CHRISTMAS PUDDING RACES
Published by Sir William Perkins's School on Tuesday 11th of February 2025
Our festive celebrations took to the land again this year due to red boards, and we loved to see the whole Club together enjoying competitions, games and socialising ahead of the Christmas break. We also took a moment to celebrate the outstanding achievements and contribution to Perkins of former Captain of Boats and current coach, Addy, with a surprise boat-naming! Addy’s time with us as an athlete culminated in representing Great Britain last summer, which was a fantastic reward for years of hard work and commitment. We were delighted that a number of our 2024 leavers had finished their university terms in time to be there with Addy on such a special occasion. Thanks to all our rowers and parents for getting involved in everything that this club does, and particularly the Parent Committee and coaches who provided such a fun day’s entertainment!
PERKINS CHRISTMAS CUP
There was impressive racing before Christmas from our Seniors and J15s in small boats, as they competed at the second running of the Perkins Christmas Cup at Dorney Lake. With final positions decided by tenths of seconds, and a podium made up entirely of international medallists (Emily N, Annabelle T, Maddie M), we’re excited to see how our squads can build on this vital race practice as we head towards regatta season in Summer 2025!
QUIZ NIGHT
We enjoyed seeing close to 100 of the Boat Club community gather for our first social event of 2025 in mid-January. Congratulations to the J14s for their (unexpected!) victory in the pupil competition, and their parents for taking the overall prize! Thanks to all of our quizzers for sharing a fun evening with us, and making a big contribution to the 25/26 season’s fundraising efforts.
QUINTIN HEAD
There was a welcome return to racing at our first event of 2025 in late-January. Perkins had one Senior 8 (Anna S, Ellie L, Isla E, Jasmin I-S, Millie P, Bessie R, Bella W, Amelie M, Ivy P) competing over a portion of the Boat Race course, in what was the first taste of the Tideway for our J16s. 13th position of the 27 junior eights competing was a solid return after a couple of sessions in the big boat, and we’re looking forward to the momentum building through the February and March head races!
WYCLIFFE BIG HEAD
February began with a very promising day’s work in Gloucestershire, as we travelled to find rowable water and a good day of racing for a group of our J15-18s. Perfect racing conditions set up a good chance to measure the progress of training in 2025 so far. Encouraging results in both squads will fire our rowers up through the final two months of the winter head season, as they aim to step-on before the major March heads.
Well done to our J18 (Daniya AQ, Emily N, Annabelle T, Maddie M) and J15 (Bethany B, Annabel E, Ashley S, Rosie G, Sophie C) quads, who won their categories - the first Perkins victories at one of the Wycliffe Heads!
WJ18 4x - 1st
WJ15 4x - 1st, 5th
WJ18 8 - 3rd
W4x - 4th
GB ROWING TEAM TRAINING DAY
After a long trip to race in Gloucestershire on the Saturday, two of our leading rowers (Emily N, Maddie M) spent Sunday at the Great Britain Rowing Team U19 Training Day, at the Olympic training centre at Caversham. They enjoyed work in small boats, training in a range of different crew combinations with promising juniors invited from across the south of England. A top day’s work in an inspiring venue!
PERKINS & WALLINGFORD RC RACE DAY
Over 100 rowers from Perkins and our friends at Wallingford RC joined together for a morning of training and tough race prep at Dorney Lake. A week out from Great Britain U19 Trials, it was amazing to see so many competitive athletes working hard in race simulations from across the full breadth of our clubs.
From our J14s enjoying some of their early steps in competition, to national and international medallists in the older squads, we were impressed with the focussed and enthusiastic work taking place out on the water. We can’t wait to see them all out racing soon!
