THE STORY OF THE GRANGE SCHOOL ROWING CLUB
1985 – 2000

FROM THE ACORN

This is a personal view of the growth of The Grange School Rowing Club from its beginning in 1985 until the appointment of Graham Jump as Rowing Master in 2000. I must thank Northwich Rowing Club members Caroline McRitchie and Neil Barber for their help in providing a lot of the information and apologise to anyone whom I have not mentioned when I should have done. This account is perhaps a basis for others to enlarge upon should it be considered necessary.

Mike Ward
14th April 2005

THE BEGINNING

Northwich Rowing Club (NRC), one of the oldest and most well known rowing clubs in England, has in modern times enjoyed an enviable reputation for its junior squad, which until the mid 1980s was fed mainly from Sir John Deane's Grammar School. However, changes were afoot and the Grammar School was to become a Sixth Form College. Alan Meegan, in his last year as Chairman of NRC, 1984/85, looked at ways to continue the influx of juniors to the Club. Alan's daughter, Lauren, in later years became a GSRC sculler. Alan consulted with others at NRC including Captain Mike Francis and Mike Seaman and they agreed to make an approach to The Grange School. Consequently, on 16th December 1984, Alan Meegan and Mike Francis visited the School and gave a video presentation of rowing activities at Northwich Rowing club.

GETTING BOATED

The presentation obviously had the desired effect because Grange School pupils started training at NRC in September 1985. NRC records show that in October 1985 eight pupils, supervised by two members of School staff, were boating at NRC three times per week. Notably, one of the members of staff was Malcolm Browne. The other is not identified but may well have been Leslie Harvey, who, Alan recalls, did a lot for The Grange School rowing at that time. Chris Jackson of NRC and a Grange Grammar School parent was also a great source of support and knowledge at this time as was another NRC stalwart, Dennis Mills. Irrepressible Irishman Malcolm Browne had joined the School as a DTI teacher and Rowing Coach. He had recently arrived from New Zealand where he had been taught the art of coaching youngsters to scull and row by the world renowned Harry Mahon (later to be responsible for coaching GB rowers to Olympic Gold).

COMPETING

NRC records also show that the School's first competitive outing was the North of England Head on the Dee at Chester in the spring of 1986, and that in September 1986 there were crews for a four and an eight. These records further show that Malcolm was co-opted to the NRC Committee in September 1987, and that the School's first win was at the Dee Autumn Head in November 1987 with a novice 4 crew.

Whilst rowers were mixed, there was a predominance of boys in the early years although this was to change somewhat later. Some noteworthy boys were P. Mallin-Jones, A. Jackson and T. Marshall, and amongst the girls was Charlotte Winterson (now back at School as a Junior School teacher). Particularly of note was Elizabeth Hooper, later followed by Sister Rachel, who, between them, won lots of pots, but, just as notably brought their parents Joyce and Tim into the rowing fraternity, where they are still involved.

VOLUNTEER PARENTS – THE START

Joyce was the forerunner of the Parents’ Group and led the Grange parents in organising the food tents at NRC Heads, raising funds for both NRC and School. This lady, who would not take 'no' for an answer, made a super chocolate cake.

EQUIPMENT IN THE EARLY DAYS

Athletes were rowing in NRC kit and often for NRC or in combination crews and this did not change until the early nineties when a regular School kit was introduced. Initially, all boats used belonged to NRC. However, this was to change gradually and by 1991 School owned four boats, but were still using NRC oars.

There were three Burgashell sculls namely 'Alf' (Alan Meagan), 'Bodjit' (Malcolm Browne) and 'Roxburgh' (Lady Roxburgh). In addition, there was a wooden quad/four 'Genesis' bought from NRC for a modest sum. NRC had used this boat for their men in the 1970 Fours Head; it was old and heavy (too heavy for twelve year old girls as I recall) but respected and very safe and forgiving for beginners.

RECRUITMENT

In August 1991, Malcolm organised the first of the Summer Schools on the Weaver at NRC, a safe water ideal for starters and we started to see a change into an identifiable School group at the same time as NRC's own Junior Club began to expand. Eight further athletes began rowing this year and more parents took an interest.

I took it upon myself to give Malcolm some help and, under his direction each Saturday morning, learned a lot about sculling, loading a trailer and carrying boats at various UK locations, together with the Barkers, the Seamans and others. Together we realised that more support, more equipment and therefore more money were needed and decided to do something about it.

PARENTS’ GROUP

So, in 1992 we started The Grange School Rowing Club Parents’ Support Group – I was in the Chair (my daughter Rachel rowed) Vice Chairman was John Barker (his daughter Gillian and son Robert were both rowers) Lesley Barker was our Secretary and Rachel Seaman (her daughter Caroline rowed) was our Treasurer. Mr and Mrs Costello (whose daughter Becky and son Adam were both rowers) were also on the Committee and provided lots of support. We stated our intentions, to endeavour to raise £1,000 annually and to give Malcolm all the bankside support we possibly could. We achieved our objectives. Meanwhile more equipment was needed.

In later years, School rowing became very dependent on so many parents, some of whom made tremendous commitments for the benefit of the Club. Amongst these we must consider the Walkers, the Carsons, the Lawlesses, the Crowthers – what would we do without Rob's catering - the Moseses, the Walterses, the Rutters, the McDonalds, the Finches, the Lowreys, the Smethursts, the Forsyths, the Baileys, the Taylors, the Alexanders and the Athertons. We also had valiant support from people without any school connections such as retired engineer David Foden who imparted much knowledge, especially about coxing.

NEW EQUIPMENT

In 1992, parents bought four pairs of macon blades (carbon fibre ones) (£250) and two older pairs from NRC (£100) and ordered four pairs of new choppers (£350) to be paid for by the School and by the Parents Group whose fund raising was paying dividends.

The big boost, however, was the provision of two very good second hand Stampfli doubles, at a cost of £2,500 each. These were presented to the Club by parents. Mr and Mrs Seaman presented 'Peggy' and Mr and Mrs Underdown (whose daughter Nicky was a rower) presented 'Miss Katherine'. (Such was the value of these boats that when one was 'written off' in 1996 we were able to buy a new quad and double with the insurance money). The damaged boat was repaired and kept for training only.

THE GROWTH CONTINUES

By 1994 the GSRC had twenty-four rowing athletes, three sculling boats, two doubles and Genesis. There were now six pairs of macons and four pairs of choppers. Rowing took place after school on Wednesday and each Saturday morning. Saturdays were split between 8.30 to 10.30 and 10.30 to 12.30 due to the shortage of equipment although NRC was still generous in loaning equipment to School. Their boathouse, though, was very full. Records show that our athletes paid £24 membership to NRC and £15 as ARA membership.

GRSC still did not have a boat trailer, and so Mike Underdown persuaded Knutsford Motors to give him an aged car transporter trailer, and I managed to get a friend Mr Geoff Wilson at Wilhall Engineering, Nantwich, to fabricate racking upon it: thereby giving us our own trailer for eight boats which kept us going for the next four years. We were never charged for this work. The new trailer arrived in 1997.

The mid nineties saw a major change in our fleet. As money was raised, it was often matched by School and so the quads 'Flying Scott' and 'Acorn' took to the water and a couple of doubles and sculls soon followed, as did eight more pairs of choppers and four pairs of macons Flying Scott's first race was the NRC Autumn Head in 1996 and our J15 girls not only won the race but also set a record of 9.16 for their class.

About this time, Malcolm became quite poorly on occasions and became hospitalised more than once, only to keep returning, however, with that same cheeky grin, and with that shrill whistle which his crews could hear for miles. There was no doubting that he was very ill though, and we were very concerned for him and his wife, Pauline.

COVERING MALCOLM'S ABSENCE

By this time we had recruited a young rower, Ellie Davies (later to become a Welsh champion) and with her came her mum and dad, Pam and Ian Davies, two very supportive parents, who, along with the writer, were the first parents to become qualified instructors.

In 1995, during one of Malcolm's long term absences, Pam and I had a meeting with the Head, Mr Marshall, to organise filling the massive gap left while Malcolm was ill. Pam Davies did a Stirling job keeping us organised weekly and at events, as well as coaching a group of boys, and the Club really missed her when she followed Ellie to NRC in 1998. Later, she took up a prominent position with the ARA. Ian, our most qualified parent coach is, of course, still an integral part of the GSRC coaching scene and has earned some excellent results from his pupils over many years.

Pam not only coached but was also Secretary of the Parents’ Group and was instrumental in starting the Presentation Evenings, where she ensured that every athlete gained an award.

Another of our outstanding athletes in the 90s was Gina Percy and, true to form, she brought her parents to the fore. Teacher mum Steph became a stalwart in School whilst dad Adrian not only coached but also became our resident expert rigger and boat builder and repairer.

GOODBYE TO MALCOLM

Malcolm Browne died tragically at School in September 1996 and, at his Sandbach Church funeral, his rowers provided their tribute with an eight-oar guard of honour reflecting their respect for his skill, care and dedication.

TEMPORARY COACHING ARRANGEMENTS

Parents still needed to fill the coaching gap until relieved by masters Mr David Tonge and Mr Andrew Boardman. In the meantime more parents had become qualified instructors. Amongst this group was Nick Taylor (whose son Robert later became Captain) and two parent teachers, Felicity Taylor and Cynthia Carson. These two very busy ladies did a magnificent job for us both on the water and in School until the School coach was appointed.

THE PRESSURE IS ON – WE HAVE TO GO

In 1994, as indicated, it became more and more obvious that we were running out of space at NRC. Our Club growth was becoming somewhat stifled and NRC were becoming a little embarrassed because of pressure from their landowners, Sir John Dean's College, about our presence on their boathouse site. I became a member of a NRC/GSRC working party set up to attempt to identify a joint way forward. Also on this working party was one Graham Jump.

Graham was already well known to GRSC not only as a member of NRC but also for his help and advice on many occasions due to his interest in coaching junior rowers. He, too, carried Genesis a time or two, and as early as 1993 assisted us with coaching. The working party met several times during 1994 and 1995 but failed to achieve anything positive and the inevitable became clear – we needed a boathouse of our own. I met with Mr Marshall and he gave the go ahead for me to find a site: a personal challenge.

This process is a story on its own. Suffice to say our present site was the thirteenth which I investigated and it was so pleasing early in 1998 when farmer Mr John Horton said, "Yes, I will sell you this piece of land", as we stood in a sorry marsh surrounded by sheep. We were thrilled, not only because of the perfect location for our boathouse but also because we really were at the end of our tether at NRC because our equipment was kept in very cramped conditions, some boats of necessity were kept out in the open and subject to damage and neglect and because our athlete numbers were capped – thirty-six were actively rowing at this time and we had no scope for enlargement.

This pleasure was however equalled when, on 6th October 1998, our planning application No. 4/33277 was approved. Work on site started in August 1999. Hankinson's of Northwich were the approved contractors and Browns of Wem provided the building.

Approximate costs : Building shell £30,000
Land £30,000
Groundwork £100,000
Fittings and fees £65,000

School took possession of the boathouse in August 2000. Obviously many thanks are due, but in particular they are due to Alan Meegan and the many hours we spent together pouring over the site plans at his office and working out the racking, work area, boating up area and so on. His advice was invaluable.

THE COACH

School had endeavoured to appoint a person to replace Malcolm but this proved to be a very difficult task despite our new Headmistress, Mrs Stephen's, best efforts. Several applicants had been interviewed but none was deemed appropriate. I was very pleased to recommend Graham Jump as the best candidate for the position, as he had the skill and temperament for the job and we knew him well as a good friend of the Club. Mrs Stephen offered him the job which he accepted with relish, and he started his new role in September 2000: another good day for The Grange School.

2000 ONWARDS

Well, this is a matter for someone else as the oak continues to grow. Someone else can relate the adventures of the young athletes of today. What's this about THE FORDS?