Eight pupils in Upper Fifth have taken up rowing as an activity for Senior Games with some using it to complete their Silver DofE award.
This is a new, exciting venture for St Bede’s College, and is being delivered in partnership with Agecroft Rowing Club at Salford Quays. The Club is a thriving development centre of almost 200 members across junior, senior, masters, social and para squads. Several Agecroft rowers have gone on to represent their country at World Championships and the Olympics. The English department’s very own Mrs Sullivan is a past member and in her time, was Captain of the Ladies squad.
Our coach, Helen Leigh has been a member of Agecroft RC for nearly 10 years and has rowed competitively at a high level. Her career highlights include being a single sculler for Team England.
The programme began on the 5 May with an indoor session on the ergometers. This was an opportunity for the group to display their talent, but actually served to demonstrate that some things really aren’t as easy as they look. In trying to master the sequence of legs-body-arms, arms-body-legs, it soon became apparent that coordination and concentration were necessary in equal measure!
It didn’t take long for the girls to get into the rhythm though, and Helen had them out onto the water sooner than we had all anticipated. Great hilarity ensued at the sight of one or two ‘wall hugging’ their way along the quay, trying to put theory into practice whilst others simply headed for the horizon. Nonetheless, in the immortal words of Brian Hanrahan, “I counted them all out, and I counted them all back”. The smiles on the girls’ faces telling me they’d had a good day.
