Kew House School Boat Club: from Carpark to Henley
Just reaching the start-line at a record-breaking 2024 Henley Royal Regatta is an achievement for most crews. All have grinded since the season start whilst some have endured the peril of qualifiers and others have travelled from far afield in search of a red box. For Kew House School Boat Club, qualifying crews for two of the four junior events (The Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup and The Prince Phillip Challenge Trophy) would have been unthinkable even three or four years ago.
Speaking with Patrick Graham, Head Coach at Kew House, it was clear that just featuring at Henley Royal Regatta is a remarkable achievement. “This is a boat club from a school that has only been in existence since 2013,” he explained. “Previously, we had no facilities for any sport, let alone facilities that could accommodate a high-performing school boat club.”
Founded in 2018, Patrick arrived in the opening year with a huge task on his hands. A former Molesey BC rower with great experience in performance rowing, he was confronted with a club that not only struggled for infrastructure but also rowers.
“We started to find our feet with the help of Team Keane,” said Patrick. “Kew’s first cohort consisted mainly of J12-J14’s from that club. In order to build a competitive environment, we initially focused on inter-house racing between squads, building up the right mentality and spirit before local regattas were entered.”
In the early days, the squad were forced to do ergo sessions in the carpark of the school itself (referred to by the rowers as ‘Urban Rowing’) before eventually securing boating facilities at nearby Quintin Boat Club. Crews were entered in local regattas with some success, but on the national stage Kew House barely troubled the timekeepers at national level events, with major final appearances at the National Schools’ Regatta a pipe dream, let alone appearances on the famed Henley stretch.
Following the emergence of Covid-19 in 2020, the squad was forced to adapt, switching to Zoom but continuing to build positive training habits amongst the younger rowers. This training marked a turning point, as 2021 proved to be a year of firsts; the first Henley Women’s Regatta entry, an increase in overall squad numbers to include anyone from 12-year-olds to 18-year-olds and a first attempt to qualify for Henley Royal Regatta. Greater success followed in 2023, as both a medal and Henley Royal Regatta pre-qualification was achieved by their boy’s junior 15 coxed quad and the boy’s eight respectively.
“2024 was our best-ever National Schools’ Regatta performance, which included an A-final for our women’s junior 16 double and a B-final for the girls’ eight,” commented Patrick. “Then, to top it all off, we had two crews successfully navigate the Qualifying Races at Henley Royal Regatta, earning a much-coveted spot on their own merit.”
Such feats were unthinkable in those early days of carpark rowing and inter-house racing and this meteoric rise to the top for Kew House School Boat Club will be crowned at 6:20pm this evening as their boy’s eight takes on Abingdon School in the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup. Now, with Patrick Graham due to move on after six years at the helm, he leaves behind a flourishing program with a bright future ahead.
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