At the 2019 British Rowing Junior Championships held from the 19th to the 21st July at the English National Water Sports Centre, Holme Pierrepont, Nottingham, ASRA athletes won a record three gold and two silvers against strong opposition from all over the United Kingdom.

Our J16 boys – Oscar Forbes, Archie Innes, Ashley Geddes and Matthew Hughson, coxed by Skye Ballance - fresh from their famous victory in the GB versus France Match - simply outclassed most of their opposition in the A-Final of the J16 Coxed Fours event and were understandably delighted to force their ASRA club mates, Scott Lewis and Michel Dearsley - rowing in a composite with Etonians, Harry Geffen, Cal Gorvy, and cox Jasper Parish - into the silver medal position.

In the final of the J16 Coxless Pairs event, Lewis & Dearsley had no compunction about beating their erstwhile shipmates from Eton into the bronze position, while they themselves had to be content with silver in the race for the line against a strong pairing from King’s Canterbury.

In the J18 Coxless Fours event, ASRA’s senior boys – Xander Beeson, Chris Bardas, Jakub Zbikowski & Aiden Graham – made up for their disappointment at Nat Schools, where they were beaten into silver by fractions of a second – by trouncing their nearest opposition from Walton and Henley to win gold by a clear 6 seconds.

In the final event of the day, a ding-dong battle ensued between ASRA (Archie Innes, Ashley Geddes, Michel Dearsley, Scott Lewis, Gregor Charles, Aidan Graham, Christos Bardas, Xander Beeson and coxed by Skye Balance) and a Walton/Tideway Scullers composite with ASRA down by a second at the 1000 metre mark. At 1500 both crews drew level and in the last 500 metres ASRA put in an incredible burst of speed to beat their opposition by a clear 2 seconds on the line. ASRA is the only non-composite Scottish crew to have won the Eights event at this regatta and has the distinction of having done it twice, on the previous occasion back in 2016.

Elsewhere our girls continue to show improvement with Maisie Aspinall coming 5th in a field of 55 in WJ15 Single Sculls and later winning the B Final of WJ15 Double Sculls in grand style with her partner Zoe Beeson.

At the 2019 Scottish Rowing Championships held over 3 days from the 7th to the 9th of June at the Scottish National Rowing Centre, Strathclyde Park, Motherwell, ASRA athletes won a total of 12 gold medals, 5 silver and 1 bronze.

Gold:

• Women’s Junior 18 Coxless Pairs: Abigail Topp & Megan Hewison
• Women’s Junior Coxed Fours: Abigail Topp, Megan Hewison, Megan Lewis & Frances Sealy, coxed by Emily Simpson
• Women’s Junior 15 Double Sculls: Maisie Aspinall & Zoe Beeson
• Men’s Junior 18 Coxless Pairs: Chris Bardas & Xander Beeson
• Men’s Junior 16 Coxless pairs: Archie Innes & Michel Dearsley
• Men’s Junior 18 Eights: Seth Turner, Chris Bardas, Xander Beeson, Scott Lewis, Ashley Geddes, Matthew Hughson, Gregor Charles & Jakub Zbikowski, coxed by Skye Ballance
• Men’s Junior 16 Eights: Oscar Forbes, Archie Innes, William Penny, Harris Macdonald, Alex Fowler, Michel Dearsley, Joe Ritchie & Will Cooper, coxed by Erin Gibson
• Men’s Junior 18 Coxless Fours: Seth Turner, Chris Bardas, Xander Beeson & Jakub Zbikowski
• Men’s Junior 16 Coxless Fours: Oscar Forbes, Ashley Geddes, Archie Innes, & Matthew Hughson
• Men’s Junior 18 Coxed Fours: Seth Turner, Chris Bardas, Xander Beeson & Jakub Zbikowski, coxed by Skye Ballance
• Men’s Junior 16 Coxless Quadruple Sculls: Oscar Forbes, Ashley Geddes Archie Innes & Matthew Hughson
• Men’s Junior 16 Coxed Fours: Gregor Charles, William Penny, Scott Lewis & Michel Dearsley, coxed by Erin Gibson

Silver:

• Women’s J18 Single Sculls: Megan Hewison
• Men’s Senior Coxed Fours: Seth Turner, Chris Bardas, Xander beeson & Jakub Zbikowski, coxed by Skye Ballance
• Men’s Junior 16 Coxless Pairs: Oscar Forbes & Matthew Hughson
• Men’s Junior15 Coxed Quadruple Sculls: Alex Fowler, Joe Ritchie, Harris Pearce & Will Cooper, coxed by Skye Ballance
• Men’s Junior 15 Double Sculls: Alex Fowler & Joe Ritchie

Bronze:

• Men’s Junior 15 Single Sculls: Will Cooper

Our gratitude as always to the coaches, drivers, parent helpers and supporters, without whom these outstanding results would simply not be possible.

At the 2018 World Rowing Junior Championships in Racice in the Czech Republic on the 10th to the 12th August, after a long and unbelievably arduous selection process going right back to November of last year, Aberdeen Schools Rowing Association’s Robert Powell and Miles Beeson were finally selected to represent Great Britain in Junior Men’s Coxless Pairs, an event in which 21 leading rowing nations from across the globe had entered crews.

Having come a comfortable fourth in their heat, Robert and Miles were then unfortunate enough to progress into the faster of the A/B semi-finals, where they were denied an A Final place by the three eventual medallists, Rumania, Germany & Croatia.Despite their disappointment at missing out on the A Final, they then went on to produce a commanding performance in the B Final against Argentina, Belarus, Serbia, Turkey and the Netherlands, leading the field out from the first 500 metres and fighting off a grandstand challenge from Argentina in the last 100 metres of the race.

Miles and Robert once again did ASRA and Scotland proud and they carry our best wishes with them as they leave us now to take up sports scholarships at Yale and Princeton Universities respectively.

From the Scottish National Rowing Championships at Strathclyde Park, Motherwell, from the 8th – 10th June, ASRA athletes brought home 6 gold medals, 4 silver medals and a bronze.

Gold Medals:

• Men’s Junior Coxed Fours: Sam Kelso, Mile Beeson, Robert Powell & Theo Stott, coxed by Skye Ballance
• Women’s Junior 18 Coxless Pairs: Abigail Topp & Megan Hewison
• Men’s Junior 18 Coxless Pairs: Sam Kelso & Theo Stott
• Men’s Junior 16 Coxless Pairs: Chris Bardas & Xander Beeson
• Men’s J15 Quadruple Sculls: Oscar Forbes, Michel Dearsley, Scott Lewis & Archie Innes, coxed by Skye Ballance
• Men’s Open Novice Eight: Harris Macdonald, Ashley Geddes, Scott Lewis, William Bricknell, Michel Dearsley, Archie Innes, Oscar Forbes & Matthew Hughson, coxed by Skye Balance

Silver Medals:

• Men’s Junior 15 Quadruple Sculls: Asley Geddes, Gregor Charles, Maisie Aspinall & Matthew Hughson, coxed by Steph Low
• Men’s Junior 15 Doubles: Ashley Geddes & Archie Innes
• Men’s Junior 14 Double: Joe Ritchie & Will Cooper
• Men’s Open Eights: Sam Kelso, Miles Beeson, Xander Beeson, Chris Bardas, Danny Skinner, Theo Stott, Seth Turner & Jakub Zbikowski, coxed by Skye Ballance

Bronze Medal:

• Women’s J14 Single Sculls: Maisie Aspinall

Other Noteworthy results:

• Robert Powell and Miles Beeson won the Men’s Junior & Senior Coxless Pairs time trial on the Friday evening but were unable to take part in the final due to illness.
• Seth Turner, Chris Bardas, Xander Beeson & Jakub Zbikowski, coxed by Will Cooper were 2nd in the Men’s Junior 18 Coxed Fours
• Joe Ritchie, Harris Pearce, Alex Fowler & Will Cooper, coxed by Steph Low were 2nd in Men’s Junior 14 Quadruple Sculls

At the British Rowing Junior Championships on the 14th, 15th and 16th July, at the English National Water Sports Centre, Holme Pierrepont, Nottingham, 6 ASRA crews reached the A Finals of the 7 events entered and three of them made it to the medal podium.

Pride of place must go this year to our J16 Girls’ Pair – Abigail Topp & Megan Hewison - , who, having won gold in the GB v France Match at London’s Docklands the previous weekend, trounced all-comers to strike a brilliant gold once again in the Women’s Junior 16 Coxless Pairs event.

Just one hour later they joined club mates – Ellie Andrew, Megan Lewis & cox Emily Murdoch – to win silver in the final of Women’s Junior 16 Coxed Fours.

Not to be outdone, our Junior 16 boys – Aidan Graham, Sam Kelso, Daniel Lynch and Daniel Skinner, coxed by Laura Barraclough - took a hard-fought silver in the final of the Men’s Junior 16 Coxed Fours, with their J15 clubmates – Seth Turner, Christos Bardas, Alexander Beeson & Jakub Zbikowski, coxed by Skye Ballance - just missing out on bronze in the same event.

ASRA’s J14 B crew - William Bricknall, Scott Lewis, Oscar Forbes & Ben Milne, coxed by Skye Ballance - came 6th in the final of the Men’s Junior 14 Coxed Quadruple Sculls event - from an original entry of 28 crews - and our ASRA development Eight (Sam Kelso (16), Christos Bardas (15), Theo Stott (17), Daniel Skinner(16), Daniel Lynch (16), Seth Turner(15), Aidan Graham (16) & Conrad Forbes (17), coxed by Emily Murdoch) came a highly respectable 5th in the final of Men’s Junior 18 Eights.

Next weekend at the annual Home Countries International Regatta, hosted this year by England at Strathclyde Park, Motherwell, Abigail Topp and Megan Hewison have been chosen to represent Scotland in the Women’s Junior Pairs and the Women’s Junior Eights events and Seth Turner, Conrad Forbes, Theo Stott & Aidan Graham, coxed by Emily Murdoch, will represent Scotland in the Mens’ Junior Coxed Fours event.

At the Scottish Rowing Championships held at the Scottish National Rowing Centre, Strathclyde Park, Motherwell from Friday 9th to Sunday 11 June, ASRA crews won 8 gold and 5 silver medals. A magnificent achievement given the lack of opposition in ASRA’s preferred sweep events and the gusting side winds at the start which made attachment a nightmare for less experienced crews.

Gold

• Men’s Junior 18 Coxed Fours: Conrad Forbes, Miles Beeson, Robert Powell & Theo Stott, coxed by Emily Murdoch
• Men’s Junior 18 Coxless Pairs: Miles Beeson & Robert Powell
• Men’s Junior 16 Coxless Pairs: Seth Turner & Aidan Graham
• Women’s Junior 16 Coxless Pairs; Abigail Topp & Megan Hewison
• Men’s J15 Double Sculls : Seth Turner & Jakub Zbikowski
• Men’s J14 Double Sculls: Harris MacDonald & Matthew Hughson
• Wylie Cup (First year of Rowing): Michel Dearsley, Scott Lewis, Josh Berrie & Ben Milne, coxed by Stephany Low
• Men’s Open Novice Eights: Jan Barraclough, Josh Berrie, Xander Beeson, Oscar Forbes, Matthew Hughson, Ashley Geddes, Archie Innes & Connor Kennedy, coxed by Ben Milne

Silver

• Men’s Junior 18 Coxed Fours: Seth Turner, Chris Bardas, Xander Beeson & Jakub Zbikowski, coxed by Harris MacDonald
• Women’s J16 Double Sculls: Abigail Topp & Megan Hewison
• Men’s J15 Coxed Quadruple Sculls: Seth Turner, Chris Bardas, Xander Beeson & Jakub Zbiikowski, coxed by Laura Barraclough
• Men’s J14 Double Sculls: Ashley Geddes & Archie Innes
• Men’s J13 Single Sculls: Ben Milne

Many thanks to the many parents who helped out either at the Champs in one capacity or another or with transport in getting us there and back. We cannot do it without you.

At the National Rowing Championships of Great Britain held in Nottingham from the 17th - 19th July, 7 of the 8 ASRA crews entered reached the finals of their various events.

• the MJ 4- Ollie Hamlet, Gary Wilson, Daniel McSherry & Atholl Wallace and the MJ15 2x (Robert Hamlet & Blair Sorbie came 6th
• the MJ16 4- Blair Sorbie, Niall Rundle, Daniel McSherry & Atholl Wallace came 5th
• the WJ14 2x- Morven Shaw & Amelia Donovan and the WJ16 4+ Christie Duff, Emily Geddes, Rachael Hadjitofi, Holly Reid & cox Bruce Sorbie came 4th intheir respective finals.

In WJ4+ event, Rosie Morton, Iona Riley, Catrona Bain, Jamie Steel & cox Lily Taylor put in an immaculate performance despite the challenging gusting headwindand rough water conditions, leading from first to last and thus turning the tables on the National Schools' gold medallists from Stratford, the winning margin being a thumping 3.47 seconds.

In the WJ 4- final, for which the girls had qualified by winning their semi-final by a convincing 7 seconds over the eventual silver medallists from the City of Oxford, misfortune struck in the form of a slipping rudder line and their consequent lane wandering led to an inevitable disqualification in the first 500 metres of the race.

Congratulations to all at ASRA who racked up an impressive 10 gold medals at the Scottish Rowing Championships 2008 at Strathclyde Park. On Saturday conditions were mixed with sun, rain and wind however the following crews excelled to bring home a medal:

• WJ15 4x+ - Rosie, Rachael, Fiona and Holly coxed by Niall F

• MJ14 4x+ - Blair, Robert, Nicholas and Lewis Mc coxed by Bruce

• WJ16 4+ - Jamie, Iona, Catriona and Rosie coxed by Emily G

On Sunday conditions were a lot more pleasant with sunshine for most of the day. The club managed to win the following races convincingly:

• WJ16 2- Catriona and Rachael

• MJ15 4+ - Atholl, Daniel, Niall R and Blair coxed by Bruce

• MJ154x+ - Atholl, Niall, Daniel and Roblert coxed by Niall F

• MJ16 8+ - Grant, Jonnay, Gary, Atholl, Daniel, Niall, Ollie and Lewis Ma coxed by Lewis Mc

• W Grieve Cup - Morven, Holly, Emily G and Christie D coxed by Emily D

• MJ14 2x - Robert, Blair

• WJ15 4+ - Rosie, Fiona, Rachael and Holly coxed by Emily D

Other notable performances include Iona in WJ16 1x who raced the race of her life to miss out the gold by an agonising 0.1 of a second, the MJ18 4+ who have shown massive improvement this year continued to do so with a brilliant race to come so close behind the mighty Watson's boys and Erin, Emily, Amelia and Bruce in their quad to come 1.4 seconds away from a strong Nithsdale opposition.

Thanks have to go to everyone who helped out with our 32 extra members that day tripped down on Saturday. As always it was great to see a high level of parental support throughout the weekend especially on our return to Aberdeen.

The National Schools Championships at Holme Pierrepont, Nottingham, - scheduled to take place from 23rd - 25th May - were called off half-way through Saturday after 4 Boys' Eights were swamped and conditions were rightfully deemed thereafter to be too dangerous to continue.

This was of course a bitter disappointment for our J18 Schoolgirls' Coxed Four and our J16 Double who had trained so hard for the event and it was left to our younger boys to keep the ASRA colours flying.

On Friday our J14 Coxed Quad (Nic Riddoch, Robert Hamlet, Blair Sorbie & Lewis McCue with cox Emily Geddes) sailed through the processional in 10th place out of 21 and were unlucky in a strong semi-final to lose out on a position in the final by a mere 4.5 seconds - a boat-length in old money.

On Saturday our J15 Coxed Four (Blair Sorbie, Niall Rundle, Daniel McSherry & Atholl Wallace with cox Lewis McCue) claimed a highly respectable 8th place out of 19 in the processional and were looking forward to doing even better in the next round. This however was not to be and the worsening weather conditions compelled the organisers to cancel any further competition at this level and to award the medals according to the places gained in the processional. Our boys ended up 10 seconds short of the bronze medal time.

On Thursday the 6th of March 2008 the ASRA coaching team hosted the inaugural Aberdeen Inter-Schools Indoor Rowing Championships at the ASRA Boathouse on the banks of the Dee. There was strong competition between Bankhead, Kincorth and Harlaw Academies who had pupils competing in individual S1, S2 and S3 events as well as the team event.

Medal winners were:

S1 Girls

• Gold - Kiera Patterson (Harlaw Academy)

• Silver - Katie Malone (Harlaw Academy)

• Bronze - Bronze - Rebecca Waldie (Kincorth Academy)

S2 Girls

• Gold - Samantha James (Kincorth Academy)

• Silver - Sarah Milne (Kincorth Academy)

• Bronze - Rachel Smart (Kincorth Academy)

S3 Girls

• Gold - Lauren Clark (Bankhead Academy)

Team Event

• Gold - Bankhead Academy

• Silver - Harlaw Academy B

• Bronze - Harlaw Academy C

S1 Boys

• Gold - Elliot Bruce (Harlaw Academy)

• Silver - Ying Huang (Harlaw Academy)

• Bronze - Tomak Okulicz (Bankhead Academy

S2 Boys

• Gold - Peter Gonella (Harlaw Academy)

• Silver - Naful Karlberg (Harlaw Academy)

• Bronze - Murray Urquhart (Harlaw Academy)

S3 Boys

• Gold - Chris Milne (Bankhead Academy)

• Silver - Donald Cruickshank (Bankhead Academy

• Bronze - Jon Barbour (Bankhead Academy)

The team event was nail bitingly close with a strong finish by Bankhead Academy who won the team event in real style!

The overall event was won by Harlaw Academy with 87 points, Bankhead came second overall with 66 points and Kincorth Academy came third with 42 points. The whole competition was a real success with all participants and teachers enjoying the afternoon. This was the first time any of the youngsters had been at the boathouse, so it was a fine chance to show them what all of their efforts on the indoor rowing machines at their schools over the last few months have been working towards. All participants are completing their swim test in the next 2 weeks and commence their 10-week Wet Start immediately after the Easter holidays. Watch this space for an update! The ASRA team would like to thank all three schools for supporting this event and also the many helpers who ensured that the afternoon ran smoothly.

At the Scottish Indoor Rowing Championships 2008 held at the Heriott-Watt University, Edinburgh on Saturday 9th February, ASRA athletes racked up a total of 4 gold, 4 silver and 5 bronze medals.

• Individual Gold: Women's Junior 13 - Morven Shaw; Women's Junior 14 - Rosie Morton; Women's Junior 16 - Iona Riley.

• Team Gold: Women's Royal Mile - Lucy Bonnamy; Catriona Bain; Iona Riley; Jamie Steel.

• Individual Silver: Women's Junior 11 - Erin Wyness; Men's Junior 16 - Gary Wilson; Women's Junior 18 Lightweight - Jamie Steel.

• Team Silver: Mixed Junior 15 - Rosie Morton; Fiona McKinnon; Lewis McCue; Chris Milne.

• Individual Bronze: Women's Junior 10 - Katherine Lawrie; Men's Junior 13 - Nick Riddoch; Women's Junior 16 - Catriona Bain; Women's Junior 18 - Lucy Bonnamy.

• Team Bronze: Mixed Junior 15 - Morven Shaw; Emily Duff; Donald Cruickshank; Murray Urquhart

At the Scottish Rowing Championships on the 16th & 17th June at Strathclyde Park, Motherwell, ASRA won a total of 7 Gold Medals and 1 Silver. Pride of place this year goes to the ladies who brought home the lion's share of the medals. No test at WJ2- however for our GB Final Trialists, Lucy & Joy, but their opening win in WJ18 Doubles set off a roll for the girls which culminated in the win in WJ18 Fours over favourites George Heriot's of Edinburgh and almost certain but not yet ratified - selection for the Home Countries Match in Inniscara, Ireland, in July.

• Women's Junior 18 Doubles - Lucy Bonnamy & Joy Davies
• Women's Junior 18 Coxed Fours - Lucy Bonnamy, Joy Davies, Iona Riley, Jamie Steel (cox Bruce Sorbie)
• Women's Junior 15 Coxed Fours - Jamie Steel, Catriona Bain, Iona Riley, Rachael Hadjitofi (cox Robert Hamlet)
• Women's Junior 15 Coxed Quads - Jamie Steel, Iona Riley, Catriona Bain, Rachael Hadjitofi (cox Daniel McSherry)
• Women's Junior 15 Single Sculls: Iona Riley
• Women's Junior 14 Single Sculls (Silver) - Rachael Hadjitofi
• Men's Junior 14 Quads - Atholl Wallace, Daniel McSherry, Blair Sorbie, Niall Rundle (cox Bruce Sorbie)
• Boyd Cup for Best Juniors in their First Year of Rowing - Lewis Masson, Oliver Hamlet, Robert Hamlet, Graham Doig (cox Bruce Sorbie)
• The MJ14 crew being presented with their medals by Stewart Maxwell MSP, Minister for Community & Sport

Congratulations to all who took part and particularly to Morag Emery's Kincorth & Harlaw beginners who acquitted themselves so admirably against much more experienced opposition from the Glasgow Dry Start programme.

On Sunday 11th February 10 ASRA rowers brought home from the 2007 Scottish Indoor Rowing Championships at the Time Capsule, Coatbridge a total of 9 category medals - 6 gold, 2 silver and one bronze.

Gold (individual)

Girls Junior 13 - Fiona McKinnon (Robert Gordon's College), Girls Junior 14 - Catriona Bain (Aberdeen Grammar School), Boys Junior 15 - Jonathan Wright (Harlaw Academy), Girls Junior 18 - Joy Davies (Aberdeen Grammar School).

Gold (team)

Boys Junior Team Championship - Jonathan Wright (Harlaw), Johnathan Lockhart (RGC), Gary Wilson (AGS) & amp;Atholl Wallace (Meldrum Academy). Girls Junior Championship - Joy Davies (AGS), Lucy Bonnamy (Cults), Catriona Bain (AGS) & Jamie Steel (Harlaw).

Silver

Boys Junior 15 - Johnathan Lockhart (RGC), Girls Junior 18 - Lucy Bonnamy (Cults).

Bronze

Girls Junior 14 - Rachael Hadjitofi (AGS).

Good performances all round and some indication of how well winter training is going for the more committed members of the club.