School Head of River, London, 12th March 2018

Scullery, Dorney Lake, 13th March 2018

Mr Wells (Director of Rowing)

It has been a busy but exciting week for our rowing crew, who have been competing at their best in the National Schools Rowing Head Races (Monday 12th – Tuesday 13th March).  These have been over two days on two different courses. Both as challenging in different ways. BGS had 65 girls racing at National level learning and experiencing the highs and lows of rowing.

The Schools Head, which is raced on the river Thames over the ‘Championship Course’ is run from Chiswick Bridge to Putney Bridge over 7000m. This part of the course is extremely wide and has a very strong stream and requires a lot out of the coxes. If a boat comes out of the fast water stream, the crew can lose vital seconds. 

The first BGS boat to hit the start and put their mark on the board was the First Eight (WJ18 8+ containing Year 11 -13 Upper Sixth) racing in School First Eights. The girls had a very strong performance, rowing long and controlled and significantly under rating the other eights, finishing in fifth position. This was a tremendous achievement and shows the hard work these girls have been putting in through the winter. This was a big step up and puts BGS on the racing map in the mix of the other big girl schools in the country ahead of schools such as Shrewsbury and Norwich School.

The next boats through the line were the Year 10 eights. Both of these boats have massive potential and are learning so much and so quickly. The 15A raced down the course and kept a consistent rhythm and had to contend with over taking some other crews, which forced them out of the stream for significant portions of the race. Their overall position of 14th was good but there is so much to come from this group of girls.  The 15B boat has a lot of promise in their category however the event was a step too far for them but finishing fifth from seven.

The Year 11 girls raced as a coxed four at the top end category as School First Fours, it has been a challenging time for these girls coming back from injury and forming the boat. This said they rowed well and performed significantly better than Trent Head.

The next day the coaching team moved to 2012 Olympic rowing lake at Dorney, near Windsor for the scullery. For those in the know this event was aimed at the sculling boats (rowing in crews with a blade in each hand,) and the younger rowers. BGS had five boats racing some racing for the very first time and all their first experience of rowing on the Olympic Course.

The Year 10 girls quad was first to race. These are very tough events and with over 60 crews racing with some doubling up over the two days. However, the girls rowed well down the course in both directions. They thoroughly enjoyed their experience and came off the water with such positive areas for improvement.

The Year 9 girls raced in two octs (eight girls and a cox) these are very technical boats and both the A and B boats did exceptionally well without catching any blades. They finished in the middle of the pack but the experiences have driven them on to improve.

The Year 9 A and B quads again raced at the end of the division and looked very controlled and technically proficient just lacking in some power through the drive phase, which we will look to developing over the next few months.

My thanks to the coaching team who put in two back-to-back 14 hour days to enable this to happen. The boathouse resources team for ensuring all our kit was in the right location and in a good racing condition.

We now move onto the regatta-racing programme. Some of the Year 10 and above will be attending the Easter rowing camp. This is a great opportunity to hone skills.

View the full racing results here.