CLUB NEWS

The efforts and achievement of RRC members were recognised and rewarded at the 2025 Awards Evening on Saturday with the following awards presented by our chairman Jonny Preece.

Junior Awards

Junior Rower of the Year was awarded to Will Berry-Jones. Will has been hugely successful as a J15 and more recently as a J16. His attitude and approach to his training is to be commended – he rarely misses training and always works hard to improve himself, sometimes doing a double erg session in one day and always taking on feedback. Will has had 11 wins and competed at one regional regatta and five national events this year with five medals in J15 at the WMRC, JSH, JRR and NSR. He competed his first singles race in May and finished the year in his single by winning J16 1x at Gloucester Head over 5km.

The Most Successful Junior Crew of 2025 was Faith Thorpe-Williams and Leah Cotton WJ18 2x. With six wins at Stratford, Bewdley and Ross their double achieved the most junior wins this year.

The Most improved Junior Crew Award went to Isabel Ruck and Matilda White. Issy and Matilda started rowing in April 2024. They had a successful first season in a J14 4x+, and in the 2025 regatta season they moved into the J15 2x event. They have worked hard to improve their technical skills and have had wins at Cardiff and Stratford and competed at the British Rowing Junior National Championships.

The Squad Star Award was awarded to Ethan Tingay. Ethan has been in the junior squad since July 2021. He has been quietly committed during that time, always attending training and working on improving, achieving a number of pots along the way. He is a very good bows person and can be relied on to be in the bow seat of a 2x, 4x or 8x. He has also recently shown himself to be a very good coach, helping to support younger or less experienced juniors. He is a valuable member of the junior squad.

Senior Awards

The Most Improved Male Rowers Award went to Chris Jarvis and Andy Dorman. Both joining L2R this year these two have embraced the sport with natural talent. They have taken part in several low CRI/Beginners races before progressing quickly and taking part in both the Great Ouse Marathon and the Head of the Dart. We look forward to seeing what these two go on to achieve in 2026!

Most Improved Female rower was awarded to Holly Webster.

Joining this year through our L2R programme, Holly instantly showed promise and a keeness to get involved in racing, competing in a number of beginner/ low CRI races at regattas through the summer plus a WMasC 4x entry at Ross regatta. Holly then also took on the mighty Great Ouse Marathon doing amazingly in tough conditions. Can’t wait to see Holly’s progression in 2026.

Cox of the year was re awarded to Rachel Wales, Rachel has again been a fantastic constant in the coxes seat this year and continues to study and hone her coxing skills. Including attending the WOXCON conference.

The Most Competitive Rower award was awarded to Mike Jones. Mike has entered an amazing 15 events this year winning 3 pots. After a personally challenging year for Mike, rowing remains a constant and he continues to represent RRC with fantastic spirit and enthusiasm.

The Male Rower Of The Year award was re awarded to George Smith. 15 of our men’s squad won at least one pot this summer, however George stood out not only in the amount of entries but also the number of wins he achieved.

George came away with 6 wins, he represented at Nat Champs in an exhausting 4 disciplines, raced at Henley Masters and several regattas as well as winning in the “Young 8” with his son Ollie at The Great Ouse Marathon. As George was also presented with this award last year he challenged the men’s squad to relieve him of the award next year!

The Ladies Rower Of The Year was present to Anabel Pope and was graciously received on her behalf by her brother Charlie.

20 of our ladies squad came away with at least one pot. Nine of which won more than 5 pots each!! Plus Bron and George won gold in the intermediate 2x at Nat Champs.

2025 was a fantastic year for the ladies squad however Anabel pipped the tally of wins by one. Anabel had an amazing summer of racing, competing in virtually all regattas and in almost every division. All whilst organising our Uni/ ‘A’ members into crews. She also made a fantastic final at Nat Champs with Fliss in their 2-. A staggering amount of work and well deserved recipient of the award.

The Coaching award was awarded to theL2R/ development team Lisa Robbins, Lucy Preece, Tim Ball and Buffy. Between them they have put in an enormous amount of hours throughout the summer and continue to do so into the winter season.

This year saw a record 28 beginners through 3 courses between April and September. An amazing achievement and the bar has been raised for next year!  

A special award, the Devotion to Duty Award goes to Tim Ball. Tim continues to give up an amazing amount of his time to help RRC function. Duties include L2R, treasurer, camping as well as keeping our fleet safe and looking fantastic as out Boathouse Fairy. A big thank you goes to Tim for his devotion to duty.

The Chairmans Award was presented to Sue Thompson for working tirelessly and confidentially behind the scenes as Welfare Officer in what has been a challenging year. Her work was described as ‘exemplary’ by British Rowing. Thank you for your continued hard work Sue.

This year the Ballcock Award was awarded to Jan Rosser for seemingly believing the Baby Burco water urn in the umpire’s tent at the regatta would refill itself. She discovered this was indeed not the case when it eventually boiled dry and got so hot the black plastic tap melted off! Oops!

The Annual Ross Lions Fireworks night went off with a bang on Saturday 1^st November! With the spectacular display located on the Camping Field there was plenty of room for all the visitors to watch the fireworks from a safe distance, then wander back over the bridge to the food stalls on the Presidents’ Lawn.

The RRC Pop-Up bar, set up and run by Bar Manager Dave Rosser and his team – Jan Rosser, Sue Thompson, Dave and Sarah Sykes – did a fine job serving hot mulled cider, cold beers, and even bottles of bubbly, raising our guests spirits (and some funds for the club!).  After the event, Torsten Pope opened the Club bar, inviting the Lions Team in to unwind and debrief after another fun and successful fundraiser.

Well done, and thanks to all – a great collaborative community event.

Thanks to Steven Gregory for giving permission to share his wonderful picture of the event.

Fours Head

Ex Ross Junior Fliss Cox competed in The Fours Head in London on the championship course this month. Fliss is now rowing for Reading University and took the stroke seat  in their second  W4+ for her first race on the Tideway. They came 6th out of 12 crews and their first boat came second to Leander by 0.3 seconds. Congratulations Fliss! A great start to your uni rowing. Fliss really appreciated the support of RRC members on Spond and is looking forward to rowing at Ross during the Christmas break.

The social committee have organised the following events so please support them and the club and sign up to the events on Spond.

Exotic Paddling

Bored of the cold, rainy, river Wye, Tim and Buffy had a taste of something much warmer and more exotic when they spent a few days in Dubai this month – rowing in a quad, and an octople at Monty’s Rowing Club.

Heading out from the Marina whilst it was still dark, they watched the sunrise over the city and paddled past millionaire’s beach-front windows whilst the wealthy residents were still snoring, all the way to the opulent Atlantis Hotel. Warm water, a gentle breeze, a beautifully balanced boat, and even the odd flying fish jumping into the boat – what’s not to like?!

Ross Rowing Club – Founded 1875

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