Blades of glory: a successful term for IC rowers

Imperial College Boat Club has started the academic year with some incredible results. From the outset, Imperial students, both past and present, have shown strength in depth across the men’s and women’s squads and brought home the silverware to prove it.

The first race of the season was Pairs’ Head of the River in early October. ICBC began as they meant to go on, with six category wins as well as the fastest overall time of the day from alumnus and GB rower, Adam Freeman-Pask, and his doubles partner Jamie Kirkwood. Imperial crews were also the second, third and fifth fastest pairs overall with three more category wins provided by Josh Butler and Mark Patterson, Danny Bellion and Matt Monteith, and Ali Hudson and Leo Carrington respectively. The women’s squad also set the standard high for this year. Two further pots were brought back to the boathouse as Hester Goodsell took half the win for Imperial in the elite mixed doubles and Chloe Symmonds and Helen Wood won their category, only being beaten by elite pairs.

At BUCS Small Boats Head in Boston, Lincolnshire, athletes were hoping to shine in front of the GB selectors and did not fail to disappoint. Ergo personal bests were beaten by several club members and, despite the usual tough conditions on the water, more medals were won. Cloudy Carnegie and Hannah Patterson brought home the gold in the women’s pair, while Tim Richards and Tom Pearson took silver in the lightweight double and Hal Bradbury and Ben Spencer Jones took bronze in the double, between them accumulating 26 BUCS points in the process.

Despite an incredibly tough field in the Fours’ Head of the River on bonfire night, with many past and future Olympians racing, Imperial still managed to make their mark. The Intermediate 2 coxed four (Jonny Rankin/Rory Sullivan/Ben Spencer Jones/Ali Hudson/cox: Jess Johnson) demolished their competition by a country mile while the women’s squad took two second places behind strong crews in the elite quad (Laura Greenhalgh/Mel Wilson/Mathilde Pauls/Klara Weaver) and Intermediate 1 coxed four (Rosa Atkinson/Louise Connell/Hannah Patterson/Chloe Symmonds/cox: Libby Richards). Further top three places were taken in the Intermediate 1 quad (Tim Richards/Tom Pearson/Mark Patterson/Alex Gillies), the Intermediate 1 coxed four, in spite of only having had 3 outings together before the race (Jack Cadman/Will Todd/Pierre Thomas/Leo Carrington/cox: Connie Pidoux), and the women’s elite four (Lucinda Gooderham/Amy Propsting/Lizzie Cottrell/Cloudy Carnegie).

It is not just the senior squad that have been out defending IC’s honour on the river. This year, the boat club has had a good intake of novices of both guys and girls. With the new experiences of sitting in “tubs”, learning to row and how to erg properly, the novices have come on leaps and bounds since starting in October and at the end of November were given their first true taste of rowing – racing! A coach of rowers, coxes and coaches made their way to Cambridge early one morning. In between the getting lost in Cambridgeshire, boat-stopping crabs, rushed boating, blade clashing and unexpected bank landings, the novices coped brilliantly and made the most of the day with a trip to Belushi’s in the evening.

The final race of the season, Scullers’ Head, was held on Saturday and once again ICBC performed spectacularly with five of the top ten places taken by Imperial athletes. Adam Freeman-Pask won the event, despite receiving a penalty for “unsportsmanly behaviour”. Adam is now officially Tideway king, having also won the Wingfield Sculls race when he smashed an “unbeatable” record by 17s. Sam Scrimgeour took 5th place overall while racing with someone else’s blades after his broke on the journey up to the start. Intra-club rivalry was rife as Wilf Kimberley, Hal Bradbury and Josh Butler came 8th, 9th and 10th overall, with less than 5s separating them. Tim Richards continued to build on earlier form in the season and won the Novice category (15th overall).

As well as cracking results through the autumn, ICBC have played as hard as they’ve trained with after-race parties galore. The infamous toga party continues to draw a big crowd and this year saw the first annual ICBC vs. ICSMBC pub crawl with “boat races” between men’s 1st, women’s 1st, men’s novices and women’s novices (some serious practise may be required in this area…). Preparation for next term is already in full swing as the focus moves to bigger boats, BUCS, Eights Heads of the River and the Henley Regattas.