Page 8 - Griffen

8 Rowing Report
2014 has been another highly successful year for the
School and members of the Old Abingdonian community.
The Boat Club welcomed new Director of Rowing, Mark
Earnshaw, fresh from coaching the Great Britain Men’s
Sculling Squad; we hope he has a long and successful
stay at Abingdon.
Ali Brown, a former Leander and Great Britain
Lightweight, joined Abingdon from Bedford Modern
School at the start of this year and he will coach the First
VIII replacing Dave Currie in that role. Dave left Abingdon
following Henley to become Director of Rowing at
Shiplake. He was incredibly popular with the boys, and
coached the J16 for two years before going on to coach
the First VIII for a further two years, including to the 2013
Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup victory.
At the National Schools’ Regatta, the First VIII surprised
many to win the final of the Queen Mother Challenge for
the third year in a row.
Full of confidence, the crew were seeded and reached
the semi-finals at Henley where they lost by one length
to an Eton crew who had improved significantly from
Nottingham in May. Although an historic fourth successive
Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup was not to be,
Abingdon went down fighting; Eton’s winning time in the
semi-final was comfortably the fastest time of the whole
event.
There were two Griffen Boat Club crews at Henley this
year; in the Visitors’ Challenge Cup, Vassilis Ragoussis,
John Carter (both 2011) and Jakob Schleu (2010) rowed
in a Griffen Boat Club / Henley Rowing Club IV losing to
Leander Club in the first round.
In the Thames Challenge Cup a Griffen VIII, consisting
of Will Davey, Will Sadler (both 2011), Tom Williams,
Iain McKenzie (both 2004), Rory Brampton (2013),
Julius Gerstmeyer, Dan Boddington (both 2010), James
Richards (2012) and cox, Ian Middleton (2013), were
unable to defend the trophy from last year but went
through to the Friday before losing to Sport Imperial by
two lengths.
There were Sunday victories for Michael Nagi (2008)
rowing for Upper Thames in the Wyfold Challenge Cup
whilst brothers Rory (2009) and Jamie Copus (2011) were
part of a successful Oxford Brookes crew in the Temple
Challenge Cup.
Two pupils represented Great Britain at the Junior World
Championships in Hamburg, Germany; Henry Lambe
(2014) in the VIII frustratingly finished just outside the
medals in fourth place, whilst Tom Digby (2016) secured
silver for Great Britain in the top boys’ boat, the coxed
IV. At the time, Tom was still in the Fifth Form and has a
further two attempts to compete as a junior; clearly he
has a very bright future.
Jack Walsh (2015) raced for England in the Home
International Regatta in the boys VIII where they obtained
a gold medal.
There was more international representation at the U23
World Championships from OAs including silver medals
for Tim Richards (2010) and Jamie Copus (2011) as part
of the Lightweight Men’s Four at the U23 Regatta. Ian
Middleton (2013) and Tom Pagel (2012) secured 6th place
in the Men’s VIII, whilst Jamie Cook and George Rossiter
(both 2010) placed 5th in the Coxless IV. Strikingly, Tom
listed Griffen Boat Club as his home club when competing
at the regatta!
ROWI NG R E PORT
Griffen Boat Club / Henley Rowing Club IV
2014 Griffen VIII