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Annual Reports
2005 Report
The club colours appeared in competition twice this year with entries in single sculls at the Medway Head in Maidstone and a double scull at Monmouth Regatta although success was elusive and it is hoped that a crew will compete at Ross Regatta in August. We are again indebted to those rowing clubs that supported us in these efforts, namely Mumbles ARC, Monmouth RC, Llandaff RC and Maidstone Invicta RC.
Monmouth Regatta was a huge success for the host club Monmouth RC pulling in a record 388 boats from 43 clubs. At one point the OMBC had eight oarsmen willing to row but other commitments whittled this down to two by the close of entries so a Veteran B double scull of James Knight and Andrew Williams was entered for the Sunday regatta. Illness then nearly forced this boat to withdraw but a willing substitute for Andrew, namely Paul Sandon of Llandaff, was found. Unfortunately, a combination of factors saw the crew lose to a neat crew from Monmouth who had won S3 doubles the day before. Although there were no wins in OM colours, OM rowers had success on the Saturday of the weekend with James Knight winning S4 singles for Maidstone Invicta RC and Mark Lewis winning his sculling Novices for Abingdon and on Sunday with Andrew Isaacs winning both S2 and S3 double sculls with his rowing partner for University of London. Other OMs were in active service for their clubs namely Jamie Wilton (University of Birmingham), Matt Richardson (St Andrews University), Richard Woods (Gloucester) and Nick Hartland (Monmouth). It is hoped that next year a bigger boat or more boats can be entered.
Going forward, the club hopes to attract active participation from two main separate groups. Firstly, “veteran” rowers looking for an extra row on top of their events for there own clubs and by competing in veteran events thus avoiding the large number of rowing points that OM rowers seem to accumulate and secondly, recent school leavers looking to hook up with former mates during the summer breaks.
Over the last twenty years, OM rowers have had a great relationship with Monmouth RC with OMs winning many pots in Monmouth’s colours and in return Monmouth RC providing support in the form of equipment to enable OMs to race in OMBC colours when there has been sufficient numbers to form crews or by allowing the crews to race as composites. The club hopes this relationship will continue for many years to come and special thanks is extended to the past and current Captains of Monmouth RC.
James Knight
Captain
Other News of OM rowers:
Robin Williams, World Silver medallist, ended his eleven-year stint at Cambridge early this year and moves to the GB coaching team with a remit over the lightweight squad. During his spell Cambridge recorded seven wins and two of the losses go into history as two of the greatest races in the 176 year-old event’s history. Prior to this year’s Boat Race, Robin’s Cambridge crew produced a stunning result in front of 80,000 spectators, winning the American Head of the Charles race from the Dutch Olympic Silver Medal 8 and a very strong US National crew. Robin gratuitously found time to speak at Monmouth RC’s 75th Anniversary dinner, attended by his former School crewmate Duncan Lovett, recounting the story of “The Beast of Chiswick Deep” Roger Meager. Roger earned this sobriquet, courtesy of the Daily Telegraph, when as Cox of the UL 8 (including Robin) that was asked to race the Oxford 8 in the run up to the boat race that year by grabbing and bouncing Oxford’s bows as UL cleared them causing much pandemonium amongst the Oxford coaches. Lately, Roger has been flying in from his Montreal Olympic rowing course base to coach at University of London at the request of Olympian Tim Foster. Robin was a member of Monmouth RC’s most successful crew when in 1979, who along with Nick Hartland won eight pots plus the West of England Challenge Vase in an unbeaten season. Robin says of this time “It was a glorious summer, the Wye was beautiful, and it was just five young guys having a go. That success, rowing here on the Wye, sparked me to go on and achieve world medals…” For the record, Robin’s haul included World silver and bronze medals, three Henley medals, a victory at the world’s top regatta at Lucerne and a world record time recorded in a non GB-selected crew against the GB selected crews of the time.
Rob Hollis, World Under 23 silver medallist, rowing for Oxford Brookes came fifth in the Head of the River and took Gold at the British University Regatta in the Blue Riband eights event. His crew in winning Gold, also recorded the second fastest ever time at Ghent International in 5.44. The only other crew to ever go faster was the East German World Champions. Rob attended the recent GB senior trials finishing 14th and hopes to be competing at the World Under 23 Championships in Amsterdam this July.
Ben Curtis also competed at Ghent for Imperial taking silver and bronze in men’s coxed fours over the two-day event.
Simon Hambly-Smith won Gold at the British University Regatta in Junior Men’s pairs for Reading University.
Geoff Edolls continues to guide the fortunes of a thriving Monmouth Comprehensive School BC, getting six boats into the Wales and WAGS inter-regional team
Andrew Williams, in his ongoing Captaincy, oversaw yet another successful regatta at his club, Mumbles ARC, which provided some of the crew of the gold medal Vet C Women’s fours and silver medal Vet C Women’s eights at the National Veteran Championships.
Nick Hartland also competed at the National Veteran Championships narrowly missing out on the bronze position in both Vet C fours and Vet C eights. The fours event featured several ex-Cambridge Boat Race blues and ex-GB Internationals. Nick continues to bring home pots for Monmouth RC whilst providing journalistic rowing content for newspapers and this report.
Richard Woods, former RAF pilot, managed to “sink” the US Navy’s pair at last year’s Henley before losing to the British Navy in form of RN Officer Peter Reed’s Oxford Blue Boat.
Charlie Wiggins, Olympic Bronze Moscow – men’s pair and winner of Grand Challenge Cup, Henley, is still passing on his wisdom at Upper Thames RC.
Lord (Colin) Moynihan, Olympic Silver Moscow – men’s 8, has called time on a successful stint as Shadow Sports spokesman for the Conservatives. His has handed over the reins to Hugh Robertson, MP Faversham and Mid-Kent, who kindly spoke at Maidstone Invicta RC’s Annual Dinner in February.
Ollie Jenkins, World U23 medallist, is currently coaching at Bristol University and is getting married on Temple Island, Henley in August.
Matt Richardson, last year’s School Captain, followed a successful summer season with Monmouth RC by taking on the Captaincy at St Andrew’s University Boat Club.
2004 Report
2004 saw the revival of the Old Monmothians Boat Club, new kit was obtained from Gavin Johnson (OM 80-87) at Spartan Clothing (Malvern) Limited and the club reregistered with the Welsh Amateur Rowing Association. The club has been reformed with the following initial purposes:
· competing at Monmouth Regatta (May), Ross Regatta (August) and Monmouth Winter Head (January) as a avenue for those still actively rowing to meet up and have a splash together;
· to provide rower reunion events at the School (hopefully by liaison with the Friends of Monmouth School Rowing Club) and via the OM Henley Dinner;
· to promote rowing and provide a network of contacts and advice for school leaving rowers.
The above aims would not be feasible without the help of our friends (including OMs) at Monmouth Rowing Club and Ross Rowing Club who have offered to lend/arrange equipment.
So far fourteen OMs have come forward to join the club - of these fourteen, four are Captains of their “normal” clubs (myself at Maidstone Invicta RC, Phil Munslow at Maidenhead RC, Andrew Williams at Mumbles RC and Huw Davies at Imperial College School of Medicine RC) and several are currently GB trialists.
The club colours had their first outing in open competition with Andrew Williams and myself competing in composite crews at this May’s Bank Holiday regattas at Monmouth. Both boats, a coxless pair and an eight, faired well but lost to crews from Imperial College (with OM Ben Curtis in their squad). A planned trip to Ross Regatta had been planned but the imminent arrival of a third child in our house and international call ups for others have led to its cancellation. The next planned competition is Monmouth Winter Head on 23rd January 2994 – any OMs interested in jumping in a scratch crew should contact me on 07887 836100 or via james@familyknight.co.uk.
James Knight (OM 82-89)
News of OM rowers:
Rob Hollis won silver at the world U23 championships in Poland in coxed fours event – the crew was coached by OM Robin Williams. Rob has been recently selected for the World Universities Championship in September.
At National Championships Regatta, Monmouth School captain Matt Richardson took third in the Welsh U18 coxless four. Rob Hollis took silver for Oxford Brookes in men's 8s a length behind Imperial/Molesey, and the OM added a coxed four bronze in his GB age-group crew, finishing under a length off the pace. Former RAF pilot and Monmouth School pupil Richard Woods placed fifth in a
16-boat men's pair field.
At Home Countries International Regatta, 2003 world junior finalist Ben Curtis stroked the Welsh men's coxed four and also rowed in the men's 8.
At Henley, a Monmouth RC crew including Nick Hartland (OM) narrowly missed out on qualifying in the Wyfold Cup fours and at the British Veteran Championships , Nick’s crew fought their way to two finals to line up against former Great Britain and Cambridge Boat Race rowers. And despite finishing fifth and sixth in the six-boat finals, the crew were in contention all the way, losing out to the winners by just four and six seconds.
And sadly an obituary:
28 January 2004
Today's Free Press has sadly reported the death of a former Monmouth School rower from a rare heart condition. Neil Lewis, 46, passed away earlier this month after suffering cardiac amyloidosis, a build up of abnormal protein in the heart tissue. An environmental lecturer at Durham University, he was still active in rowing and two years ago told the OM's magazine how he had bumped into a legendary Monmouth School rowing figure in Montreal. On an extended stay in Canada, Neil decided to join the club at the Olympic Basin and was told "You should meet our coach, he's a Brit too." Chatting away, Neil said "I'm Welsh actually," and the coach replied "Me too, from Mumbles". "I'm from Monmouth," said Neil, and the coach's face lit up as he said, "I went to the boys' school in the 1970s." "Me, too!" said a stunned Neil before the two spent the rest of the night reminiscing about rowing on the Wye.
Many long-term MRC members will remember the coach, Roger Meager, who was famously dubbed "the Beast of Chiswick deep" in the Daily Telegraph for roughing up Oxford in his UL crew and went on to coach GB crews at the world championships (not forgetting his semi-naked streak across Ghent in a game of forfeits!!!).
Neil's funeral took place at Penrhos near Raglan last week, and we send our commiserations to his family and fiancee.