We revive the Club Aggregate in 2024 with what has recently become one of the most noteworthy programmes on the UK junior rowing circuit.
The Hinksey Sculling School was established in 1998 by John Broadhurst and Tom Collins, and is a club that is focused on developing junior athletes.
The team are based in Oxford, but the facilities Hinksey athletes call home couldn’t be further from the stereotypes of their surroundings: six-foot ceilings in an old pumping room, some gazebos, and a few racks based outside of St. Edward’s and Radley College’s boathouses. James Mcanallen (Head Coach), and Bodo Schulenburg (Director of Rowing) stand at the helm of what has become an armada of developing talent. The team embraces conditions widely considered unfavourable, spinning these into a punchy desire to upset the hegemonic order of the rowing world, obtaining a defined grit and a determination to succeed.
Three squads form the skeleton of the club: the Lake (for beginners), Godstow (younger rowers), and Radley (J16-18). Everyone who learns to row at Hinksey begins at the lake in a single scull and the coaches, alongside older athletes, foster an inclusive atmosphere that is eager to introduce the sport to everyone. Athletes at the upper end of the club, the Radley squad, have gone on to multiple international vests; in the 2022/23 season 12 members attended GBRT U19 trials, with multiple going on to medal at Coupe de la Jeunesse, and two picking up medals, including a gold, at the Junior World Championships. Many have gone on to be recruited to esteemed American universities.
The coaching support caters to the ambition of the athlete, balancing both pushing some to become world champions, and also facilitating recreational rowers, all under the same roof (or rather, gazebo). Learn to row courses are actively offered to state schools: a central tenet of Hinksey’s conception and ethos is to remove the barriers to participation so often faced in our sport. Bursaries are also offered to help any athlete who needs support with fees. As Bodo Schulenburg so rightly put it, “anyone who wants to row, can row [at Hinksey].”
The team’s successes over the past few seasons, in a rebellious surge to the top of the rowing world, are impossible to ignore, and it seems this is only the beginning. A Henley Royal Regatta final in 2021 – notably in the Britannia Challenge Cup as a junior crew, because entrance to the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup at this time was still restricted to schools – was followed by what is now a multiplicity of National Schools’ Regatta medals, alongside admirable runs at Henley. The Fawley Challenge Cup crew of 2023 defied the opinions of pundits in each day of competition, only falling to a strong Leander Club outfit on the Sunday.
The vast majority of senior squad members were part of crews at Henley 2024, with the Fawley, Prince Philip (who also took a commanding gold in the Championship Girls’ Eights at NSR), and Princess Elizabeth crews all qualifying – a true demonstration of the talent cultivated in the programme.
Hinksey is perhaps best described by one of its alumni: “It is culture. Desire. Motivation. No telemetry. No heart rate. Just dedication.” – Lawrence Harkin. There is not another club in the world quite like it.
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