Agecroft Rowing Club

Agecroft Rowing Club is a rowing club based at Salford Quays, Greater Manchester, England. It was formerly based close to the Agecroft Hall in Pendleton 2 miles (3.2 km) north. Its current location is its third within today's City of Salford on a site close to the city centre of Manchester.

Agecroft R.C.
LocationSalford Quays, Salford, United Kingdom
Home waterManchester Ship Canal, Salford Quays
Founded1861 (1861)
AffiliationsBritish Rowing
boat code - AGE
Websitewww.agecroftrc.org.uk
Events
Agecroft Small Boats Head
Distinctions
Britannia Challenge Cup, Henley Regatta, 2009 Sports Council Cup, Henley Women's Regatta 2012: (composite)

History
See also: River Irwell § Sport on the Irwell

There has been rowing in Manchester and Salford since 1823, with more than 15 clubs operating during the 1860s. Agecroft R.C. was formed by the gradual merging of these River Irwell-based clubs. Agecroft R.C. was established in Oct 1861 by Ishmael Lythgoe[1] with its first boat house in the grounds of Agecroft Hall at Pendlebury before the manor house was sold and rebuilt by the James River in Virginia, USA. The club soon moved to the River Irwell further upstream at Littleton Road and were based there for over a hundred years.[1] However, in early 2000s, the stretch of river had been allowed to return more to reeds to support fishing and the boathouse lay on part of a new flood plain so the club moved to a new boathouse close to Manchester City Centre at Salford Quays. This new home triggered a huge growth in club size and successes throughout the UK.

Current activities

The club regularly competes across the UK at all levels and has a broad membership base, from complete novices and juniors through to semi-professional athletes competing at international level. The club regularly hosts a small boats head race in the winter and supports two British Rowing world class start coaches.

The club hosts a wide variety of rowers of different abilities, ambitions and ages, with a large membership and a wide variety of members from juniors through students to veterans. The club has achieved qualifications and wins at the British Rowing Championships, Nottingham and Henley Royal Regatta and a course record at Henley Women's Regatta in the Intermediate 4+ event.

International performances

The club has been successful in the World Class Start squad with wins in the World Under 23s coxless pairs and a Home Countries win for England in the single sculls by Olivia Whitlam who has since gone on to represent GB at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics and the three intervening World Championships. Other internationals since 2010 include Brendan Crean (4x[n 1] 2010), Graeme Thomas[2] (World Cup win Australia 2013), Zak Lee-Green (lwt 4x[n 1] u23 bronze 2010),[3] Oli Lee (GB U23 4x[n 1] 2010), Rebecca Chin (GB U23 eight Bronze, 2012) and Olivia Oakes (GB U23 eight bronze 2012). Both Brendan (England) and Graeme (Wales) have also won National Championship gold medals in 1x and Home Countries Internationals.Graeme has gone on to represent GB at 3 successive Worlds, winning silver ad Bronze. Next step, Rio 2016! Zak Lee Green is another successful Agecroft graduate and is now part of the GB Lightweight team, having been to 2 Worlds in 1x and 4x.

Daniele Gilardoni[n 2] joined Agecroft in February 2013 where he rows and coaches.

Henley Royal Regatta

At HRR, under the coaching of Denis O'Neill, the club, in successive years lost a semi-final by one foot, then a Final, then a semifinal, after which Agecroft won for the first time The Britannia Challenge Cup[n 3] in 2009.[4] In other highest results:

  • Brendan Crean reached the semi-final of the 1x Diamond Challenge Sculls ('the Diamonds'), 2010
  • An Agecroft World Class Start 4x[n 1] reached the semi-final Prince of Wales Challenge Cup, 2011 setting a course record.
  • Graeme Thomas reached the final of the Diamonds, 2012, he won the Queen Mother Cup in 2014, 2015 and 2017.

He then won The Double Sculls in 2019

Junior rowing

The junior section of Agecroft was restarted in earnest in the 2000s with dedicated junior club officers and has over 60 members. They routinely enter the National Schools Head with junior coxless 4x.[n 1]

Honours

British champions
Year Winning crew/s
1994Women lightweight 2x [5]
2007Open 1x [6]
2009Women J18 2-[7]
2010Women U23 1x [8]
2011Open 1x, Open 2x [9]
2014Open 4x [10]

Henley Royal Regatta
Year Races won
2009Britannia Challenge Cup
2014Queen Mother Challenge Cup
2015Queen Mother Challenge Cup
2018Queen Mother Challenge Cup
2019Double Sculls Challenge Cup


  • Senior Men at Henley
  • Women's Henley 8+

Notes and references
Notes
  1. Quad, for other symbols used (+ and -) see Rowing (sport)
  2. 11-times World Gold medallist in lwt 4x
  3. Liz O'Neill (cox)/Craig Morgan/Pete Warman/Tom Dawson/Ben Sullivan
References
  1. Forshaw, Stephen. Papers of the Agecroft Rowing Club 1864-1980. John Rylands Library.
  2. "GB Rowing Team crews reach finals of European Championships". 17 September 2011. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
  3. "Zak Lee-Green Athlete Profile". Tass. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
  4. Scott, George (9 July 2009). "Campbell beaten by world champion Drysdale at Henley". More Than The Games. Sports Beat. Archived from the original on 1 September 2010. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
  5. ""For the Record." Times, 18 July 1994, p. 22". Times Digital Archives.
  6. "2007 archive of results". Web Archive.
  7. "Full archive of results". Web Archive.
  8. "British Rowing Championships 2010". British Rowing.
  9. "Full archive of results". Web Archive.
  10. "2014 British Rowing Championships Race Centre". British Rowing.
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