Rowing Report
Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 March 2025
First VIII Takes Positive Strides Forward While Junior Quads Claim the NSW Schoolboy Point Score
Last weekend was a very full weekend for the Shore Boat Club. It felt like every patch of water in Sydney had a Shore crew racing on it!
Saturday started nice and early with the running of the third All Schools Event in Canada Bay. The Year 8 and 9 Quads went into battle against a draw dominated by St Joseph’s College (St Joseph’s), Newington College and Sydney Grammar crews. In a massive day for the Shore junior shed, we sent 18 crews to the start line across both age groups and recorded 17 1st places and one 2nd place — an amazing performance from these two very impressive age groups!
There was a great showdown early in the regatta with our mighty Tenth Year 8 Quad matched up against our Eighth Year 8 Quad. It was a race for the ages with plenty of pre-race ‘chat’ between the two combatants as they got on the water. The rivalry was so fierce both crews were directed to use separate pontoons at the Gladesville Boathouse! Ultimately this ding-dong battle down the course fell the way of the Tenth Quad with the crew of James Whitby, Hugo White, Josh Hugo, Harry Bors and Angus Manfield claiming the win over a very fast finishing Shore number Eight combination. This race showcased the amazing depth we have in this age group with several crews so closely ranked.
Our Year 9 Quads enjoyed a great day out as well, producing some amazing performances. Outside of the brilliant results, it was the way our crews raced that I found so impressive. Right from the start of their programme, from the Eighth boat to the First boat, they showed a steely resolve and discipline to move as one. It was great to see and bodes well for the shed as we move forward. It was also rewarding to see the tight tussle in the First Year 9 Quad race, with the crew of Louis Corcoran, Will Scammell, Lawson Wood, Charlie Bassingthwaighte and Will Johnston maintaining their focus and taking the race away from the Hunters Hill combination that has shown a lot of promise in this category.
Our Third and Fourth Year 10 Quads also competed and it was a first up victory for Julian Noakes in the stroke seat of the Third boat. This was a huge challenge for Julian, but for a young rower who has shown plenty of promise this season he proved he was able to handle the extra responsibility. The crew easily accounted for St Joseph’s and now look forward to the next challenge – taking on the Head of the River (HOTR)! The Fourth crew had their usual drag race against Riverview with the crews again only separated by a boat length for the duration of the 1500m course.
Our mighty Third VIII finished this programme with their final race before the HOTR with a sound victory over the St Joseph’s crew. This came after the usual Mr Collins training session prior to the race start time!
Our Senior Programme had the opportunity to compete on the Nepean River, most certainly bringing back a lot of memories for the coaching staff (at least those that were born pre-1980). It was no surprise to see King of the River Mr Garry Uebergang, assisted by Mr Jackson Kench claiming a win in the GPS Third and Fourth IV. Our Second IV performed well in the heats before misfiring a little in the final but still showed enough class to secure 3rd place, while our GPS First IV had another good battle with St Ignatius’ College Riverview (Riverview) to lock in 2nd place.
The Second VIII completed another solid weekend of racing, locking down a win in the heat and a win in the final over a greatly improved Scots College combination. But the big movers in this regatta were our First VIII who have shown a steady amount of improvement in recent weeks. While they were not racing the lead crew to date from Riverview, they raced Scotch College from Victoria and finished just shy of a boat length behind the lead Victorian school. In a more encouraging measure, the margin between 2nd and 3rd has increased to double digits.
This was a ‘Double Header’ weekend for our crews, with a group of Junior Quads descending on the International Regatta Centre to compete in the NSW Schoolboy Head of the River. This regatta is seen as the finale for non-GPS schools and always produces great racing. We entered four of our Year 8 Quads and seven of our Year 9 Quads. Our Year 8 Quads had a great day securing a resounding four gold medals from four starts with impressive close racing from the First and Fourth crews and very dominant displays from the Second and Third combinations.
Our Year 9 Quads continued the pleasing results, achieving an impressive three gold, three silver and one bronze from their seven starts. It was great to see our First Quad combination getting another shot at the Kinross combination while our Second Quad of Tom Armati, Nathan Klante, Oliver Wilson, Harry Fergusson and Owen King showed great discipline and maturity to row back from a slow start to go through the field and claim the win.
It was a massive weekend from all our boys and I am very proud of their efforts. It was a nice final reward to win the overall point score at the Sunday event, especially as we only had a section of our Junior Quads competing.
Mr Glenn Bates
MIC Rowing