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18 SPORTS
Rowing and Regattas
Alice Bolitho, L6W
In 2012, along with the majority of
the country, I watched the London
Olympics with great enthusiasm. I
was inspired by the rowing, which
caught my eye as one of Team GB’s
most successful sports, and so I
decided to try it out and started
rowing at Lea Rowing Club in
Hackney. I never thought that five
years later, this sport would have
given me the opportunities that
it has.
This summer my crew and I had the chance
to row for Great Britain at the annual J16 GB
vs France regatta as part of the 8. At the start
of the year we had targeted this event as the
major objective we wanted to achieve and
so we set out a plan of how we were to go
about doing this; how we were going to train;
which competitions we were going to go to
and how we were going to balance GCSEs
with training.
It was during the Easter holidays that we
really began training hard because we knew
this was the last sustained period of free
time we had before our exams became more
important. We would get down to the club
at 6:30am, train until 8, revise until 9, coach
until 11 and then revise for the rest of the
day. Once back at school we were training
about 6 or 7 times a week.
Our regatta season started off relatively
well when we won silver at the Junior
Interregional Regatta. We had a setback
at National Schools in May when we had
a terrible final but we did not let this stop
us. After a comeback at Women’s Henley in
the middle of June, where we beat our long
term rivals one on one, our next stop was
Nottingham for GB trials.
On the 25 June we qualified as one half of
the eight that would represent Great Britain.
It was an indescribable feeling; something we
had been working towards for so long had
been achieved.
Three weeks later, we beat the French at the
Docklands in London, achieving our goal for
the year. Two days after the win, my club 4
and I went on to win gold at the WJ16 coxed
four event at the British Championships.
Our achievements as a crew were by no
means easy to accomplish. The key to our
success was a timetable we had created
at Easter where we had dictated how our
training regime would coincide with revision
and exams. We followed this meticulously.
Without it we would not have been as
successful as we were. It is difficult to train
4 or 5 times a week normally let alone with
GCSEs. After our exams we trained almost
every day. This wasn’t easy when everyone
else was on holiday but in the end it was
worth it. I can now say I have represented my
country doing a sport that I love.
Doubles Delight!
Miss Amanda Wainwright, Head of Tennis
West Grove was treated to some wonderful
competitive tennis throughout the summer term
and, following on from the boys and girls ‘Road
To Wimbledon’ events, the Inter-Year Doubles
Championships were staged. These events allow boys
and girls from the Prep 1s to the Sixth Form to pair up
with another player in their own year group and play
in a “round robin” box followed by a knock-out event.
As always, both events were played in such good spirit with the
younger and less experienced players being really well looked after
by the older years on and off court. We had 36 boys and 60 girls
participating and it was so lovely to see the children enjoying both
the competitive and social sides to the game. Many team players
took part but it was really encouraging to see so many of those who
had been coming along to the club sessions each week of the term
also gracing the West Grove courts.
The champions in the girls’ event were Abby McKinley and Harriet
Wood (Abby then raced off to play in her ‘Road To Wimbledon’
County Final at Redbridge) and the Runners-Up were Eden
Risby and Emilia Parsons for the second year in a row…they are
determined to take the silverware home next year! The runners-up
in the boys’ event were Oliver Masson and Aarav Shah who put up
a great fight in the final but the trophy was claimed by David Nana
and Oliver Mynott. Once again, I would like to thank Mr Mike Wood
of “Freedom” for sponsoring the medals and providing us with a
beautiful trophy for what was the boys’ inaugural event.
Many pupils have since joined local clubs or started having regular
lessons which means that the standard of play in the coming years
will be even higher and I cannot wait to see how everyone progresses
over the course of this year. Keep playing and having fun!