National Schools’ Regatta

National Schools’ Regatta

At a windy National Water Sports Centre in Nottingham over the May bank holiday weekend, St Paul’s enjoyed its best-ever National Schools’ Regatta, winning five golds, two silvers and one bronze.

On Friday 23 May, 37 Fourth Formers were in action.  Two D quads raced, with one qualifying for the C final of the open J14 quads event where they were matched against A boats from other schools.  The J14B and J14C crews raced in the Second Octuples event and managed a rare double: gold for the J14B crew and silver for the J14C crew, ahead of the B octuples from all other schools. The day finished with the tightest of races for the First Octuples title, with SPS coming in just behind Radley to secure more silver.

The following day, the regatta organisers announced that the third day of racing would be cancelled, robbing the J16C double of its race and rearranging the Saturday schedule for all other crews.  After a series of morning time trials, St Paul’s had a golden half hour of finals in which it won every race, starting with the gold for the J15Bs and further golds for the J15As, J16Bs and J16As. For the J15s, this was a double defence of the titles they won last year and it was complemented by the J15C crew being the only C crew to qualify for the A final. For the J16s, this was more historic: the J16As last won this event in 2012 and the J16Bs hadn’t found gold since 1991.

The senior crews had a tougher time with recent illness meaning both crews were in reasonably new combinations. The 2nd VIII missed out on the A final of their event, but edged a superb dual with Dulwich in the B final to finish 8th overall. The 1st VIII had to race in the worst of the day’s conditions with a significant cross-head wind for the Championship Eights final. Shiplake rowed away from the field while SPS and Radley scrapped over silver. Despite leading with 200m to go, the 1st VIII took bronze.  Controversy followed as the race was declared unfair because of wash from an umpire’s launch and a wayward swan and a re-row was announced; however, this would be a re-row that exempted Radley and Shiplake who would be allowed to keep their medals. As the water got ever-rougher, an exhausted 1st VIII went back to the start with Hampton and St Edward’s before emphatically re-claiming their bronze medals.