News

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WRC at the Head of the Charles River

The weekend of 22/23rd October saw two crews from Wallingford racing at the largest head race in the world, in Boston, USA.

Our Grand Masters Womens 8 (that’s US parlance for an average 60-70 years age group) of Rachael Haycock, Katie Kapernaros, Becky Waller and Lou Wymer with some crewmates from other UK clubs, produced a stunning row to finish second, breaking the course record only to lose out by 0.8 seconds to a crew from Lucky Charms BC. This really is an exceptional performance, having flown out only two days before, borrowed a boat, and set off third from last, overtaking multiple crews on a notoriously twisty and bridge-filled course.

Our J17 double of Niamh McAdden and Emma Moroney also did well, finishing 9th out of 24 crews in Youth Doubles (under 17 group), steering a fine line and also overtaking many crews in their first ever trip to Boston. Excitement was ratched up by being selected for a news article and filmed for a whole afternoon by Boston Channel 5 TV. An excerpt of this in now on YouTube.

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Reading SBH

Wallingford RC had an unprecedented 11 wins at Reading Small Boats Head at the weekend, from the Women’s Masters F quad sculls (average age 60+) to J15 coxed quads (age 14).

Excellent organisation as always from our neighbouring club, and the sunny, warm weather we have become used to at Reading in recent years. Some of our juniors enjoyed two wins, such as the girls in WJ17 doubles and singles and again in WJ16 coxless fours and coxless pairs.

We are getting really excited about this season as our Directors of Rowing Katie, Keith and Andy drive our senior and junior squads on to ever greater things!

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Wine and Nibbles at the boathouse

Here at Wallingford RC we believe in rowing hard and playing hard! As well as our forthcoming Club Dinner, much-loved “tea and toast” between sessions at the weekend and a raft of junior celebrations, we have just got our Members’ Room back into action (it had sadly become a repository for spare riggers and dust…)

We had an inaugural wine and nibbles to re-launch it, and we think it has quite a nice ambience, under the exposed beams of our 18th Century ex-malthouse rowing club.

Watch this space for future fun!

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Pairs Head

Many congratulations to Emma Butler and Sam Hammond for winning Womens Masters B 2- at this year’s Pairs Head!

A sterling effort particularly considering the work done the previous day at Wallingford Long Distance Sculls. Our mens crews did well too, finishing 2nd and 6th in Club and Intermediate 2- respectively.

Our newly appointed Director of Senior Rowing, Keith Settle, is already making a huge impact on our senior crews. Come join us as we train hard and win more!

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Wallingford Long Distance Sculls

Wallingford RC organised another successful head, our Long Distance Sculls, one of the first autumn races for small boats, on 4.5km of our beautiful 10km stretch of river.

The whole club came together to host 450 crews on a fine day with little wind and no rain. There was much exciting racing, including an incredible 70+ entries for J17 singles, and lots of work for our volunteer marshals who were entertained all day by some eccentric steering.

The club enjoyed three wins too – Mariann Novak in Women’s 1x band 2, and our J15 boys in both 4x+ and 2x. Thanks to everyone who helped out, a great team effort!

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Junior Scratch Regatta

Wallingford Juniors held a scratch regatta for all parents to come watch their children race – and eat pizza!

In three hours blessed by late summer sunshine, our J14s and other juniors new to the sport experienced their first ever side-by-side racing, in doubles and quads. It was a great chance to meet old friends and make new ones, whatever your age. We have over 90 junior members.

If there are any juniors out there who are thinking of taking up the sport next year, Wallingford RC is the place to be! Contact us to register your interest.

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Club cleaning

Could there be a better stretch of water to sit beside to re-gear and re-set 70 or so club sculling blades? We don’t think so! Just part of a monumental Club Day at Wallingford RC where senior, master and junior members got together to tidy, clean and organise our boathouse, gym, sculling shed and social rooms. Not an easy task in our Grade II listed 18th century ex-malthouse.

But it does make for a unique and excellent place to row, and shows what a fantastic club ethos we have. Contact us if you’d like to row for us.

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Excellent late summer racing

Our senior women raced brilliantly to win Isis Sculls in the Women’s Double Sculls category last weekend.

This was an afternoon race, after their coach had made them do the usual club training in the morning… well done Ruth Haigh and Emma Butler for rounding off the summer with a great win.

At the Vesta Scullers Head we had 4 entrants, many congratulations to Chris Revell (Senior) who came 22nd, Sam Chard (U23) 44th, Andy Hull (Lwt Mas C) 132nd and Charles Parry (MAs I) 384th Now for an even better autumn and winter! #WeAreWallingford

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Wins at Oxford City Royal Regatta

Wallingford RC put in some superb performances at Oxford City Royal Regatta last weekend, both at the longer distance on Saturday and the sprint distance on Sunday.

There were wins for our Senior Womens 4+ of Emma Butler, Emily Booker, Ruth Haigh, Hazel Shepherd and cox Georgia Dowdeswell and our Mixed 2x of Chris Revell with our newest member Mariann Novak. Everyone trying to make winning a habit ahead of the new coach arriving!

Our Juniors yet again triumphed in various events – Annie Collins rowing up a year in WJ16 1x, Emma Moroney and Niamh McAdden in WJ16 2x, Lucy Mead in WJ14 1x and Finn Gauden, Dylan Peters, Nell Peters and Annie Collins again in Senior Mixed 4x.

This pretty much wraps up our summer season, at least for the bulk of our squad. Well done to everyone racing and winning this year – it’s been epic

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New Director of Rowing at Wallingford

Wallingford Rowing Club is thrilled to have appointed Keith Settle as our new Director of Senior Rowing.

Keith is a renowned coach, with nearly 20 years’ experience in winning programmes at Molesey, Shiplake College and Reading Rowing Club, bringing to our club a proven training structure, a cohesive approach and far-reaching ambitions. He joins Katie Greves and Andy Green, our hugely successful Directors of Junior Rowing, as part of the coaching team.

Wallingford Rowing Club is definitely the place to be for any rower in the Oxfordshire area looking to improve their rowing, have fun and win some hardware! If you’d like to be part of this, and are looking for a great squad to join this September, no matter what your level, get in touch