Rowing Report
Saturday 8 February 2025
All Schools Regatta see the Shore Boat Club enjoy a perfect day
Last weekend, the Junior fleet from the Shore Boat Club enjoyed a brilliant day on the water, with all crews who competed recording a brilliant win against their side of the draw. In this regatta, we were drawn against The King’s School (King’s), Sydney Grammar School (SGS) and in some races – Redlands School.
Our Year 8 Quads set the tone of the day early with big margins being generated by our Year 8 Eighth and Ninth Quad – it was brilliant to see these young men of Shore so early in their rowing enjoying such a solid hit out. This trend continued through the division and really helped set up the base for the rest of the day.
Our Year 9 Quads raced next and continued the great form that they had shown through the season, recording strong performances that resulted in victory the whole way through. It was great to see the row from our Year 9 Seventh and Eighth crew, with many members of these two boats being in their first season.
Our Year 10 Second, Third and Fourth Crews went to the line with some re-jigged combinations for their first hit outs and performed very well, with the Fourth crew showing great form over a strong St Joseph’s College (Joeys) crew to record a great win in their division. Our Third Year 10 crew continued that form, recording a brilliant row as did the Second Year 10 crew.
The day finished with 20 starts across the three age groups for 20 1st places!
This weekend will be the Gold Cup and our first hit out against our traditional rivals, Saint Ignatius’ College Riverview, in the Junior competition. Whilst our performances to date have been great, our boys know that they can’t afford to take their foot off the pedal. The race times across the Year 8 and 9 Quads have been very similar, and we now are tasked with venturing into their backyard to compete on this questionable course. It will make for some great viewing and will provide a brilliant opportunity for the boys to gather race experience!
Shore boats forced into some very late changes at NSW State Championships
Whilst our Juniors were in action in Sydney, our Senior squad travelled to Penrith to compete in the 2025 NSW State Championships. This regatta is one of the largest of the season, with schools travelling from Victoria and Queensland for what really is the appetiser for the Nationals Titles, which will be held through the last week of March in Tasmania.
Our Year 10 First VIII started this year’s campaign by progressing into the A final of the under 17 VIII. In that A final, whilst showing good improvement between races, the crew narrowly missed out on that much sort after podium finish, being nudged out by Brighton Grammar (Victoria) and Prince Alfred College (South Australia). Credit must go to the Riverview boat, who, for the second week in a row, have shown great form for this time of the season. The next best GPS crew was King’s, who finished in 6th place approx. 4.5 seconds behind the Shore boat.
Our First and Second VIII were due to race next in the Championship Schoolboy coxed VIII category, but unfortunately, sickness struck the Second VIII (just 1000m away from the startline), with one of the boys needing to be removed from the boat. Even with the great scramble from our coaches to try and get a sub in from the First IV, the crew ultimately missed the start of the race. Our First VIII showed great form, racing well to secure their spot into the Semi-final, where they secured the placing to settle in for a spot in the A final.
The A Final was a pretty diverse field with three Victorian schools, one Queensland and four NSW crews battling it out for the title. The race was one by early season favourites Riverview, with the Shore boat finishing back in 6th place narrowly behind the crew from Southport, who finished in 3rd, Xavier College in 4th, and Brighton in 5th all separated by just over a boat length.
The Championship Schoolboy 4+ was the next to take to the line, and this event saw, for the first time in Shore rowing history, five Shore crews racing for the title. Our First IV showed great resolve to take to the water in a completely fresh combination (with a crew change coming at 4pm on Friday). This crew showed great resolve to forge their combination in the heat of battle to secure the silver medal behind Riverview and in front of the Joeys crew, who had won the division previously. Our Third and Fourth IV, as they had done so far all season, battled down the course and were only separated in the end by a very narrow 0.23 of a second. But both were ahead of the Second crew from Joeys, which was very pleasing for these boys.
Our Second VIII did get a chance to race, which was great to see. Their day got re-started after the lunch break with the heat of the Under 21 VIII. In a great showing, the crew finished in the top three (amongst a field of first crews) to secure a spot in the A final. In a final that has the best Under 21 talent in the country from NSW and Victoria, the Second VIII found the pace a little fast but held on really well to finish in 7th place overall. A brilliant bounce back from some early adversity.
Mr Glenn Bates
MIC Rowing