Yet another busy weekend for boat club - The Stratford Observer

Yet another busy weekend for boat club

Stratford Editorial 1st Jul, 2015 Updated: 28th Oct, 2016   0

NOT satisfied with a very busy and successful Rybrook MINI Regatta, Stratford Boat Club members spent much of the past weekend away as they travelled to Peterborough and Ironbridge where medals were secured.

“Our women’s squad did exceptionally well at Ironbridge Rowing Club’s regatta with our W.IM3.4+ mixed junior/senior crew,” said Helen Smith, women’s vice-captain.

“Stratford had two excellent races over the 1,000m course as a scratch crew who had never rowed together before beat City of Oxford by a good four lengths in the semi-finals.

“The W.IM3.4+ final was the last race of the day and Stratford continued their run of good quality rowing by beating Llandaff by four lengths. The hard work put in by Dr Graham Collier with all his coaching and Shruti’s excellent coxing paid off!”




Whilst the ladies were at Ironbridge, the junior squad did well at Peterborough City Rowing Club’s Junior Championships as the entire squad came home with medals.

The tension was mounting for Stratford Boat Club this week as the men’s senior squad competed in the Henley Royal Regatta on Wednesday as the Observer was going to press.


Dr Ben Twiney, men’s vice-captain, said before the event: “Qualifying for Henley Royal Regatta is a major achievement in itself. There have been many hours of practice on and off the water with expert coaching by Andrew Roe, our head coach.

“Our race against Qunitin Boat Club from Chiswick is going to be a needle race and we are grateful for the support of all those who are coming to watch from the bank at Henley or watch us on the live stream.”

Whilst Stratford Boat Club athletes were triumphing on the water, the club got the great news it is among 149 projects to secure a share of £16.5m of National Lottery funding from Sport England which will help improve facilities for sport across the country.

Stratford Boat Club has been awarded £75,000 for a much-needed upgrade to the facilities and to provide a dedicated training room.

Lead committee member for the refurbishment, Glyn Hawkins, said: “We are delighted to have secured this investment which means we can upgrade the quality of our premises to match the quality of our coaches.

“The club is currently at maximum weekend capacity and the award will mean we can continue with our mission of providing sport and recreation for all, young and old. However, we still have to match fund the grant and we still need to raise £15,000 before the end of the summer.”

The announcement comes as Sport England revealed it has reached a major funding milestone, having invested £5billion into grassroots sport in the last 20 years. Since 1994, Sport England has made tens of thousands of investments totaling £5billion.

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