A great year for Warrington Youth Rowing!
Greater Manchester Youth Rowing, based at Agecroft Rowing Club, sprang into life. Elsewhere it was a case of sustaining and growing our current sites.
Although we lost a couple of schools for various reasons we gained 2 schools in Warrington, 2 schools in Merseyside and 6 schools in Greater Manchester. Our coaching team, now highly experienced, continued to impress us with their dedication and willingness to adapt and improvise.
Over on the West Float, our Merseyside schools worked hard. North Liverpool Academy increased to 3 sessions per week and 3 other schools increased to 2 sessions per week.
In Northwich the river Weaver saw plenty of activity with local schools continuing to participate and utilise the modern facilities at Northwich Rowing Club. The enthusiasm of the schools in Northwich showed at the end of year regatta where Winsford High School won our Roger Chicken Trophy as the best performing school over the year.
With Greater Manchester Youth Rowing well underway at Agecroft Rowing Club, host to GB Pathway athletes, some of whom are coaching for us! It’s great to see these coaches passing on their skills.
Both our Youth Rowing competitions went ahead this year despite a teachers strike on our original regatta date. The indoor competition was held at Birchwood High school with our biggest entry to date. 375 pupils! In July we held our regatta with a slightly reduced entry. We were pleased to welcome Siobhan Cassidy, chair of The Boat Race Company as a guest and she was delighted to see so many enthusiastic young athletes taking part in their first regatta. The format of the regatta was radically altered and proved much better!
Based on the results of the indoor competition we were able to select a team to take part in the National Junior Rowing Championships at The Copper Box Arena in London. All four of our areas were represented and we sent the largest team to date, comprising 40 rowers and 35 adults.
Henley Stewards Charitable Trust continues to be our principal sponsor and we are very grateful to receive this cornerstone funding. They also give us valuable assistance at the time of Henley Royal Regatta, and this enables us to invite school leaders to attend the regatta and experience what is possible for their youngsters.
The Boat Race Company have also provided funding and we even got a mention on the BBC with their live coverage of the Boat Race.
Our old girls Iffy and Elle continue to do us proud with their rowing scholarships in the USA. Iffy at Tulsa University and Elle about to start at Washington State.