Celeste
Autumn 2022
President’s Welcome
Welcome to this Autumn edition of Celeste! Since the last update, EUBC has had one of its most successful seasons of summer racing to date, culminating in bringing home two VL trophies (Men's and Overall) from BUCS Regatta (in a club- and Scotland-first!) and seeing a record number of EUBC athletes make their way south to compete at Henley Royal Regatta.
Along the way, we took in events up and down the country, from the Scottish Championships at Strathclyde Park, through to Durham Amateur Regatta and down to Dorney Lake for Marlow Regatta. We also saw a welcome return of the Scottish Boat Race against perennial rivals Glasgow for the first time since 2019, a tradition we hope to see continue.
Outside of the University rowing scene, the club has maintained its success on the international stage, with Lucy Glover, Maddie Arlett, Dale Flockhart and Oli Wilkes all representing GB at Senior World Cups and European Championships this summer, and James Doran and Cameron Kemp taking on Europe at the U23 European Championships. It was fantastic to see so many alumni at the Henley Reception this year, despite the torrential weather. At the event, we saw the naming of three of our top boats after alumni - Maddie Arlett, Rufus Scholfield and Calum Irvine.
On the subject of alumni, this summer has also seen the re-emergence of Alexandra Boat Club for graduates of EUBC, and we hope to see (or even race against!) some Alexandra boats this coming season.
Read on to find out more about all of the above, and we hope to see you up and down riverbanks and lakesides this season.
If you have any questions, or just want to get in touch, please do not hesitate to contact me or the club.
Harry Guy - President 2022-23, president@edinburghrowing.co.uk
Coaching Staff Introductions
For the upcoming season we have our experienced 2021/2022 coaching team returning to the fray with the extremely experienced Head of Rowing, Colin Williamson as chief of staff of the baby blue army with his experienced generals Lewis McCue as Men’s coach, John Higson as Women’s coach and Michael Hughes as the Novice coach. We are sure they will lead us to another year of victories and success.
Blues and Colours 2021-22
In recognition of the exceptional commitment that our athletes give to the boat club, several members of the boat club were awarded Blues or Half-Blues by the Sports Union, in recognition of exceptional performances as part of the club.
Full Blues:
Laurence Ellis
Henry Pooley
Hugo Oglina
Ben Dickens
Philip Garnier
India Mattocks
Robyn Patton
Half Blues:
Issy Jonsson
Catriona Taylor
Alice Ives
The following members were awarded Full Colours by the Sports Union, in recognition of their outstanding contribution to the running of the club:
Full Colours:
Euan Dickerson
Beltran Field
In addition to this, James Doran and Mia Frieschem were awarded with the Male and Female athlete award, with the Club Athlete award going to Lucy Barnard and last but definitely not least, the club volunteer award going to Ben Dickens.
A special congratulation also goes out to our Head of Rowing Colin Williamson, who, on the 22nd of April of this year, along with his wife celebrated the birth of his daughter Evelyn Anne. We wish them all the best in the future, and weighing in at 10lb 3oz Evelyn Anne is already displaying rowing potential and is EUBC’s favourite supporter!
Before we introduce the new committee, the boat club would like to give an honourable mention to Euan Dickerson, our outgoing president, who has steered the club well during the last season and has been a vital member of the committee and club for a number of years.
The new committee consists of:
President – Harry Guy
VP – Jane Hardie
Treasurer – Mia Freischem
Secretary – Catriona Taylor
Senior Women’s Captain – Issy Jonsson
Senior Men’s Captain – Henry Pooley
Coxing Captain – Izzy Knott
Club rowing Captains – Lewis MacPherson & Pardis Farahi
Novice Captain – Georgie Nesom
Alumni Secretary – Ollie Holmes
Publicity & Sponsorship Secretary – Charlie Cooper
Kit Secretary – Charley Faint
Wellbeing Officer – Esther Follis
Social Secretaries – Austin Hayes & Clara O’Doherty
Ordinary Member – Lizzie Dickinson
A Historic BUCS Regatta
We kicked off the summer season with unprecedented success at BUCS regatta. The Baby Blue Army showed up in full force with a grand total of three fully loaded trailers and a huge 77 crews entered across 43 events, with this alone making it a record regatta for the club, showing the sheer size of our squads.
This consisted of one of the highlights of our season - for the first time in Edinburgh history, winning the overall VL beating out tough competition including Cambridge and Oxford Brookes. This is a monumental success for the club and shows the strength in depth of the current boat club, achieving success with sculling and sweeping across the Men’s, Women’s, Club and Novice squads. A truly historic moment for the boat club.
The success did not stop there, with the Men’s squad winning the Men’s VL – another EUBC first – and the Women coming a close second behind a strong Cambridge squad, with a large turnout of blue boat athletes. This is a testament to the strength of our club in its current state and a reflection of all the time and effort that our athletes and coaches invest.
There were many noteworthy crews that raced over the three days, but a special mention must go to the Women’s Intermediate 8+ who, during the course of their final, managed to have a blade pop out of the gate at the 500m mark and fell to 5th place, but despite this, took it in their stride and managed to wrestle back a silver medal.
Gold Medals:
Men’s Champ Lightweight Single
Men’s beginner 4x
Women’s intermediate 4x
Women’s Champ 4x
Men’s beginner Single
Women’s beginner 4x
Men’s beginner 2x
Men’s intermediate Lightweight 2-
Men’s Champ 2-
Men’s intermediate 4x
Women’s beginner 2x
Women’s intermediate 2x
Women’s Champ 2x
Silver Medals:
Women’s beginner Single
Men’s beginner Single
Men’s Champ lightweight 2x
Women’s intermediate 8+
Bronze Medals:
Women’s beginner Single
Men’s Champ lightweight 4-
Men’s beginner Single
Men’s Champ 4+
Men’s beginner 2x
Women’s intermediate 4+
Women’s Champ 4+
Men’s intermediate 2-
Women’s Champ 4-
Other Summer racing included the Scottish Boat Race vs Glasgow, returning after a Covid-19 enforced hiatus, in which Edinburgh took a clean sweep of the events.
In early June the baby blue army travelled to Loch Oich in the highlands for a pre-Henley training camp. It was a good chance for everyone to train in the now set Henley crews as well as a few days of character building with some rough water and a overly friendly contingent of midges. It was however full of stunning views which the entire club enjoyed.
We then headed south across the border for the main summer racing. The men competed at Marlow Regatta with two 8s and two 4+ being fielded, with a notable performance of the top 4+ coming 3rd in the A final.
Henley Women’s Regatta
While the Men were competing at Marlow, the Women were racing at Henley Women’s regatta. We fielded a large squad with a Championship 8+, Championship 4- as well as an Aspirational 4x. While the 8+ and the 4- both lost out to some tough competition from Leander, the Aspirational 4x of Mia Freischem, Robyn Payton, Izzy Clements and Anna Buchanan delivered a dominant performance against DSRV Laga in the final to win the chairman’s trophy, breaking the course record several times in the process and eventually dropping the record by a massive eight seconds
Henley Royal Regatta
For the final race of the year for many and the event that we spend all year training for, Edinburgh qualified a healthy (and club record) five crews as well as a composite crew with Dale Flockhart. This consisted of two Temple 8s that qualified, an achievement in itself, given there was a record 75 entries which was narrowed down to just 32. Additionally, we qualified two Island 8s, again an impressive feat given there were 43 entries, reduced to 22 qualifying crews. Last but not least was our top men’s boat: our Prince Albert 4+.
Tuesday
In a first for the regatta, racing began on the Tuesday with Temple B racing Georgetown University (USA) and Temple A racing local rivals of Newcastle University A.
Temple B kicked off the racing for Edinburgh against a strong Georgetown crew. After a quick start out the blocks, Georgetown got up on Edinburgh B and stayed up going on to knock out Edinburgh B, nonetheless a strong showing from Temple B against an impressive foreign crew. Rounding off the day with a late evening race, Temple A squared up against EUBC’s perennial rivals Newcastle. Having raced Newcastle several times during the season, they knew it would be a tight race. After a close start, Temple A managed to edge ahead into a position where they could control the race, and while they didn’t break clear water they stayed up and managed to counter any and all pushes by the Newcastle crew
and progressed onto the Wednesday after a thrilling and close race.
Wednesday
In a big day of racing for Edinburgh, there were four crews competing and all being against strong foreign crews. Racing commenced with the Prince Albert 4+ racing Sydney University. Sydney was a strong opponent and pushed the 4+, however Edinburgh were victorious after rowing through the Australians to win another close race and progressed to the Thursday. Next up was Island A racing against Washington University. Island A put up a valiant effort against their opponents from across the pond, yet did not progress through to the next round, despite the close race. Island B were up against Sydney University in the evening with Island B definitely the underdogs against the seeded Sydney crew. Following a quick start by the very strong Sydney University crew (featuring multiple U23 athletes), Island B were down. Island B however dug deep to put a move in that would see them take the lead against Sydney and despite several pushes from Sydney, Island B put in an inspirational performance that would see them through to the next round against all the odds. This was an historic race for EUBC, as it saw the first time that a full EUBC women’s crew had progressed through a round at Henley Royal.
Last up with the penultimate race of the day was Temple A against University of British Columbia. Facing another crew with U23 pedigree, the boys were down off the start and couldn’t quite claw it back, going out to a very strong crew.
Thursday
The Final day of racing for Edinburgh began with Dale Flockhart’s composite double against a strong international heavyweight crew from France, and despite a valiant effort and a close race, they couldn’t quite secure a win. Racing next was another Battle of the North with the PA 4+ racing Newcastle’s PA 4+. It was an extremely close and gut-wrenching race and the boys put in a supreme effort. However, the Newcastle boys just managed to edge out in front of our boys and take the win. Finally, the last crew standing was Island B. They were up against the University of California Berkely and despite putting in a strong show and pushing Cal Berkely all the way they were the final Edinburgh crew to be knocked out.
Home International Regatta
The summer break began with several EUBC athletes representing Scotland at the Home International Regatta held in the London Docklands this year. There were 12 Edinburgh students that represented their nation at the regatta. It was a tough day of racing, yet included wins in the Junior Women’s 2x for Izzy Clements, and the Senior Women’s 4x with Perri McClusky, Lily Young and Anna Buchanan.
The following are the athletes that competed:
Charley Faint W4-, W8+
Mia Freischem W4-, W8+
Lucy McCoy W2-, W8+
Catriona Taylor W2-, W8+
Lily Young LW1x, W4x
Anna Buchanan W2x, W4x
Izzy Clements JW2x, JW4x
Cameron Bradley M4-, M8+
Mike Simpson (GB World Class Start) M2x, M4x
Cameron Kemp (GB World Class Start) M1x, M4x
Perri McCluskey (GB World Class Start) W1x, W4x
Euan Dickerson - Senior Men’s Coach
GB Representation
Congratulations to EUBC member Dale Flockhart on making his senior debut for the GB Rowing Team in the LM2x alongside Jamie Copus at the 2022 European Rowing Championships in Munich, Germany from the 11-14th August, coached by Colin Williamson, EUBC’s Head of Rowing. They raced well to come 7th in the European championships.
Graduating Edinburgh athlete James Doran represented GB at the U23 European championships in the 4- in Belgium, racing well to achieve a Bronze medal after an impressive weekend of racing.
Alumni News
Some big Alumni news for those who haven’t already heard, we have recently rebooted our Alumni boat club – Alexandra boat club and are already designing kit for upcoming races. Stay tuned into the Facebook group to catch the updates or alternatively, follow the new Alexandra club Instagram page @ alexandraboatclub,
There’s also an Alumni WhatsApp group, and people wanting to be added should contact either the president—Harry Guy through president@edinburghrowing or the Alumni Secretary—Ollie Holmes at rowing.alumni@ed.ac.uk
Also congratulations to our alumni who have also been selected for the senior European championships. Maddie Arlett in the LW1x, Lucy Glover in the W4x and Oli Wilkes as the men’s spare. Lucy Glover won Gold, becoming a European champion! Unfortunately Maddie Arlett had to withdraw following the heat.
The following athletes also competed at the World Championships, with an amazing set of results: Dale 11th in the lightweight single, Lucy 3rd, Maddie withdrew after semifinals. A huge achievement for the athletes and the boatclub to have representation on the world stage!
Upcoming events
19th/20th November—Inverness 4’s Head
3rd December—Rutherford Head
21st January—BowBall (pencil into your dairies, tickets will be announced on the Facebook chat)
!8th/19th February—BUCS Head
4th March—Women’s Eights Head of the River
18th March—Head of the River
Get in touch with EUBC!
Twitter: @EdinburghUniBC
Facebook: @edinburghrowing
Instagram: @edinburghrowing
Email: rowing.alumni@ed.ac.uk
Website: www.edinburghrowing.co.uk