By Mrs Reeves (Head Rowing Coach)

On the first weekend of the half term break, 60 BGS rowers enjoyed a bank holiday weekend trip to Dorney Lake to compete at the National Schools’ Regatta 2023.

The National Schools’ Regatta is the largest junior only regatta in the race calendar in Great Britain. The regatta attracts crews from over 350 clubs and schools with over 5000 competitors. The event has become a mainstay of the junior rowing calendar and competition for the prestigious cups is fierce, a fantastic opportunity to experience multi-lane racing at the highest level on the London 2012 Olympic Course.

The first day of the regatta, Friday 26th May, saw our Years 9 and 10 rowers take to the water. We had two Octos competing at J14 level, and two eights competing at J15 level. Our J14 Octos each put in some brilliant performances at their first National Schools in extremely competitive fields with our A crew finishing 1st in the C Final and our B crew finishing 4th in the B Final. Moving to our J15 crews, our A VIII finished 2nd in the C Final and our B crew finished 4th in the B Final. With all of our Year 9 and 10 crews finishing ranked in the top 15 nationally, this was a day that showed great promise for the future of rowing at BGS.  

Back at the lake for day two of the regatta, on Saturday 27th May it was the turn of our Years 11 and Sixth Form rowers. Two crews represented BGS in the Championships IV’s event. In a tough field, our B crew finished 5th in the C Final and the A crew put in a great row to finish in 3rd place in a very close race in the B Final. Moving to our J16 squad, the J16 IV had put in a significant amount of work in the build up to the regatta, and finished 5th in the C Final. Finally, our J16 VIII concluded the first half of the summer term’s racing in a very exciting A Final – finishing in 4th place!

A huge well done to everybody who represented BGS. Being selected to race at this regatta is a fantastic achievement and these results reflect the hard work and dedication that all of our rowers put into their training all year round.

Thank you also to our wonderful supporters. The Friends of Bedford Girls' School Rowing Club ensured that all BGS rowers and their supporters were well looked after in the BGS tent throughout the weekend, with the ‘BGS roar’ louder than ever from the banks of Dorney Lake.  

We now look forward to Star Regatta this weekend, where the majority of the Boat Club will compete on home water. Please come down and enjoy the racing. The first BGS race is at 8.30am, and our last race at 7.45pm.