Founded in 1946, Queen’s Park High School rowing club is based in Chester on the famous River Dee. In 1946 the club was a grammar school for boys, then when the school changed to Queen’s Park in 1971, their boathouse was built. Although the students’ uniform today is mainly blue, the rowing club keeps the tradition of rowing in red and black. Although Queen’s Park is only a small club, they have outstanding alumni, dating back to the 80s and 90s. For example, Emma Holman, who won the WJ16 1x at British championships in 1988, won at Henley Women’s Regatta in a composite coxed four and raced in the first GB women’s 8+ at the Junior Worlds in Milan.
Arguably the best athlete to come out of Queen’s Park is Jane Saunders. Saunders was coached by one of the best junior coaches in the UK, Andy Turner, who took charge as Head Coach in September 1993. The Regatta season of 1994 is where Jane came into her own in the junior rowing world, winning gold at National Schools’ in the WJ16 1x and later that year racing at Coupe de la Jeunesse, where she represented GB in a composite double and won gold as a J16. To complete Jane’s extravagant junior career, she went on to win a gold and bronze at her last National Championships; a gold medal in the coxless quad and a bronze in the single. In 1997 she competed in the lightweight women’s Boat Race, eventually coming out on top.
At Queen’s Park, rowing seems to run in the family, as seen in Jane’s sister Katie Saunders, who in 1998 won gold in the WJ15 1x at the British Championships. Later, as a J16 she formed part of a composite Quad that won a silver medal at the British Championships, and finally represented GB at Coupe de la Jeunesse in the quad, which won a silver medal. Queen’s Park managed to get their first boat qualified for Henley Royal Regatta in 1998. The crew of Dale Ellis, Simon Speed, Richard Saunders and John Macdonald would represent Queen’s in the Fawley Challenge Cup.
The most recent outstanding alumni caught the circuit’s eyes as J14s in a quad consisting of Leon Langmead, Chris McCartney, Craig Roberts, Alex Thomas and cox, Dan Wallace. In 2011 these boys won a gold medal at the junior sculling head, achieving an outstanding 1st place at the inter-regional regatta, unfortunately, got the 4th place at National Schools’ but bounced back with a silver medal at the National Championships. In 2012, Leon’s older brother, Joel Langmead and teammate Alex Blain managed to achieve a top 10 place at the Junior GB Trials and attended the J16 GB camp later in the year.
Nowadays, QPH is still outstandingly active on the junior scene. They usually race in coxed quads at national events with their highly skilled J13s, J14s and j15s; more recently they have begun to venture onto the dark side of sweep rowing. As juniors go up the years in school, the most dedicated athletes start to emerge, necessitating their transfer to smaller boats. Recent results include gold and bronze at the 2018 National Championships J14 omnium events, whilst 2019 saw them finish the season with with a 4th place in the J15 8x+ at the Junior Sculling Head, a 2nd in the B Final in the WJ14 4x+ at National Schools, a 1st place in the B final in the WJ14 4x+ at the National Championships in Nottingham, a 5th place in the A final in the J14 4x+ and an incredible 4th place in the J16 4+.
The volunteer coaches at QPH are all hugely dedicated, with a range of enthusiastic locals and seasoned internationals. The most experienced coaches have worked for the GB Teams, along with prominent London universities and clubs. Most coaches are parents from past and present rowers, who have taken up a coaching role after becoming interested in the sport.
The boathouse is located on the meadow’s side of the River Dee. It shares three bays with two other canoeing clubs, means that storage is at a premium, resulting in the erection of exterior scaffolds to house additional shells. In 2014 plans were published for a multi-million pound Watersports Hub situated on the QPH grounds, which would have helped Queen’s Park massively; unfortunately, local objections led to the proposal’s eventual withdrawal. The hub’s build cost continued to rise, and as the local council backed out of the construction, it rapidly became unviable. Land training at this club is simple, but uses the small weights room and ergs; athletes tend to use the more luxurious facilities of the school.
The club’s chairman, Richard Cox said about the club that “The club is a very special place to all our rowers, coaches and parents. It is a bit like having an extended family. Most of our Sixth Form rowers that leave school say “rowing anywhere else just is not the same!” We encourage all year groups to interact and help with each other, whether it is in a training environment, whilst at the boathouse or at a competition. We are very lucky to have a large group of very supportive parents who are always on hand to assist, be it at a regatta, helping to raise funds and upkeep of the boathouse. Our student’s numbers and volunteer coaches have grown considerably over the past ten years, which is something that I hope will continue to grow further. We lack any decent land training facilities and gym equipment. Also, it is a real struggle to house our boats safely due to a lack of space in our current facilities. This is a priority and an exciting prospect for the future of our club of which we want to improve, this in turn will attract more students and improve results”.
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