4 Gold, 2 Silver & 2 Bronze medals for Juniors

On Sunday 13th December Star Club juniors competed at the annual Harpur Trust Biathlon which this year was run by Bedford Modern School. 

Competed over various distances; dependant on age; included an ergo race followed by a run. 

Medals were achieved by the following in their respective age categories:

Girls Year 10 (J15) - Claire Hughes (Silver)

Boys Year 11 (J16) - Lloyd Mulkerrins (Gold)

Girls Year 12 (J17) - Ellie Grimley (Gold)

Boys Year 12 (J17) - Will Stockton (Gold), Richard Hepher (Bronze)

Girls Year 13 (J18) - Poppy Sherborne (Silver)

Boys Year 13 (J18) - Ross Mizen (Gold), Andy Walker (Bronze)

Star Juniors win 'Sports Team of the Year'

On the evening of Monday 14th December 09, Star Juniors were crowned 'Sports Team of the Year' for 2009 at the Bedford Sports Awards, held in the Corn Exchange, Bedford.

Congratulations to the Junior Squad and thier coaches for the great win in front of the biggest crowd ever assembled in the Corn Exchange; over 350.

The team nominated consisted of Eleanor Grimley, Charlotte Cook, Victoria Huckle, Lauren White, Ruby Ellam, Tom Durrant, Ross Mizen, Richard Hepher, Will Stockton, Matthew Tapley, Andrew Walker and Tom Beechinor.

Star Club Juniors team listed above, during the 2008-2009 rowing season between them either won or were medallists at: WJ 4x at Fours Head of the River (1st), Club Eights at Women's Eights Head of the River (1st), WJ4x (Gold) and MJ174x (Silver) at The National Junior Sculling Head, WJ2x (Gold) at the National Schools Regatta, WJ4x (Gold) WJ164x (Silver) J181x (Bronze) at The National Rowing Championships of Great Britain.

Juniors produce outstanding performances to end 2009

Saturday 28th November saw to Juniors travel down to Hampton Small Boats Head in force to compete at their final head race of 2009 and they were outstanding. Competing against an extremley strong field of top Juniors, this Junior event became more popular following the recent cancellation of the GB Junior Trials in Boston 2 weeks earlier. Each junior across the country went to Hampton to prove a point to the selectors and Star Juniors did just that. 

The event was held over 3000m in 2 Divisions with over 800 crews competing throughout the day. This is what made the results even more spectacular.

The club was represented by the J18, J17, J16 and WJ15 squads. 

The stand out performance of the day was Tom Durrant who yet again produced a quality time in his single scull despite being injured. Tom has competed at every long distance sculls event this season and has always finished in 2nd place, and this was no change at Hampton. In a field of 53 J18 scullers, Tom finished 2nd by 0.5 seconds behind Groom of Walton who representated Great Britain last season. Overall Tom finished the 3rd fastest sculler of the day and was presented with a Silver medal in the J18 class.

Tom Beechinor was the next quickest J18 sculler finishing in 20th place, closely followed by Andy Walker in 29th place out of 52.

The Men's Junior 18 Double Sculls category was Star's event with 3 doubles competing in a field of 25. Durrant was satisfied with one Silver and joined forces with Ross Mizen in Division 2 to finish the quickest Star double, achieving another Silver medal behind Runcorn by 5 seconds. Richard Hepher & Andy Walker were the 2nd fastest Star combination finishing in 4th place only 6 seconds behind Durrant & Mizen and then Kieran Elliott & Tom Beechinor came in 7th place by a further 2 seconds. All 3 double sculls finishing in the top 10 of 25 shows the strength in depth the club has.

A summary of all the results is below:

WJ15 4x+ -

Alanah Hamilton, Claire Hughes, Amy Stockton, Laura Haggerwood, coxed by Ceci Somervell - finished 6th out of 21 in 9:54.3

WJ15 2x -

Amy Stockton, Laura Haggerwood - finished 8th out of 25 in 10:18.3

Alanah Hamilton, Claire Hughes - finished 10th out of 25 in 10:23.6 

J18 2x -

Tom Durrant, Ross Mizen - finished 2nd out of 25 in 8:46.3 (5 seconds off winning) SILVER

Richard Hepher, Ady Walker - finished 4th out of 25 in 8:52.2

Kieran Elliott, Tom Beechinor - finished 7th out of 25 in 8:54.1

J17 2x -

Matt Tapley, Will Stockton - finished 8th out of 20 in 9:10.8

WJ18 2x -

Ellie Grimley, Polly Hetherington - finished 4th out of 15 in 9:37.8 (7 seconds off winning)

J18 1x -

Tom Durrant - finished 2nd out of 53 in 9:13.8 (0.5 seconds off winning) SILVER

Tom Beechinor - finished 20th out of 53 in 9:38.1

Andy Walker - finished 29th out of 53 in 9:43.5

J17 1x -

Richard Hepher - finished 5th out of 70 in 9:28.2 (8 seconds off winning)

Ross Mizen - finished 17th out of 70 in 9:43.0

Kieran Elliott - finished 35th out of 70 in 10:01.2

Will Stockton - finished 48th out of 70 in 10:12.1

Matt Tapley - finished 54th out of 70 in 10:20.7

J16 1x -

Lloyd Mulkerrins - finished 43rd out of 85 in 10:14.1

WJ18 1x -

Poppy Sherborne - finished 21st out of 29 in 10:56.9

WJ17 1x -

Ellie Grimley - finished 9th out of 32 in 10:22.5 

Well done to the Junior squad members who competed on this memorable day.  

Gold Star Quality for Dian at Indoors

On the same day of Star Small Boats Head, the National Indoor Rowing Championships took place at the NIA in Birmingham. 

Dian Macdonald-Smith was the sole Senior individual Star Club representative competing and she put in a tremendous performance to win a Gold medal, a full 18 seconds ahead of her nearest rival, competing in the 55-59 age category, achieving a time of 7:41.3 over 2000m and is now National Champion.

Well done Dian. 

Star Club had other representation in a number of Junior events, in the form of pupils partaking in the Project Oarsome scheme. To find out more information about Project Oarsome please click on the 'Project Oarsome' tab on the left hand main menu. 

Callum Beasley of Redbourne Upper School competed in the Mens Junior 18 Heavyweight category having only been rowing Indoors for 5 weeks and still only 16 years of age. Competing in one of the most competitive events and this being only his 2nd ever 2000m ergo, Callum finished in 17th place out of 41 starters, in a time of 6:47.6.

In the team events, Star Club Project Oarsome teams included:

Men's Junior 14 Team event competed over 3000m (4x750m)

Biddenham Upper School - 7th out of 16 only 7.5 seconds off winning a Bronze medal

St Thomas More Upper School - 12th out of 16

Women's Junior 14 Team event competed over 3000m (4x750m)

Biddenham Upper School - 9th out of 22

Men's Junior 16 Team event competed over 4000m (4x1000m)

St Thomas More Upper School - 10th 

All these pupils had only started to learn how to row on an Indoor Rowing Machine at the start of the Autumn Term 09. Well done to every one of you.