Oxford Brookes University won almost single trophy on offer at the Henley Royal Regatta last weekend, a truly phenomenal achievement, and unparalleled by any other club in the history of the regatta which began back in 1839.
All roads, or rivers, lead to Henley. The rowing season starts in September, goes through the torrid winter months, and culminates on the Thames at Henley, in the middle of the British summer, with thousands of spectators sipping pimms and watching the races.
I attended Oxford Brookes as an undergrad between 2007 and 2010 and learnt to row as a novice. One of my accomplishments was taking part in the Temple Challenge Cup during the Henley Royal Regatta during my first summer there. The senior coaches then were Richard Spratley, a builder from nearby Henley, Henry Bailhache-Webb, and Paul “Mossy” Moss, who coached us novices. Richard got involved with the club some 30 years ago and has been the mastermind behind its success.
The rowing schedule is particularly demanding. I recall doing about 10 hours of lectures per week, 20 hours or so of part time work, and 25 hours dedicated to rowing per week. We would train Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at gym, doing about 2 hours a day of excruciating ergo sessions (ever wonder why the ergo machine is always available at the gym!?), long runs and weights sessions, then Wednesday afternoons down at the river, followed by Saturday and Sunday morning rowing sessions on the river, down at Wallingford, a beautiful stretch of the Thames River, 40 minutes from Oxford.
Oxford Brookes has generally and arguably remains the “poor cousin” of Oxford University – same name, but very different reputations. Originally founded in 1865 as the Oxford School of Art, Oxford Brookes became a polytechnic and only gained university status in 1992.
The Oxford University boat house is located just a few miles along the river from Brookes, and was symbolic of the contrast in wealth between the institutions. Oxford had a brand new state of the art boat house whilst Brookes had a shed.
Values and culture driving success
I’d say the nouns that best sum up rowing at Brookes are commitment and teamwork. The commitment expected of a rower was that you had to show up to every training session, both indoors and on the water. The coaches didn’t mind at all if you had been down at the pub partying the whole night before, or what diet you lived on, but you had to show up at the bus at 7.30am on a Saturday and Sunday, and for the dreaded ergo timed trials on a Monday evening, if you wanted to be included for selection in teams.
Rowing is a team sport, with all rowers needing to pull in the right direction. Although rowing, like basketball, is unfairly biased towards tall people (generally 6 foot 3 and above), the bow and stern of the boat is usually comprised of smaller and more technically proficient oarsmen, whilst the middle 4 are the big heavy lifters.
The biggest catastrophe, often happening to novice rowers but occasionally to more seasoned rowers, is when a rower catches a “crab”. This is when the rower doesn’t feather their blade in time, and the blade (oar) gets stuck in the water, with the handle driving backwards into or over the rower. The whole boat needs to come to a stop, and reset. Although I can say it never happened to me, it is the most dreadful thing to happen to a rower, because it means the race is essentially over. A team can never really recover from a crab in a competitive race because the time lost in restarting the boat is very difficult to recover. For it to happen after 9 months of intense training is something you wouldn’t wish on your fiercest competitor, or indeed any team mate.
Rowing in the English winters was tough. Being on the river in early January with temperatures near freezing, or waiting your turn at the Head of the River to row the annual time trial called for great character. This was especially so when other university students were in the comfort of their heated apartments. There were benefits to rowing though: A great physique for starters (have never managed to get into similar shape and size since then), a good camaraderie from being associated with like-minded people, and general well-being.
So when I watched the youtube replay of the Brookes team beating top American universities such as Washington, Harvard, and then Syracuse in the final, it was a great sense of pride of what the university has achieved.
That Brookes has reached the pinnacle of British and global rowing is testament to the culture developed and instilled in the crews by Spratley and other coaches over many years. The culture of pitching up and giving your best shot every day has taken Brookes from a poly in 1992 to British and indeed global rowing dominance in 2023.