The other day a young lady I didn’t know came up to me at my rowing club (Putney Town), and asked: “So, in rowing, other than your one course record in a pair… what have you done?”

Surprised by the directness, my response went something like this:

“Well, I started rowing … over 35 years ago at Brooks School in the USA.  We won the ISL (the New England ‘Independent School League’), but this was a squad thing…my boat still lost a couple of races, over the three years I rowed, but I loved it.  I became an enthusiast…

Later at Durham University we won lots of northern headraces, but were crushed by Imperial College whenever we ventured south.  We were runners up at BUSA, and I have the medal in a drawer somewhere to prove it.

I lost in the first round of Henley Royal Regatta a few times, nothing serious really … oh other than the event record in the pair at Metropolitan Regatta, but we didn’t even know we had set that until Leander broke the record three years later.  But that was a very long time ago…..”.  Thoughtful silence.

Instead of rambling through this ancient history, I realised later, I should have started with my car-crash in April 1999, when I wrapped my red Saab 900 (and myself) around a Nottinghamshire lamppost.  Lots of broken bones and a damaged top right chamber of my lungs. The hospital doctor told me that I would now never be a necklace model (right collar bone in 27 bits, left one from an earlier cycling accident had already been broken in three places) and that I would not be able to row competitively again (presumably due to the damage to the lung).

My pairs partner, a lawyer, who came to visit me in hospital, when told that I would not be able to row seriously again due to the damage to my lungs immediately and cheerfully replied: “Not to worry, we are all sculling now!”.

A new situation called for a new approach. Clearly, I wouldn’t be able to rely purely on strength and fitness to win races.  Instead, I would have to concentrate on technique.

So that was what I did. And after sculling for a while I sometimes jumped back into a sweep boat.

Prior to the crash I had managed to win the Veteran’s Eights Head and The Veteran’s Fours Head, but after the crash and several years of learning to scull … with my friend Kosta managed to become the fastest master’s crew overall in The Pairs Head; and then got golds at both the British and World Masters Championships in a single, double and a quad. And in 2015 I won the Nordic Masters Single in Copenhagen (and enjoyed being able to say “Nordic Masters Champion”), and in the last Scullers Head, one of the largest processional races for singles in the world, managed to win the Masters Lightweight category overall (by the largest margin it has been won by thus far! This will not last… I am coaching people to beat this! )…

But taking the overall view, what have I really done in rowing?

Well, my own wins pale into insignificance next to one particular team effort, in which I have to thank both the pupils involved and the people who came on board to help.  In 2001 I took over the state-funded rowing programme at the  London Oratory School, where I was teaching Geography.

The previous year they had come resoundingly last in the few head races they had entered.  I had been told that they had never won a race.  “Hard to get any worse”, friends joked. “Room for improvement”, I thought.

From this modest start came a string of minor wins, progressively more impressive. Self confidence began to grow. We eventually won a division for fours in the National Schools Head, and then these pupils formed the basis of our first really good eight, winning men’s eights at Kingston Regatta in 2007, beating some really good crews on the way to the final. Then after a decade of struggling with paperwork I was able to hand over the admin to the efficient Gerald Elphicke; then as I left, I managed to get the wonderful Nick Wilde appointed to the head coaching role.  I had help from Richard Adams, a parent-governor, and Jackie Darling who worked in the school Administration and helped with the membership and paperwork.

The last school squad I coached went on to win the 1^st eights at the 2016 National Schools Regatta, the Child Beale Cup, to become the first state-school to win this … congratulations to Gerald and Nick, and everyone else involved!  Beating Eton and Hampton in J16 Championship 8’s in the Schools Head two years earlier was particularly satisfying result as we were in a used boat bought off a girl’s school (yes, it was a really really good boat, but this (“bought second hand off a girls’ school”) sounds really good when you think of Eton and Hampton budgets!).  Five of the nine in this formidable crew have been to Bergerac now and have done some useful training as well as helping in the garden.  And I hope the others follow at some point for some more sculling and training and cycling in this wonderful part of France!

Next event for me? Well a lot has been going on recently… so… watch this space.

UPDATE:  This year 2025 has been a bit surprising on many fronts… I am planning to write a blog to carry on from my last… and that will come, but one interesting point is that we had eight bookings sorted at the end of last year (mostly from people booking at the end of their previous stay for this year… and getting it into the diary), but have had four cancellations (all for very different reasons) and so one aspect of this is that we are putting in a new deposit system, a new bookings page, and a page explaining what we are all about… and shall also contact a few people to put the word out that we now have spaces where we were earlier almost fully booked!

Edward (Ali) Boileau    15 Allée Beau Rivage, Bergerac,