After my last post about whether rowing is elitist, a lovely woman called Rachel got in touch to tell me about the Herculean efforts that she and a bunch of other parents and grandparents have been putting in to give their kids a chance to row at the state school they attend. I was so moved by her story that, with Rachel’s permission, I have decided to share it with you. Over to you, Rachel:
“Just over a year ago I sat in a school classroom alongside a small group of parents and children listening to three times World Champion, Peter Haining, talking about rowing. He’d been introduced by Zena, one of the other mums. She’d started rowing a few years before, loved it and wanted her children to enjoy it too, but she’d noticed that the children she came across at races were almost entirely from public schools. And hers weren’t… in fact her children, mine, and all the others were in a classroom at Cheney Secondary School in East Oxford. Zena not only wanted her own children to discover the joys of rowing, but for all the children at the school, regardless of background, to have the same opportunity. Cheney is an inner-city school, its catchment area the terrace streets and housing estates in the east of the city, within sight but, in many ways, far from the dreaming spires.
“Peter is quite a character, he regaled us with tales of his rowing exploits, photographs of him on a mountain holding a boat aloft in fulfillment of a bet, and told us of his ambition for our children – this was not going to be any rowing club, but an Olympic Rowing club. We were captivated. We weren’t just going to aim to win a few local races against other state schools, we were aiming for the top. For those parents who’ve been through the state primary system, this ambition and outright competitiveness was new. Cheney’s fantastic PE department had been a breath of fresh air, a Head of PE who talked about a pupil’s competitive nature as something good and positive – a crucial factor for success, and now Peter and his ambitions….. there was a palpable sense of excitement.
“This was also to be a real collaboration of parents, school and community. A local rowing and canoeing club just downriver from the Oxford college boathouses, Falcon RCC would host us, giving us free use of their facilities, equipment, and safety support; parents, teachers and volunteers from the local community trained as coaches for indoor rowing on erg machines, and for the outdoor sessions – British Rowing have been impressed at how much volunteer commitment we’ve had. One of the most active volunteers is Zena’s 74-year old father, John, a former rower himself who ran yoga sessions for self-conscious teenagers, dressed up as Santa at Christmas, and learned how to design a website so he could help publicise the club and get funding.
“After running a few Learn to Row sessions over the summer the Club started properly in September 2011. Zena had been busy fundraising and succeeded in getting £10k lottery funding and much appreciated grants from the Waterways Trust, Oxford Sports Council and Doris Field Charitable Trust. We got our ‘Club Mark’ and registered with British Rowing. Mark Hunter, Beijing Gold medalist and London Olympic hopeful came along to a training session, inspiring the pupils with the story of his journey from a state comp to international athlete, and showed his gold medal to our own Olympic dreamers as they jostled to meet a real Olympian. We were on a roll.
“More than 50 children trialled for the first 25 places, and as the weather worsened into winter the children just kept coming along. The worse the conditions, the tighter the team got as they huddled round post-training cups of hot chocolate. They capsized and made mistakes, but slowly their technique improved, they gained confidence, had a few informal races against a local public school and then entered their first competition – the Monmouth Christmas Head.
“And that’s when some of the differences money makes started to be apparent – the school minibuses with trailers loaded with multiple boats – oops, we just had one borrowed old wooden one for all four crews to share. This necessitated some quick turnarounds with crew and parents pitching in – novices on and off the water. Last month some children from Falcon got a chance to have a session on Dorney Lake at Eton, and they entered an Aladdin’s cave of shiny new boats, equipment, order… even heating… as the rowers shivered thinking of Falcon’s picturesque but draughty wooden boathouse. “I want that” my son told me, eyes wide with the possibility of sleek boats, the latest equipment, and warm hands and feet after training.
“Fast forward to Saturday 5th April 2012, as the children came off the water their coach, Lorna, instructed them to watch the Boat Race in preparation for a forthcoming race. Not quite the preparation she had anticipated, I imagine: anti-elitism protests, clashing of blades, and the collapse of the Oxford bow. My son veered from intense anger at the protestor, to intense concern for Alex Woods. He’s only just started rowing, but he can imagine the years of training the athletes undertook, their fear at almost injuring a swimmer, and Oxford’s disappointment at the outcome. Without doubt we deplore the actions of Trenton Oldfield. His means of protest was dangerous for everyone and disrupted a remarkable event. But the question of whether rowing is elitist niggled.
“Rowing is ingrained in the British class and public education system, but for the past 10 years efforts have been made to expand rowing into state schools with some success and support from state-educated advocates such as national treasure Sir Steve Redgrave.There are some state schools that have very successful rowing clubs, such as Monmouth Comprehensive (and I suspect we could learn a lot from them). With more than 3400 state secondary schools in the UK the few that have successfully developed rowing clubs are in the minority, although they are frequently used as examples of how rowing is no longer elitist – maybe less so than in the past, perhaps, but there are still some very real barriers to wider participation, and setting up a school club, as we are finding, can be hugely expensive, even if it is a school-community collaboration with an existing club.
“Last year one of the children told me, “I used to see all these rowers out there when I crossed the river on my way to school; I never thought a kid like me could do something like this.” The crucial change for him was in his self-perception – the belief that something he had previously considered closed to him, was within reach and that all he needed to take part was interest and ability. For all of Trenton Oldfield’s protests against elitism, bringing more children from diverse backgrounds into sports like rowing may be a far more revolutionary move in terms of social change, because social change only happens when people’s perceptions of their place and potential in this world changes too. That’s not to say that there aren’t external barriers, but taking away the barriers without changing our self-perception isn’t enough. I hope in future we’ll have more Olympians who started their rowing careers in state schools because the sport will be poorer for primarily drawing talent from the minority of children educated in public schools. Think of all those great Olympians we never had.
“Although state school children can join local rowing clubs which are theoretically open to all, my experience of trying to get my son a place at one is of unanswered emails, long waiting lists, high membership fees and some clubs only take experienced juniors (yes, really!). My two nearest clubs charge £160-180 for an annual junior membership and I pay £10 a week for coaching on top of that – partly because their own costs are so high. This works out about 10 times what I pay in costs for my son’s participation in his football team.
“The beauty of a state school rowing club is that it starts from the premise of access for all. The majority of children now rowing at Cheney would not have joined a local club, they got into rowing because it came to them at school. State school children are not a homogenous group, some families take a couple of foreign holidays a year and others live on very low incomes supplemented with parcels from food banks, there are children in care, refugees and asylum seekers. A few of our rowers pay for additional membership at a local club, but the majority only row with the school and there are some talented athletes for whom participation is only possible because it is at zero cost to them. They would never be able to afford to join a rowing club, but they can be active and equal members of the school club. The school knows their situation and automatically their costs are covered, discreetly, no need to make a special case, ask for a discount or show documentary evidence.
“However much my son was awed at the Eton boathouse, it would be cheap shot to juxtapose an image of the Falcon ‘hut’ alongside the premier rowing venue in the country. Our school club doesn’t need Eton-style facilities – but we do need the basics: access to decent boats suitable for juniors, equipment such as shoes in the right sizes, funds to repair and maintain the second hand ergometers, adequate safety equipment, and coaching. Our budget contains essentials and ‘nice to have’ items. Safety equipment is essential; a summer coaching course for the most able rowers will probably have to be dropped. And the boat issue won’t go away – with more training, experience and better technique we can do better, but there will be a point where quality of boats will make a difference. We were pleased with our performance at Monmouth, but it was like racing a tugboat against yachts.
“Getting funding is laborious and time-consuming, especially when we reply on parent volunteers doing it is their spare time after a long day at work and a long evening on domestic chores. And I am that parent volunteer – struggling to find the time to investigate the various funds, schemes and sources, make the applications, put together the supplementary materials, supporting letters from the Governing Body and so on. Days spent preparing funding applications have spawned nothing but rejections so far– all funds, it would seem, have already been allocated for the foreseeable future. Most requests were for a few hundred to a thousand pounds, but they all require quite a lot of work, and we’d need multiple small grants to cover basic costs. I’ve still four applications to fill in or hear back from, though, so my fingers are still crossed. Just about.
“Even if all of them are successful, though, we will still be short of what we need. And that’s the rub, rowing is expensive, doing it properly, being ambitious, even more so. In a state school that wants to offer opportunities to all children regardless of income, subs can only be a partial contribution – we can count for about 10% of our budget from subs, and there are no wealthy benefactors, rich parents or illustrious alumni to draw on. Corporate sponsorship of a state school rowing team is a limited option, although if we do get a boat at some point we’d happily have a logo on it if we can find a company desirous of the prestige of sponsoring us.
“But we’ve had our successes too. Some rowers enjoy it for the health and fitness aspects, they don’t want to compete and love being out on the water, working as a team, the beauty of the river early morning, the wildlife on the banks, the sense of freedom. Others do want to compete, and they’ve already had some great successes in indoor rowing, winning a competition for Oxfordshire schools just months after setting the club up, and some strong positions in the competitive national schools indoor rowing competition last month. Indoor rowing, of course, is a lot cheaper than on the water because you don’t need the boats. As the regatta season starts we’ll be entering teams, our wonderful coaches have been running free extra sessions, and parents and volunteers will all pitch in to rig and de-rig our borrowed old wooden boat, and we’ll do our best to show that state schools have talent aplenty too.
“But I do worry, come September with the coffers empty, will that be the end of our Olympic dreams? We let our children fall in love with rowing, but are we being too ambitious – is it simply not possible for a state school to run a rowing club, should we just give up and accept that it’s too expensive a sport for us to compete in?
“To the boy who said that he never thought children like him could do something like this, all I can say is – I hope you can, but without a miracle, you might just be right.”
Thanks so much for this, Rachel; it gives us all plenty to think about.
As a state educated oarsman I can relate to this. Rowing at state schools and colleges is still in its infancy as rowing struggles to shake off the shackles of being a ‘rich’ sport. I first rowed at Strodes College BC, which I believe is one of, if not the only state college in the country with a rowing club.
But the importance of rowing at a state school is not about being the best. I rowed first at Strodes College boat club, then at Burway rowing club and then at Lea rowing club. Each time I have stepped up competitively, but without the gateway my college offered me I would never have even taken up the sport. I am currently rowing for Molesey BC and it is probably the friendliest, most open and accessible club I have ever been to.
Some schools have amazing set-ups. Abingdon, Hampton, Eton to name just a few. This makes top-flight school level competition an incredibly difficult area to break into with little funding. But I still think it would be possible to break into the top 20 schools with some experienced coaches and dedicated athletes. This would in turn give your school more exposure and potentially better funding.
I just wish I lived nearer Oxford, I would love to get involved with the sport at such a grass roots level! You are doing great work and I wish you the very best of luck.
Great article!
I learned to row at University (my home town was somewhat lacking in the “rowable river” category) and I think it’s fair to say at Universities (river permitting), if you want to row, you can. It is also happily not “too late” to get good at rowing by the time you’re 18 too, state-educated (woo!) or not.
The junior system continues to confuse me but it does look like it will be dominated by the top private schools and the few clubs around the country who do junior rowing properly (e.g. St Neots) for a while yet.
I wish all the luck in the world to the Cheney Falcons but I fear they may be right in thinking that without significant funding from outside sources/are already very well established, state schools are really going to struggle to sustain a rowing club 😦
I also rowed for a state school (Hills Road SFC in Cambridge) and we were very lucky that the school has close links with a local rowing club (Cantabrigian RC) so we were able to benefit from both great coaches and great equipment. It will be a while before state school rowing comes close to matching the likes of eton, but it is getting there and it is refreshing to hear your story!
I learned to row at Gt. Marlow School in Bucks, a state Secondary Modern with an inspirational English teacher who happened to be the captain at Marlow RC. He was the man who got Redgrave in a boat, plus 2 other future Olympians over the next couple of years. I was lucky enough to go on to row at Imperial and Thames and now Upper Thames. Most of the people I have rowed with come from state schools including the maverick of them all Peter Haining.
Unfortunately rowing is still portrayed as a “toffs” sport in the mainstream press. Looking at the make up of most rowing clubs and the current GB squad it quite clearly isn’t.
Stories like yours are not rare but of course they aren’t newsworthy, good luck with the club at Cheney, congratulations and wishing you every success.
Pete is too modest to say he actually rowing WITH Steve at GMS, although what on earth he’s doing at Upper Thames now beats me. You’d be welcome back to your (somewhat charred) home anytime, Pete!
In support of this article. I went to a state comprehensive (London) and took up rowing in my early 20s (the Lea in East London). Catching the bug at that club changed everything and a couple of years later I was at a Nottingham Polytechnic training alongside Carl Smith and Peter Haining (NCRA). I competed at international regattas for a couple of years and then got a job in publishing (through a rowing contact). It was a tough road travelled with no hand outs along the way – and I’m glad of that. Cheyney Falcon could be exactly the right start for someone who wants to be the best they can be at that sport. Good luck!
I read this article with tears in my eyes, as it’s not only of great narrative quality, but it points out so sharply what “we”, parents of children at state schools, have been thinking for a long time. The disparity between what children in England are offered at private schools compared to the state school system is staggering. My boys are at the same school as Rachel’s. It’s not only the PE departments that are underfunded – the language departments too. Language classes aren’t run if there aren’t a certain number of students signed up for the course, which leaves so called ‘minority languages’ (German, Italian) in the dark. The future for most of the foreign languages taught at state schools looks -at least at present – bleak. Anyway, initiatives like the Cheney Falcons are a ray of hope, and we all keep our fingers crossed. May this club prosper and supply Britain perhaps one day with a fresh pool of Olympians to support.
I’m not really sure that’s so true – only a small minority of independent schools offer rowing.
I row (and coach) at one of the nearest rowing clubs to Eton College. Most of our juniors go to local state schools – we take anyone. We compete against many independent schools (as well as clubs and state schools) – and often beat them.
The cost of junior membership (including multiple coaching sessions every week) – £176 p.a.
A well written article, but my fear is that it is one that completely misses the point.
A year ago …… grants from XYZ …. free use of their facilities – WOW – what an incredible amount of support in the first year and a fantastic introduction to rowing!
The complaint – no trailer, no new boats, no money in hand. So a trailer, new boats and funding would be circa £100K – for a start up venture which will address the needs of one school with a one year track record? – is that sensible?
I am in a club that has been going 90 years, this year, and we still receive no funding other than our subs, fundraising to build new facilities has taken 10 years and we have NO shame in turning up to regattas in 20 year old boats and a trailer that is road legal but has seen better days!
There is no shame in sharing equipment and we frequently have a more complicated chart for doubling up of boats and kit than we do for races!
Rowing is a long term investment of people and resources and you should be proud of what you have achieved, but it will not drop in your lap on a plate whether you are a state school or not.
I went through the private system and we used to watch the local state school lock up its squash courts (they had 4) at 5 in the afternoon and we would retire to ours (we had 3) that were falling down, but used until 10 at night!
My club is based in London and surrounded by clubs that receive ‘high performance’ funding, or have wealth benefactors – will we beat their kit, probably not, does that make them elite and us ‘poor’ of course not. We often find new talent through our learn to row courses and get them to a point where they leave us and can pursue a high performance career, and they often re-join us when they want to coach and put something back into the sport.
One swallow does not make a summer, and you have joined the ranks of a sport that is truly egalitarian and underrated, but have fallen into the trap that kit is all what will win a race – whereas at most levels (schools and clubs) it is the crew fitness and determination. (And often two or three years before the crews mature enough to win).
I would hope in 5 years that you have sufficient second hand kit of varying qualities to give your beginners and progressers enough experience and confidence to hold their own before they can join a local rowing club which will offer them a step up. Funding is tough – but be persistent!
Good luck with the club and I hope to see you at regattas!
This does illustrate one of the problems with school/junior rowing. Setting up a club, developing it and achieving a high level of performance is a multi-year process, certainly beyond the length of any one junior rower’s career. Let’s face it, most parents get involved for the benefit of their kids. Once their kids move on, they tend to move on with them. Don’t get me wrong, the support of enthusiastic and hard-working parents is essential but unless the school is solidly behind a project, its long term success is uncertain.
The two state schools in Marlow are an interesting case in point: Great Marlow School and Sir William Borlase’s. Both currently very successful alongside Marlow RC (possibly the most successful junior rowing club in the last 30 years). Neither have a boathouse and Marlow’s is in the most part a charred ruin. Besides the SSR factor, GMS currently has two very enthusiastic and knowledgeable teachers and the strong support of the head, but back in Steve (and Pete’s) junior days there was just Francis Smith and one wooden coxed four. When he moved on, rowing died out and very little happened for 20 years. OTOH SWBSBC has always continued and put out crews over all that time. Sure there have been ups and downs. Teachers, coaches and parents have come and gone, but the school has always recognised the importance of the club and supported it.
Excellent piece. It is all too easy to want immediate rewards whereas in reality hard work is what is required in order to build up a club and make it work.
Yes, my club was the first to win the Schools’s Head eights, beating the top girls rowing schools (with their Empachers, etc.) in an old Janousek. It’s the crew, no the boat!
An interesting and welcome story. But why has it taken so long? I learned my rowing in Oxford and I know Cheney School – next door to Oxford Brookes, one of the most successful rowing universities in the country – and probably only about a mile from the river.
My sons went to a state school which offered rowing. The middle boy, when he wanted to follow his older brother was told there was no room for him. So I took on the coaching of him and some of his friends at a local rowing club. His younger brother followed him. and over a period of eight years of dedication from me and a small group of other parents we became very successful.
Half the entries at the National Schools Regatta are from state schools and clubs. The surplus from the event, a considerable amount, goes back into junior rowing. Cheney put your case together and get on to NSR and follow the lead of Hinksey Sculling School.
So pleased that you have been putting so much into this and are so passionate. Thanks for sourcing this Patricia.
Rachel: I love your website and that you’re doing yoga with your rowers as well! We’ve started introducing our Juniors to this whole idea as well. If I had money to give you, I would definitely do so. We are struggling as just a local club with some of the very same issues ourselves at the moment.
I wonder if you’ve looked at getting links with nearby universities who you can partner with to gain free help from students as well as potentially assist them with research (something which could bring in potential funding streams)? It can be anything from sports psychology to teachers looking to do dissertations and the like on working with a certain demographic. It is, as always, one of those things that takes a lot of foot work, but just another option. You’d be amazed some of the obscure things you could get research funding for.
Best of luck to you! Please do give us an update.
Thanks everyone who read this, shared it, and commented, and also for the people who got in touch directly with suggestions for fundraising which I shall now be following up. It has been pointed out that the costs of junior membership at local clubs is very high, I know that they’ve had their rents quadrupled this year which is why memberships have gone up so much.
John Y – thanks for your comments and support. I realise I hadn’t been very clear about the costs we were trying to raise – we got £15k set up funding which was brilliant and for which we are very grateful. We share facilities, boats, trailers etc with Falcon RCC (and the lovely Peter Haining helps us out there too) – sharing equipment and facilities a key part of our ethos. If we do get funding for second-hand ergs and boats they will be accessible to the local community too. The costs we are trying to cover are coaching (mainly), running a beginners Learn to Row course, repair of some boats we can renovate especially an ‘octopul’ which can be used to coach 8 beginners at once if we can buy riggers for it, adjustable shoes, a couple of throw lines etc. Yes boats would be brilliant but first things first, no point getting one if we can’t afford to pay for our coaching. Unfortunately, I don’t think we can run on subs without excluding or effectively limiting the number of kids from low income families which we would never do.
We aim to be competing strongly nationally within 3-4 years, so we’re trying to have a longer view – all your comments are very helpful in thinking through how we approach this – we are indeed next to Brookes and we could develop that relationship more strongly.
Finally, we’re not going to give up lightly. We do have a secret and ambitious fundriaising plan for which we will need lots of people to help us spread the word, so please watch this space and when the time comes if you can give us a helping hand putting our plan into action that would be terrific.
Rachel (feeling a lot more optimistic – rowers are such lovely people!)
It is worth putting out a request on Rowing Service Noticeboard as there are many coaches who would rock op for free.
In my club we have a mix of paid and non paid coaches – but people who recieve coaching all pay the same (small) amount so that we can gradually build up a coaching “account”.
worth having a go at this one http://blog.debenhams.com/win-5000-for-your-rowing-or-sailing-club/get-involved/competitions/ and look up ‘cash for clubs’
James
Thanks for the tip, James – I’ve entered the Debenhams competition and we’ll go for the July round of Cash4Clubs (we weren’t successful last year, but fingers crossed this time). My clarification on what we trying to fund/ resource sharing was replying to your post not John Y (sorry, should have put my glasses on).
Rachel,
If you have a ‘fundraising’ strategy then I am happy to look at it – I am no expert but have just come to the end of a 4 year fundraising ‘programme’ where we managed to raise £275K to build a new access into the river Thames – now under construction. I am happy to share any of the knowledge which is appropriate, which included the use of just giving and trusts which gave sums ranging from £5k to £50K …… it is incredibly hard work and probably cost me personally nearl 1000 hours. my direct email is jhs at allclear dot co dot uk – obviously the dot should be replaced with . and I write it like this to avoid the spam bots. – most of my experience relates to London funding, but oxford is my home town 🙂
James
Thanks, James, that’s a very kind offer and would be really helpful. I’ll be in touch on email.
It is touching to hear these stories, and as someone who has been to an independent school with a great boathouse, followed by Oxford, it did make me wonder if there is some truth in the accusations of elitism. Surely such a disparity is not fair?
To reflect on this matter fully, I looked back at just how we had got into such a position. The OUBC competed in its 158th boat race on Saturday, in a contest stretching back since 1829, yet our boathouse was only built six years ago. For the greatest part of our history we were without a home, boating from various other rowing clubs, driving endlessly around in the OUBC minibus, as made famous in a scene from the movie “True Blue” where the American rowers decide they have had enough and mutiny.
The same is true of my old school, Hampton who only built their own boathouse at the start of the millennium, having been tenants of Molesey Boat Club for forty years prior to that. In both cases however, the clubs built their success from nothing, and had many of their glory days when they were living ‘on the road’.
I remember a story being told at the Hampton fiftieth anniversary dinner. An old man patiently stood up and told us how they had made the school’s first carbon fibre boats in the school workshops themselves. When they had first gone to races they had been beaten soundly by better equipped schools such as Eton. This did not discourage them though, and they continued to build, continued to improve, continued to work harder for success. Thirty years later, the Hampton 1st VIII rowed to victory in the final of the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta against Eton.
It was not just one year of hard work that had got them there, it was the combined work of members past who had each pushed them on a little farther. When many people each year lay just one brick, it isn’t long before you have a house. This is the strength of a club, which belongs to no-one, but exists for members past future and present. I do not believe this is something that falls under the word ‘elitist’.
I hope one day to go to Henley and see the pupils of the Cheney school 1st VIII competing against my old school, but before that day comes there will be toil, hardship and struggle. The greatest thing that rowing has taught me is that success has no short-cuts, it is only ever brought about by hard work. I wish you well on your journey, and would be more than happy to come down one day and coach the kids. And if one day Cheney school decide to build a boathouse, you will find OUBC men willing to come down and lay some bricks.
Karl Hudspith
OUBC President
You sir have just rocketed in my estimations. I never realised that OUBC didn’t have a home till so recently.
It was devastating to see what was shaping up to be an utterly fantastic race end like it did last Saturday – many commiserations (though I know that will mean nothing at all).
Anna Railton (CUWBC)
Yes, a great contribution Karl. Gutted for you on Saturday.
I recall a lot of minibus hours in my OUBC days, particularly at Radley and Wallingford RC, but University College, Pangbourne, Marlow RC, Mike Spracklen’s back garden, ARA at Hammersmith and London RC all welcomed/tolerated us back in the 80’s.
What a lovely post, Karl – and honoured to have you on the blog (feels a bit like having the Queen drop round to tea 🙂 ). So sad to watch the events on Saturday but the overwhelming response to this post has shown what a supportive and egalitarian lot rowers can be.
It was fantastic to have Karl down at Falcon this afternoon coaching our kids through their fun scratch races. I just wanted to say thank you for a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon. Parents have already contacted me to tell me that their kids came home ‘buzzing’ with excitement. Karl, your chat with the kids was perfectly pitched, you told them success would only come with lots of extremely hard work but you also made them believe that they didn’t need to be in the most expensive boat or members of the richest boatclub to achieve it. I will be quoting you for months to come!
Karl, thank you for your comments, and I’m sure our fledgling young rowers would be thrilled to have you come along to one of our coaching sessions. We’re a long way from building a boathouse, but if we manage to survive past September, who knows where we’ll be 5, 10 years down the line. Meanwhile Falcon RCC kindly host us and we’re down there most Wednesday afternoons. It goes without saying that we were all cheering for the dark blues on Saturday and know it’s been a very tough few days for you all.
I should be able to make some time this Wednesday. What time do you start?
What a pleasure to read such a well thought out argument. You put down an excellent challenge to the children and parents of Cheney and I share your hope that one day in the future we will see them race at Henley, or indeed at Women’s Henley. Nothing truly worthwhile is achieved without hard work and hours of input and your example is one that they can look up to.
I burned with anger for your crew last weekend, I could not imagine anything more painful than having gone through all those months of flat out training and to be rowing in what was turning out to be such a close and thrilling race, only to have it snatched from you by that idiot swimmer.
I wish you all the best for the future.
Karl – Zena will be at the boathouse from 1.30pm on Wednesday. The children are really looking forward to meeting you.
As Captain of Falcon RC I’d like to acknowledge the numerous Falcon members who give their time every Wednesday afternoon to help out with the Cheney Falcons and also the understanding and generosity of the members in sharing their modest facilities and equipment. It is a pleasure to help a state school take part in this sport and I would encourage more clubs to provide opportunities to other local state schools.
Karl, we met at the checkout at the local supermarket the other day and touched on the subject of elitism, I mentioned Cheney Falcon….
what a surprise to see you on this blog only a day later. I must say I was already hoping that I might persuade you and some of your crew to come down to our shed?
It is great that you are already on the case! Do get in touch and bring your crew along.
The Falcon RC members have been wonderful in making this club a reality. I’m sure having lots of teenager novices around hasn’t always been easy, but they wouldn’t have had the chance to learn about rowing without Falcon’s genorosity and support.
I would like to thank you all for your interest, support and advice. The rowing community truly is a wonder.
I am the optimist who started the Cheney Falcon Rowing Club. I came to rowing late in life and am a relative newcomer to the sport. In 2008 I signed up for a British Rowing Learn to Row Course with a group of forty something women at Falcon Rowing Club. I think it only took about two sessions before the river water began seeping up the blade and into my veins. I knew immediately that the physicality, camaraderie and soul-food it provided set rowing apart from other sports. I soon entered the world of the regatta and was bowled over. Of course I was aware of the cliché that rowing is an exclusive sport for rich public school boys, and although I discovered that those boys were a dedicated, impressive lot, I was shocked to find that state schools are still sorely underrepresented on the river. I, like so many of you, wanted the sport I loved to be enriched by a broader demographic and so decided to see if I could do my bit to help achieve that. I approached Falcon’s president Peter Travis – he could not have been more helpful. Encouraged, I went on to persuade Peter Haining and Phil Rees (Head of PE at Cheney School) that setting up a new rowing club for an inner city state school was a good idea. To be honest, they didn’t need any persuading at all and it has been their commitment and enthusiasm, which has turned my wistful towpath conversations into an exciting reality in an incredibly short space of time. That and the overwhelming, lump-in-the-throat, tingles-down-the-spine levels of volunteering and generosity we have encountered in our local rowing and school community. So while I’m here: thank you to all Cheney Falcon’s lovely, foul-weather friends and volunteers.
I am not saying that it has been easy, nor did I expect it to be. I know it takes many years to develop a new rowing club. I am also fully aware that a new state school rowing club is a very different beast to an established public school boat club. But do you know what? That’s fine. Of course we’re different and as such we will have to find different ways to succeed. But make no mistake – find them we will. There is a story that I tell our youngsters and our new parents, it is one that many of you will be familiar with, but it works rather well here:
During the great space race of the 1960s and 1970s the Americans vied with the Russians to achieve glory in space. The American budget was huge, no expense was spared. The gravity free environment of space offered many challenges, one of which was the problem of producing a pen that did not rely on gravity for the ink to flow. American scientists were challenged to produce a pen that could work under these demanding conditions. Millions were spent on developing that space-biro. And the Russians? They took a pencil.
Cheney Falcon is that Russian pencil, space is a big place and there is room enough for us to go hunting for the stars too.
Of course when I get together with Rachel, our untiring fundraiser, we do lament how expensive pencil sharpeners seem to be these days. So if any of you out there have any old pencil sharpeners or would like to do a little sketching, then do get in touch. I feel there is very little more that I can decently squeeze out of that metaphor so I’ll blast off now.
Thanks again for all your thoughtful contributions and offers of help.
Ground Controlski x
If my experience is anything to go on I do feel that the barriers are huge for anyone to access this sport unless they come from a very narrow background .
About 5 years ago I approached a local sculling club to see if my son could join. Alarms bells started ringing when I saw that the application asked for the parent’s occupation. I have never seen this on any other application I have done for my boy’s activities.
A few days later I rang to get more details. It was very clear to me that the
tone became much chillier when I mentione my son’s friend’s interest – he has an Asian name. I didn’t follow up on the application.
Simon, that’s a real shame and I would hope isn’t typical of most clubs. Ours certainly wouldn’t be bothered what you did for a living and would certainly not ask – we come from widely differing backgrounds and occupations – and certainly wouldn’t be put off by an applicant’s race. If your son’s still keen to row I’d suggest trying a different club.
Two things briefly to reassure Simon that his experience, whilst unpleasant, is not the whole picture: the Windsor Boys School (state) has a brilliant record in rowing and their squad contains boys from every background you can imagine, including several boys who rowed in Sikh turbans and a Russian family who trounced the opposition in the nationals for several years. My own son rowed with an outstanding junior sculler/rower of Turkish background who garnered nothing but admiration. To be honest, I’ve come across less prejudice in rowing than I have in many other aspects of life as an older parent. I’m not saying it’s perfect, there are of course shortcomings and club politics, but racism is something I have not encountered.
Simon, This is certainly not representative of the sport and I suspect not even fair on the club in question. There are unpleasant individuals with distasteful opinions scattered throughout society. You had the misfortune to come up against one of them.
Rowing/sculling clubs often ask for parents’ occupations for an elementary reason. They need all the voluntary help they can get and it helps to know the skills of parents, so they know who to ask – and our application form makes it clear that we will be asking parents to voluntarily help on occasion, because this keeps fees down and lessens the load on coaches and the club committee. The idea that they’d discriminate against anyone on this basis is misguided. We’ve roped in accountants, electricians, plumbers, you name it to help with various jobs. No specific skills – then bake a cake to sell at the club regatta!
We don’t care about racial background either. I suspect that you expected discrimination so decided that you had found it regardless of the reality.