This year saw a number of changes. Our age range was reduced to year 8, for a number of reasons. Pressures of the Education System meant that there was a reluctance for schools to release pupils as they got nearer to their GCSE Exams. Other factors weighed in, mainly linked to logistics but it was generally agreed that year 8 would be the way forward.

We said goodbye to our head coach, Phil and welcomed Paul to the team. We also brought in more part time coaches to cover a busy timetable of sessions.

Our indoor competition was held at The Halliwell Jones Stadium, home of The Warrington Wolves. In theory this was a brilliant idea and although it worked well, it happened to fall on the coldest day of the year. Despite the chill, we hosted over 200 young athletes and selected another strong team to take to NJIRC, hosted this year at the Copper Box in the London Olympic Park.

One of our star rowers, Ellie Kadir managed to upgrade her bronze medal from 2018 to a Silver medal!

Once again the spring weather enabled us to get back on the river and the pupils went into training for the summer regatta.The 2019 regatta had a new trophy, presented in memory of Roger Chicken and it was to be awarded to the best school of the year. Our first winners were Birchwood High School. The regatta was a great success and again there were a large number of spectators watching their first rowing event.

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.

September 2021 saw a fresh start for the youth rowing projects as the cloud of covid started to evaporate.

Embarking on their 6th year in the scheme the Warrington Schools swiftly got back into the swing of things. The children were soon back on the river Mersey learning a new set of skills that would hopefully, enhance their lives further down the line. Two of our schools valued the scheme so highly that they opened it up to year 9 pupils whose previous opportunities had been compromised due to Covid.

Over in our Mersey branch, a new cohort of schools took part which included Clare Mount and Clifford Holroyd, both SEND specialist establishments. Meanwhile in Northwich, another new cohort began. These new schools included Sandbach Lodge, a unit that works with challenging pupils. We had the pleasure of hosting a group of Afghan Refugees. Needless to say, the language barrier presented some problems but the universal language of coaching brought smiles and laughter for all.

The year also included negotiations to start Greater Manchester Youth Rowing to be based at Agecroft Rowing Club. This exciting addition will begin in September 2022 and will aim to work with six local schools.

As a charity we were involved in a conference called Rocking the Boat, designed to encourage the development of further outreach rowing projects. In collaboration with Henley Royal Regatta Charitable Trust, London Youth Rowing and ourselves. It was a great success and the waves it created will be felt for years to come. Details can be found on the Henley Regatta website.

In addition, Liverpool John Moores University launched a study into the effectiveness of the Youth Rowing Project. They have been interviewing pupils, coaches, teachers and school principals with regularly over the last year. The first evidence of their results will be released in October 2022 at the second Rocking the Boat Conference.

Our competitions were back on the calendar after the havoc wreaked by the pandemic, with both indoor and outdoor events attracting large numbers of competitors. The Indoor Championships, based at Birchwood, saw almost 300 youngsters from 19 state schools taking part, including our 2 SEND schools.
Under normal circumstances we would have taken a team to the National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships in London. This amazing event is organised by our good friends at London Youth  Rowing (LYR). Sadly, they did not feel confident enough to stage the event given the shadow of Covid that was still lurking. They did though organise a virtual event that eventually attracted well over 7000 entries. All of our schools took part, with Padgate entering well over 100 pupils, and it was a great success. LYR also ran their indoor rowing league for schools anywhere in the world and it was good to see Padgate regularly in the top 3 schools.

The end of year regatta took place at Warrington Rowing Club with 19 schools taking part. The day itself was very busy, but the children thoroughly enjoyed it. It did highlight that we need to drastically re-think the event and plans are already under way for a different type of competition. At the regatta, we award the Roger Chicken Award for the school that has had the best performance during the year. The 2022 award went to North Liverpool Academy.

September brought the start of a new academic year, one that was to be different in so many ways. Fortunately, in Warrington, there was an established framework and this enabled 7 of our schools to venture back onto the water. By the Autumn Half Term they were all on the water and progressing well. Sadly 2 of our schools dropped out of the project, citing problems with staffing levels in relation to Covid issues.

Another Covid fuelled lockdown started on the 5th November but WYR managed to carry on as it was deemed to be an educational activity. During this time, New Horizons (later to become Kassia Academy), a Pupil Referral Unit joined the programme. This was a new direction for WYR and one they were keen to explore. During the last week of the Autumn Term a Capsize Drill was organised and attended by all the schools.

The New Year came with a new lockdown and all school activity was suspended till March 8th. By the end of March all the schools were back in training and aiming for the summer regatta on July 7th.

The story in Liverpool was changing rapidly. Due to ongoing problems at Liverpool Watersports Centre, it was decided that the best thing to do would be to relocate to Liverpool Victoria Rowing Club. This modern facility would allow us to keep our water and indoor rowing programmes based at the same facility and be a much better experience for the children involved. The move and the situation with Covid meant that 3 of our original Liverpool Schools felt that they could no longer continue to support the scheme. MYR was now left with North Liverpool Academy and De La Salle; they were, in theory, joined by Fazackerly.

Northwich Youth Rowing was scheduled to start in September 2020 with 6 schools showing initial interest. Covid was still a pressing issue throughout the country and became the number one priority in school life, putting our programme on the back burner. Knutsford Academy though were very keen and made a start at Northwich Rowing Club on the River Weaver in early October 2020. Negotiations have carried on with other schools in their catchment area and there is a lot of interest for September 2021. NRC have been gearing up and with the generous help of Swift Boats they have 2 recreational quads. Bristol City Rowing Club also kindly donated a recreational coxed double. They can now boat 13 youngsters and are well placed to maximise the opportunities for the schools as they join the programme.

WYR became a scheme of 9 schools and opened a new site in Liverpool which was soon to become Mersey Youth Rowing (MYR). This branch was hosted by Mersey Rowing Club and held at Liverpool Watersports Centre.

Unfortunately the Watersports Centre had to close shortly after we started to be refurbished. This caused a small dent in our plans but not a fatal blow, our hardworking coaches took a bank of ergs to our partner schools and continued to host indoor sessions until the centre reopened in March.

Our annual indoor rowing championships was a success with twenty-two schools and nearly 400 rowers taking part. Following on from this event, we took 26 of our competitors down to The Copper Box in London to compete at the National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships (NJIRC).

Sadly, this year also saw us having to temporarily close our doors, along with so many other organisations in light of the COVID-19 global pandemic, during the government prescribed lockdown.

However, this didn’t stop us continuing to make great plans for the future and we were delighted to announce that the Henley Royal Regatta Charitable Trust (HRRCT) agreed further funding to facilitate the launch of Northwich Youth Rowing in September 2020.

In September the scheme broadened to include both year 9 and 10 students and a more direct interest was taken by Henley Stewards Charitable Trust. Richard Sinnottbegan work as the Project Leader full time and WYR was established as a charity (no. 1176153) and began operating independently.

This academic year saw the WYR consolidate the excellent work that Phil Lyons had done the season before. In that first year Phil had operated on his own with some help from fellow HSCT Coach Sue Palmer. From 2017 WYR instigated 2 coaches per water session and this policy has carried on to the present. That winter was particularly severe and a lot of time was spent indoors on the rowing machines. To give the indoor sessions some purpose WYR organised an Indoor Rowing Competition. The Competition was staged at Priestley College and was a great success with 100 pupils from 9 schools. As well as racing for medals the youngsters were aiming to get selected to be part of the Warrington Team at the National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships in London. One of the biggest events of its kindstaged by London Youth Rowing (LYR). The WYR team travelled by train to London and had an amazing day, racing hard and making new friends. Ellie Kadir of Culcheth High School even made the medal podium with a fantastic Bronze Medal, a first for WYR. As we moved into the summer rowing returned to The River Mersey and the athletes had a new challenge, the end of year Regatta. This was staged at Warrington Rowing Club and was a vibrant competitive event. The river banks were full of spectators that were seeing rowing for the first time and there were some very emotional supporters, watching young family and friends competing in their new sport.

During the summer holidays of 2018 WYR started the process of getting as many school leads as possible qualified as British Rowing Coaches and Launch Drivers. Six members of staff took up this challenge and are now fully qualified, this gives us greater strength of depth with our coaching team. Some of these coaches are now confident enough to act as one of the coaches for their school session.