W
L
GROSVENOR ROWING CLUB, CHESTER
CELEBRATES ITS 150TH YEAR
Wirral Life catch up with Grosvenor
Rowing Club in their anniversary year.
The Grosvenor Rowing Club anniversary celebrations kicked
off when Lucy Ball became the winner of The Bernard Churcher
Trophy at the pinnacle women’s rowing event ‘Henley Women’s
Regatta’.
Grosvenor was the only North West club to medal at this event. The
presentation of her trophy was given by former international rower
Miriam Luke and Olympic gold medalist Kat Copeland. Lucy then
proceeded to make Grosvenor history as the first female sculler to
qualify for the prestigious Henley Royal Regatta in the Princess
Royal Challenge Cup event.
Henley Royal Regatta is one of the highlights in the summer’s
sporting calendar and attracts over 100,000 spectators for the five
day event. Grosvenor Rowing Club was also honoured to be granted
a row-past by Sir Steve Redgrave on the Saturday lunchtime of
Henley Royal Regatta. The club’s eight ‘Grosvenor 1869 - celebrating
150 years’ was used to row the world famous 2112m course. The
row-past was umpired by Olympic Silver medallist Guin Batten,
who allowed the Grosvenor crew to complete a racing start before
rowing the rest of the course in a processional format, followed by
the 1979 winners of the Grand Challenge Cup, 1979 winners of the
Thames Challenge Cup and Monmouth School Rowing Club, who
also celebrated their 150th Anniversary.
The club continued the celebrations at Henley Cricket Club club,
where members and friends drank prosecco and enjoyed their
quintessentially British picnics on the lawn! Grosvenor’s 150th
Anniversary is shared with several international rowing clubs and
Jim Freis, a representative of two of these, Potomac Rowing Club,
USA and Frankfurt Rudergesellschaft Germania 1869 e.V. joined
Grosvenor to offer an exchange of rowing kit from other 1869
clubs. Past and present members raised a glass to the past 150 years
and to the new found international friendships.
68 wirrallife.com
The club is extremely proud of its humble beginnings, it was created
for the 'clerks and assistants of the city' at a time when rowing was
considered to be for the upper social classes. The club has long
stayed true to it's club motto 'virtus non stemma' (translated into
virtue, not pedigree or less formally, courage, not pomp). The club
continues with this open membership philosophy and now has
junior, senior, masters and adaptive rowing. For 150 years, the club
has thrived under the leadership of outstanding volunteers and the
Henley row-past boat contained just a selection of past and present
high achievers both on and off the water. The Henley Rowing team
included:
• The boat was coxed by Sarah Armstrong, a Grosvenor
member for 25 years, she coxed the first ever Welsh eight to
victory at the Home International Regatta and has been a part
of the most successful men’s crews in Grosvenor’s history at
both Henley Royal Regatta and Head of the River.
• Helen Mangan stroked the boat; she was the first Grosvenor
athlete to win an open national championship medal and was
the first Grosvenor athlete to be selected for Great Britain in
1988.
• Juliet Machan was also part of the Great Britain squad and
won the open world championships in 1998, she Captained
Grosvenor for two years and was awarded Life membership
in 1999.
• Jeremy Lush has been a member for over 30 years. He was
captain in 2005 and has rowed as a junior, senior and now a
successful master’s rower for the club. The Lush family have
played a significant role in the clubs history with father David
Lush holding various committee positions including the role
of Trustee for a number of years.