Agecroft Rowing Club

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Agecroft R.C.
Image showing the rowing club's blade colours
LocationSalford Quays, Salford, United Kingdom
Home waterManchester Ship Canal, Salford Quays
Founded1861 (1861)
AffiliationsBritish Rowing
boat code - AGE
Websitewww.agecroftrc.org.uk
Events
Agecroft Small Boats Head
Distinctions
Britannia Challenge Cup, Henley Regatta, 2009 Sports Council Cup, Henley Women's Regatta 2012: (composite)

Agecroft Rowing Club is a rowing club based at Salford Quays, Greater Manchester, England. It was formerly based close to the Agecroft Hall in Pendleton 2 miles (3.2 km) north. Its current location is its third within today's City of Salford on a site close to the city centre of Manchester.

History[edit]

There has been rowing in Manchester and Salford since 1823, with more than 15 clubs operating during the 1860s. Agecroft R.C. was formed by the gradual merging of these River Irwell-based clubs. Agecroft R.C. was established in Oct 1861 by Ishmael Lythgoe[1] with its first boat house in the grounds of Agecroft Hall at Pendlebury before the manor house was sold and rebuilt by the James River in Virginia, USA. The club soon moved to the River Irwell further upstream at Littleton Road and were based there for over a hundred years.[1] However, in early 2000s, the stretch of river had been allowed to return more to reeds to support fishing and the boathouse lay on part of a new flood plain so the club moved to a new boathouse close to Manchester City Centre at Salford Quays. This new home triggered a huge growth in club size and successes throughout the UK.

Current activities[edit]

The club regularly competes across the UK at all levels and has a broad membership base, from complete novices and juniors through to semi-professional athletes competing at international level. The club regularly hosts a small boats head race in the winter and supports a British Rowing world class start coach.

The club hosts a wide variety of rowers of different abilities, ambitions and ages, with a large membership and a wide variety of members from juniors through students to masters. The club has achieved qualifications and wins at the British Rowing Championships, Nottingham and Henley Royal Regatta and a course record at Henley Women's Regatta in the Intermediate 4+ event.

International performances[edit]

The club has been successful in the World Class Start squad with wins in the World Under 23s coxless pairs and a Home Countries win for England in the single sculls by Olivia Whitlam who has since gone on to represent GB at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics and the three intervening World Championships. Other internationals since 2010 include Brendan Crean (4x[n 1] 2010), Graeme Thomas[2] (World Cup win Australia 2013), Zak Lee-Green (lwt 4x[n 1] u23 bronze 2010),[3] Oli Lee (GB U23 4x[n 1] 2010), Rebecca Chin (GB U23 eight Bronze, 2012) and Olivia Oakes (GB U23 eight bronze 2012). Both Brendan (England) and Graeme (Wales) have also won National Championship gold medals in 1x and Home Countries Internationals.Graeme has gone on to represent GB at 3 successive Worlds, winning silver and Bronze. He missed the Rio Olympics due to ill health, but was named as part of the GB Rowing Team for Tokyo 2021 [4] after winning a bronze medal in the 2021 European Championships held in Varese.[5] Zak Lee Green is another successful Agecroft graduate and was part of the GB Lightweight team, having been to 5 World Championships winning a silver in LM4x.[6]

Daniele Gilardoni[n 2] joined Agecroft in February 2013 where he rowed and coached.

Henley Royal Regatta[edit]

At HRR, under the coaching of Denis O'Neill, the club, in successive years lost a semi-final by one foot, then a Final, then a semifinal, after which Agecroft won for the first time The Britannia Challenge Cup[n 3] in 2009.[7] In other highest results:

Henley Women's Regatta[edit]

Recent successes include the following wins

  • 2010 Sen 1x[9] in a course record[10]
  • 2011 Elite 8+ (composite)[11]
  • 2012 Elite 8+ (composite)[12]
  • 2013 Elite 4- (composite)[13]
  • 2014 Elite 8+ and Elite LW4x (both composite)[14]
  • 2016 Senior 4x[15]
  • 2018 Development 4+ and Junior 1x[16]
  • 2021 Development 4+[17]

Junior rowing[edit]

The junior section of Agecroft was restarted in earnest in the 2000s with dedicated junior club officers and has over 60 members racing locally and at British Junior Rowing Championships (see below)

Masters rowing[edit]

The Masters squad was reformed in 2006/7 after the considerable success of the Agecroft Veteran squad in the 90's. From a starting point of just two members, the masters squad has circa 20 members with strong performances in the 35-50 age groups (B and C racing categories) at local, regional and national events. The squad has recorded the following wins at the British Masters Rowing Championships

  • B4- in 2015, 2016 and 2017,[18]
  • C8+ in 2019 [19]
  • C4- in 2021.[20]

At Henley Masters Regatta there have been wins in

whilst they were finalists in B8+ 2019[23] and C4- 2021 [24]

Honours[edit]

British champions[edit]

Year Winning crew/s
1994 Women lightweight 2x [25]
2007 Open 1x [26]
2009 Open 2x, Women 4-, Women J18 2-[27]
2010 Women U23 1x [28] (course record)
2011 Open 1x, Open 2x [27]
2014 Open 4x,[29] Open LWT2x [30]
2017 Women J18 1x[31]
2018 Open 4x (club),[32] Women J18 1x[33]

Henley Royal Regatta[edit]

Year Races won
2009 Britannia Challenge Cup
2014 Queen Mother Challenge Cup
2015 Queen Mother Challenge Cup
2018 Queen Mother Challenge Cup
2019 Double Sculls Challenge Cup
2021 Diamond Challenge Sculls

Notable members[edit]

Notable members include:

Gallery[edit]

Notes and references[edit]

Notes
  1. ^ a b c d Quad, for other symbols used (+ and -) see Rowing (sport)
  2. ^ 11-times World Gold medallist in lwt 4x
  3. ^ Liz O'Neill (cox)/Craig Morgan/Pete Warman/Tom Dawson/Ben Sullivan
References
  1. ^ a b Forshaw, Stephen. Papers of the Agecroft Rowing Club 1864-1980. John Rylands Library.
  2. ^ "GB Rowing Team crews reach finals of European Championships". 17 September 2011. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
  3. ^ "Zak Lee-Green Athlete Profile". Tass. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
  4. ^ "45-strong Rowing Team selected for Tokyo 2020". www.teamgb.com. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  5. ^ "World Rowing - 2021 European Rowing Championships".
  6. ^ "Zak Lee-Green".
  7. ^ Scott, George (9 July 2009). "Campbell beaten by world champion Drysdale at Henley". More Than The Games. Sports Beat. Archived from the original on 1 September 2010. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
  8. ^ "Recent Winners".
  9. ^ "Henley Women's Regatta 2010 Winners" (PDF). hwr.org.uk. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  10. ^ "HWR Record Times 2019" (PDF). hwr.org.uk. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  11. ^ "2011 Winners" (PDF). hwr.org.uk. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  12. ^ "2012 Winners" (PDF). hwr.org.uk. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  13. ^ "2013 Winners" (PDF). hwr.org.uk. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  14. ^ "2014 Winners" (PDF). hwr.org.uk. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  15. ^ "2016 Winners" (PDF). hwr.org.uk. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  16. ^ "2018 Winners" (PDF). hwr.org.uk. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  17. ^ "Henley Womens Regatta 2021. The Colgan Foundation Cup AA 8+. Aspirational Academical 8+" (PDF). hwr.org.uk. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  18. ^ "Previous winners 2019" (PDF). britishrowing.org. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  19. ^ "Race Information". rowresults.co.uk.
  20. ^ "Race Information". rowresults.co.uk.
  21. ^ "HMR Final Results 2017" (PDF). henleymastersregatta.org.uk. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  22. ^ "HMR Final Results 2018" (PDF). henleymastersregatta.org.uk. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  23. ^ "HMR Results 2019" (PDF). henleymastersregatta.org.uk. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  24. ^ "Henley Masters Regatta".
  25. ^ ""For the Record." Times, 18 July 1994, p. 22". The Times. 18 July 1994. p. 22.
  26. ^ "2007 archive of results". Web Archive. Archived from the original on 6 December 2016.
  27. ^ a b "Full archive of results". Web Archive. Archived from the original on 13 March 2017.
  28. ^ "British Rowing Championships 2010". British Rowing. 8 July 2010.
  29. ^ "British Rowing Championships Race Centre". 17 October 2014.
  30. ^ "2014 British Rowing Championships Race Centre". British Rowing. 17 October 2014.
  31. ^ "Results 2017" (PDF). britishrowing.org. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  32. ^ "Results".
  33. ^ "Results 2018" (PDF). britishrowing.org. Retrieved 21 April 2023.

External links[edit]