Sheltered by the Ship of the Fens, King’s Ely Boat Club has a proud history of cultivating the athletic mindset and a defiant record of success – locally, nationally and internationally.
Students at King’s can expect their first tour of the boathouse at the age of 13, at which point they can choose to experiment with the sport for the remainder of the year or switch between the water and the playing fields each season. The club itself is nestled in the local Marina, on a site previously shared by CUBC before moving a kilometre downstream to upgraded facilities. At this point, King’s inherited their previous boathouse.
Recognised across the nation for their striking chequered duck-egg blade design, King’s enjoys over 30 miles of uninterrupted water on the Great River Ouse, upon which the club floats a fleet of eights, quads and small boats. A sculling-focused centre, junior rowers learn necessary skills in Quads and Octos before progressing to smaller boats to hone technical finesse.
Athletes at King’s – much like at any other club – can expect to juggle competing academic and sporting commitments, but thanks to a compact main campus, most boarding students are never more than a few minutes’ walk from the nearest gym, allowing them to squeeze individual sessions around a packed daily timetable. As for group land training, 6 am S&C sessions are typically delivered by a member of the coaching team at the main sports hall, as are evening erg sessions.
Games sessions on a Monday and Wednesday afternoon for students in junior school are the prime opportunities for getting out on the water; athletes become involved in boathouse operations from day one, including the launching and recovery of coaching launches, boat care, and stage cleaning.
In 2015, King’s replaced Saturday School with extended weekday teaching, meaning the weekend became a primary vessel for senior athletes looking to build on their regular Tuesday and Thursday Games sessions.
Previously led by Australian-born Mark Beer and now headed by Craig Ward, the coaching team consists of seven coaching staff, each fully qualified British Rowing providers. They guide every session at KEBC and manage overseas training camps and race logistics.
Athletes in Senior School travel to Portugal most years to indulge in sun-soaked training regiments over the Easter break – a welcome hiatus from GCSE and A-Level revision.
When it comes to racing, King’s may have a lighter touch than their Independent school contemporaries, but their crews still send ripples through the circuit. Crews can expect to race at National Schools’, JIRR, British Championships and Henley Royal and Henley Women’s throughout their time at the school.
Founded in 970AD, King’s Ely is one of the oldest schools globally, and whilst the origins of the Boat Club may be more mysterious, the lessons learned by students over hundreds of generations are still absorbed by students today. Above all, what speaks volumes about the club is the strong sense of community shared between every member, a rare example of a genuinely inclusive club at an independent school.
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