Rowing Report

Saturday 15 March 2025

All Schools Final Brings an Exciting Finish to the Junior Pennant for 2025

The scene was set for an amazing day of racing for our Junior Quads in the final All Schools Regatta. The field in both the Year 8 and Year 9 Quads was split into an A and B Final, pitting the season’s best against each other. It was very pleasing to see that all our crews were ranked into the A Final, where we were up against season rivals St Ignatius’ College Riverview (Riverview), St Joseph’s College (Joeys) and a mix between The King’s School (King’s) and Newington College (Newington). The Shore Boat Club entered this regatta ranked second overall in the Junior Pennant, trailing Riverview by just five points.

Our Year 8 Quads went about their business as they have done all season, racing with great determination paired with some improved discipline. Right from the first race, Shore led the way with great racing across all our crews. It was really pleasing to see one of the most improved combinations — our Third combination of Sam Fisher, Josh Waite, Henry Plowman, Charlie Koch and Sam Chick — scramble after an early lost seat in their race to show great composure and calm to peg back the field and claim the win, a race that they may have let go early in the season. At the conclusion of the Year 8 Quads, Shore was in the lead by just one point.

Our Year 9 Quads went into battle next and performed well. There were some nervous moments as we dropped points in the Third and Fourth Quads with a few little mishaps, highlighting the increased pressure on our boys to defend the trophy with crews that have had flawless performance throughout the season now making small errors in execution. With just two races to go, Shore trailed Riverview by the narrowest of margins (1 point) and it was going to be down to our First and Second Quads. Our Second Quad went about their work well, carving out an impressive margin over the field to record a win over King’s (2nd) and Riverview (3rd). These results put Shore 1 point up with one race to go. The Year 9 First Quad launched off the line to open a margin early and, as they had done all season, Joeys and Riverview took off in fast pursuit. The day belonged to the school from North Sydney putting in a strong second half to claim the win for Shore with Riverview 3rd, and securing the Junior Pennant again for 2025 by a nail-biting two point margin. 

Winning this pennant is the reward for great and consistent effort. All our Junior crews have improved so much throughout the season. Witnessing such great performances under pressure shows these boys have a great future in this sport!

A special thank you to our Junior Quads coaching staff for their hard work all season.

Year 8 Quads: Mr Walker, Mr Jennings, Ms Phillips, Mr Scobie, Mr Binch

Year 9 Quads: Mr Payne, Ms Hunter, Ms Dunlop, Ms Watson, Mr Scambler

Mr Glenn Bates
MIC Rowing