals.

Best year at Nationals yet!

Great Marlow School Boat Club Break National Record

Great Marlow rowers had another record breaking weekend when they competed at the National School Regatta last weekend. On Friday, the J14 boys octuple smashed the National Schools record set in 2005 by 9 seconds in winning their semi-final. The girls lead their semi-final for most of the race and qualified for the final. Conditions slowed later but the last three finals of the day all had Great Marlow crews racing. The first time any school has had crews in the finals of both the boys and girls octuples. In the last race, the boys rowed brilliantly but were unable to hold a very powerful and well drilled Shrewsbury crew, so won the silver medal but also with their National Record still standing.

Saturday saw Ellie and Bethany Osborn defending their National double sculls title. The girls qualified well for the final but were just kept out of the medals in a very good race. Our J15 boys coxed four made it as far as their semi-final.

On the final day of the event GMSBC were competing in J16 coxed fours, both girls and boys. The girls reached the semi-finals. The boys qualified for the final in the fastest time and lined up for the final hoping to go one better than their Silver medal from last year. Known for their stamina, they expected not to be leading at half way but with 1750m gone, and less than a minute left in the race, they lay in 4^th position a length back from the lead and half a length back on Silver and Bronze medal positions. In an extraordinary push for the line, they overhauled two crews but could not quite catch the leaders. A very hard fought Silver medal.

Success at the Bristol Avon Regatta

Great Marlow School followed up the success of the year 8 crews at the Ball cup, by winning no less than six events at the Bristol Avon Regatta. The regatta had a stonger entry than usual, including a number of GB hopefuls, due to so many regattas having been cancelled earlier this month.

Particularly encouraging for the future of this growing club,was the success of all year 9 crews. Both the girls and boys octuples won their events in course records. In the quads, all crews won races, with the girls A crew reaching their final, and the boys crew winning their event comfortably. The J15 boys competed in doubles and both crews won their initial rounds, with Max Roberts and Bryn Lockwood making the final.This left the girls to take the glory, with a win for the coxed quad in the morning follwed by a win in the doubles in the afternoon. Fran Reynolds , competing for her first regatta in a single, raced well to make the final in her event.

Finally the J16 boys coxed four fulfiled expectations by winning their event despite giving away at least 15kg a man to the opponents in the final.

Winning Crew Lists

J14 (year 9)

Girls Octo: Cox Lottie Hughes, Holly Barnes, Emily Paul, Rhianne Neal, Holly Hammond, Kate Matthews, Montanna Hay, Ellie Piers, Jess Lawrence

Boys Octo: Cox Alex Green, Ross Honey, Harry Engle, James Wheal, Ben Warren, Edward Nunn, Dan Magnusson, Cai Waverly-Hudson, George Oliver

Boys Quad: Cox Alex Green, Ross Honey, Harry Engle, James Wheal, Ben Warren

J15

Girls Quad: Catherine Oliver,lucy Donovan,Emily Pimlott, Chloe Edwards cox Danni Stoddart

Double: Georgina Smyth, Jess Ogoboli

J16

Boys Quad: Vinay Narang, Sam Haynes, Jack Head, Graham Lyons, Cox Jamie Tombeur

Year 11 Rowers win Bronze Medal at Junior Inter-Regional Regatta

The 2012 Junior Inter-Regional Regatta was held at Nottingham Holme Pierrepoint (NWC) on Saturday 28^th April. GMSBC was represented by our four J16 boys, Sam Haynes, Vinay Narang, Jack Head and Graham Lyons. The boys were half of a composite eight we put together with Sir William Borlase.

The crew were selected to represent the Thames Upper Region after beating Abingdon School at the qualifying regatta at Dorney during the Easter holidays.

Saturday was a stormy day and those that know NWC will realise that conditions were extreme. This meant that the scheduled program of semi-finals and finals had to be abandoned with all events being determined by times in the semi-finals.

Rough conditions do not help any crew but are particularly difficult for a scratch crew that had only rowed together four times prior to this race. Equipment problems prevented the crew from warming up properly down to the start and the rough conditions saw the race started while our crew was well off to one side of their lane, dodging marker buoys while trying to row at 42 strokes a minute. The net effect of this was we trailed by 2 lengths from the leaders after 250m of the race and were struggling in last place. The crew then settled and gradually established their dominance over most of the field, rowing through the pack to be two lengths clear of all but King’s Chester by the finish line. This performance earned them the bronze medal for this Blue Riband event.

This is GMSBC’s first National medal of this season and we hope for more over the remaining months of this academic year.

Our Recent Results

An extremely busy week for GMSBC saw some fine performances at the National Long Distance Championships.

After our win in 2011, expectations were very high and, while all our senior crews finished in the top 5 of their respective events, we had to wait till the last race of the Inter-regional Trials on Saturday to record our first win of the three competitions.

Here are the final results;

Sculling ( Olympic Regatta Course at Dorney)

WJ17 4X Emma Boddy, Bethany and Ellie Osborn, and Charlotte Money 5th

Year 10 Girls 8X 5th

Year 10 Boys 4X not in the top 10 but beat 20 crews.

Year 9 girls 8X A crew came 12th despite only having 7 rowers

year 9 Girls 8X B crew came 17th beating a number of good rowing schools

Year 9 Boys 8X with two year 8s on board beat 40 crews.

Rowing ( over the Boat Race Course)

Year 11 boys 4th

year 11 girls 5th

year 10 boys 7th

Inter-regional Trials ( Winners to represent Thames Valley at National at the end of April)

yr 9 boys 2x 2nd

yr 9 girls 2x 2nd

Yr 9 Girls 4x 2nd

yr 10 Boys 4+ 3rd by a second

yr 11 boys 4+ 2nd

Year 11 Boys 8+ ( composite crew) 1st - Selected to represent Thames Valley at the Nationals

Ellie & Bethany Osborn at GB Trials

We were very pleased to be chosen to have the opportunity to go to Boston and be a part of GB trials.

Our first race was on the Saturday. It was a single race. This was the only race that we were dreading! It was early, well for us it was! We had to be up by 6.40 for a hearty breakfast. We then made are way down to Boston rowing club for a quick outing to get rid of are nerves.

The race finally arrived. It was along 5K paddle up to the start. The wind was absolutely horrendous! We were unable to stop without getting blown back down. The nerves started to kick in as we reached the beginning of the course. While racing it was very difficult as the wind was horrible and it was very hard to keep steady.

After we had finished we thought finally it's over, but then we realised that we had to do all the same the next day. But lucky for us it was in our double which we were very confident about.

When we got back to the hotel after the race on Saturday, all we wanted to do is sleep and eat and that's what we did!

Sunday morning came round very quickly and we were all tired from the day before, but we all knew that this was the last race of the weekend and after this we could all go home. The weather was a lot better and we knew we had a good chance of doing well. We did the same again, a paddle to get rid of the nerves and then it was finally time to race. The 5K rowing up was a lot better than the day before. We finally got to the start and were ready to race! After the race we were very tired but we knew now it was all over and could go home.

The results after the long weekend were very pleasing as we got 7th and 10th in the single race out of 27, and in the double race we came 1st or 2nd ( still awaiting confirmation ) in the j16 but out of both ages groups we came 17th.

Overall it was a good experience and hopefully we got through to the next stage which is the GB training camp in April.

Jack Head's GB experience

The weekend that I spent in Boston with the other rowers, coaches and parents was great! I enjoyed everything about it, from the rowing to the company. It was a great experience and such an achievement to be going to these trials in the first place. I only started rowing in the middle of Year 9 and now 2 years on I am representing my school at a national level was a very proud moment. Going to these trials has made me enjoy and made me take rowing much more seriously because now every session I do I know is working towards going to these kind of events. I assure to anyone that is going to these trails in the years ahead that they will really enjoy themselves and it will be an experience that they won't forget.

My First Race

An account of a Year 8's first rowing race

Written by Sam Money

When I woke up I was really nervous about the upcoming race.

MY FIRST RACE! AT THE OLYMPIC VENUE!!!

When I got to Dorney Lake for the Thames Valley Trial Head, the lake seemed bigger than all the other times I have been there before with my sister Charlotte.

During the 2 hours leading up to the race I was ok but just before the start, the butterflies came back. When I got in the boat it felt really unsteady but once I had sat down with the blades in my hand I felt happier. As we were paddling up to the start of the race (which was a time trial) we had to practice to get our rhythm. When we eventually got to the starting line I felt very nervous about the next 1900 metres I would have to row. It was time. The Marshall at the starting line said “Great Marlow, Go”. I had to pull on the blades with all my strength.

At the beginning of the race it felt really easy. But as it got to the middle it was getting tiring and hard to pull on the blades. Just as I thought I was running out of energy and pull any harder I heard people shouting “COME ON GREAT MARLOW” which gave me strength even though I could not feel my fingers because they were numb. I think we all rowed really well and our timing was good.

As soon as we had finished the race it was a massive relief to me as it felt like it could have gone on forever.

When we finished I was so glad to be back on dry land. We then had to carry the boat back to the trailer - my arms felt like lead.

I’d like to thank the other members of my crew who were Alex, Mohan, Cameron, John, Denis, Joe, Yan and our Cox Sam, for a great race.

I can’t wait until the next one!

The Twins win Gold at National Schools Regatta

Ellie and Bethany Osborn won Gold in the WJ15 doubles at Nat Schools!!

A summary of how the day went from a Mum’s perspective!

First round started off with time trials - the girls looked good, but it was a nail biting time waiting to see if they were one of the 18 that would qualify through to the semis. Even more so as the girls said that they felt they had not done one of their better starts & Ellie’s visor had slipped during the race & had ended up round her neck!

It was great to see that they had qualified about 30 minutes later for the next round. The first 18 were put up in alphabetical order without times, so no one knew who to look out for! We were then told that the fastest crews would be put into the middle of the 6 lanes with the slowest qualifiers taking the outside lanes. They got lane number 3, this really built up their
confidence. We later found out that they were the overall fastest crew.

With the visors put to one side they got off to a great start in the semis, finishing in 1st place & knocking out Wallingford, Haberdashers, Newark & Borlase!

2 hours later and they set off for the finals. This time because of the change of wind direction, fastest qualifiers of the semis were put in lanes in descending order. The Girls got lane 6!!

A fantastic start meant that they were leading from the start but had Bedford RC on their tails. With 500 metres to go, were really being pushed. At 250m they both looked across & you could see their determination. They were not going to give up their Gold medal!

They won 1.68 seconds ahead of Bedford who took silver & Bristol came in over 10 seconds later taking the bronze.

It has taken a couple of days for it to sink in. We know that they have won a race, but how prestigious the win is, will take time to take in. It is the first time since Steve Redgrave won back in 70s that Great Marlow has brought back a gold from Nat Schools.

We eventually found out they were fastest in every heat!!

Quote from the girls: “We didn't think that we would be able to do it and all the hard training paid off. Thanks to Sophie Mitchell for all her hard work with coaching and Sean for his support. IT’S THE BEST FEELING IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!

J15s win School's Head Pennant

Great Marlow School won its first School’s Head pennant since the days of Sir Steve Redgrave, when the J15 boys coxed four won their event at the prestigious School’s head in London on Thursday.
Sam Haynes, Vinay Narang, Graham Lyons, Jack Head and cox Jamie Tombeur produced a stunning performance in bright spring sunshine to see off 17 of the best crews in the country. Winning in a time of 20 min 14 seconds, ahead of Norwich in second and George Heriots from Scotland in 3rd. The School’s Head is raced over the same 4¼ mile course as the Oxford-Cambridge boat race, but in reverse meaning the crews start at Chiswick Bridge and race through Barnes and Hammersmith to Putney.
The event attracts every top junior in the country with over 300 crews taking part. It is an extremely tough and demanding course and the Great Marlow crew carved through a succession of rivals coxed with great skill by Jamie Tombeur; who, like the rest of the crew was making his debut on the tideway. Coming through Hammersmith Bridge with the last third of the race coming up, Jamie called for a final effort and the crew responded pushing on towards Fulham football ground, where a final drive to the line took them home for a fantastic win by 6 seconds.
Also making their debut was the J15 girls in the first eight the school has entered at this event. The girls had an excellent race coming in a very promising 5th. Coxed by Dani Stoddart, the crew consisted of Philine Hammerlink, Eliie Osborn, Bethany Osborn, Theresa Jones, Emily Knight, Charlotte Money, Sara Waterton and Abbie Collingwood. Through Barnes Bridge they overtook Oundle School and continued to move away from a Godolphin boat. The crew will now hope to move on towards the National Schools Regatta in May and improve on last years 4th place finish.
In J16 girls coxed fours a crew of Emma Boddy, Jess Clarke, Shannon Sperl , Georgina Worthington and cox Janet Schrieber had a terrific row overtaking Norwich on the way. The crew has only been together for a couple of months and Shannon only learnt to row this year.
On Friday the school rowing club de camped from London to Dorney lake for the Junior Sculling Head (two oars rather than one).
Over 360 crews took part from across the country. Again Great Marlow schools crews raced with real passion and determination.
The Boys J15 quad fresh from their victory on Thursday produced a cracking race to come 4th out of 26, just missing a medal, losing out to athletes from Windsor Boys School who had not raced the previous day. Coach Fergus Murison was delighted with the boys performance. The girl’s j15 quad of Ellie Osborn, Bethany Osborn, Charlotte Money, Emily Knight and cox Dani Stoddart were an excellent 14th out of 37. Only a minute behind first place, the effects of the previous day race in London had clearly taken its toll, however it was still a fantastic race.
In the girls J14 Octuples, the Great Marlow girls finished a superb 7th out of 17. Coxed with real enthusiasm by Janet Schrieber the crew of Georgina Smyth, Catherine Oliver, Jess Ogboli, Chloe Edwards, Fran Reynolds, Emily Paul, Abbie Clarke and Lucy Donovan raced superbly gaining in the first 2000m on several crews and then in the second 2000 catching and storming past St Edwards school form Oxford. Particular praise should go to Emily Paul a year 8 pupils who only took up rowing 6 months ago who subbed into the crew with a few hours’ notice. The boys J14 Octuple did not have its best row but still finished a respectable 29th out of 41 crews.
Over all it was a brilliant two days for the school and its athletes. The boy’s four result in London was the highlight, a historic win – the first there since the days of Steve Redgrave and which we hope future year groups will be inspired by and seek to emulate.

Emma Boddy's GB Trial Experience

WOW! What a great experience. I never thought when I sat on a rowing machine that 5 years later I would be rowing in Boston, going for GB trials.
The first day we arrive and rigged up, before going for a paddle on the canal, to see the course and get a feel for the dreaded corner. Time to prepare, so eat before having a good amount of sleep. Well all I can say is its not every day you sit down to have dinner and 8 GB rowing coaches sit on the table next to you.
Before I knew it that was it, the briefing was over and 110 singles all boated within 30 mins. I had to do it now 6k rowing up and now this is it sat waiting in the freezing cold to show everyone what I could do. SILENCE as I rowed down. Now I had to wait and see all I knew was I was happy with my race and it felt good, I couldn’t have done anymore.
23.58 mins. I had done it. 8th place I was so surprised. I was not expecting this, I was so happy and shocked.
After a refuel at the hotel, it was time to go out again. Time for a paddle to prepare for the next day. Brontie and I were up for this now, ready to go out and give it our all.
After a good night’s rest the next day arrived and after a short paddle, briefing was over and it was time again. 99 was our number.
Before I knew it we where waiting up ay the start again. At this point I was very nervous, wanting this more than yesterday.
It was over again. I had done everything I could now all I could do was wait. After a little while results came and we had come 4th in the double.
Very exhausted at this point it was time to come home wondering. This journey went very quick as I slept most of the way!
3 days passed we had heard nothing then a phone call from Sean telling my parents I had got through and he would emails us all the details.
When I heard this news I was overwhelmed and ecstatic all at the same time. WOW I knew the hard work needed to keep happening and I will be attending the training camp on April 11th 2011.

New kit is now available, contact Julie Lyons - jullinpag@yahoo.com or 07771870223 to place an order.