About Pembroke College Boat Club

About The Club

Pembroke College Boat Club is the rowing club for students of Pembroke College, Oxford. By all measures the club is one of the most successful in Oxford; our driven and exciting development programme for novices produces adept oarsmen and women and feed into the consistently successful senior squads. Both men and women's senior squads compete in the top flight of college rowing, and are frequently seen racing outside of Oxford. As a measure of this success on reaching highly competitive standards Pembroke boasts some of the highest number of University squad rowers, both homegrown and those drawn in by the club's success.

Our Ethos

The club has prided itself on an unparalleled level of college participation and the development of new talent. In recent years we have we have consistently fielded the highest number of novice boats in Oxford and it is not unheard of that a talented novice be developed to 1st VIII standard within a year. We have a well-equipped set-up combined with good equipment, strong college support and permanent coaching and boathouse staff. Its not all hard work though as the club also takes pride in its social events: our termly rowing dinners, the Oxford Pimms Party, Boat Club bops and huge Summer Eights party show that Pembroke also knows how to have fun.

Pembroke’s Results

In the past decade Pembroke Boat Club has developed a tradition of success, achieving a number of notable firsts in Oxford rowing. In 2003 Pembroke set a new benchmark as the first college to hold both the Men’s and Women’s Eights Headship titles simultaneously - a historic achievement that won the club national acclaim. This built on a succession of previous achievements: In 2000 we became the first mixed undergraduate college to achieve the Women’s Eights Headship and successfully defended it for a further 3 years, and in 2001 we were the first college to have representatives in all seven University boats.

Double Headship has yet to be repeated by any college in the Summer Eights competition, although the competitive years since 2003 has seen both men's and women's boats remain within striking distance of the Head of the River. Consistent ambition to go Head has been the goal: the Men's First Summer Eight (M1) has remained within the top 5 since 1992 and from 1992-2007 within the top 3. 2010 is no exception: M1 torpid is 2nd on the river, M1 eight is also 2nd.

Externally, over the last 5 years, we have won events at Wallingford, Bedford, Oxford City and were one of the fastest qualifying crews for the 2006 Henley Royal Regatta Temple Cup, the fastest college crew in the 4s Head of the River race in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and in the top five colleges for the last 3 years at the Cambridge Head Race, the Fairbairns Cup; in 2009 we won Fastest Men's Invitational Senior VIII.

University Rowing

Pembroke has, over the last fifteen years, had some of the highest numbers of people rowing or coxing for men's and women's University crews than any other college in Oxford. We have the highest number of Coxes, Men's rowers, Lightweight Blues (Men and Women), Women's Blues, and coxes of any college.

* Last year in 2009, Pembroke had representatives in every squad: In Isis one of two returning rowers from the 2008 boat in Justin Stangel, and newcomer David Hopper won against Goldie for the second year running to give Oxford University a clean sweep on Boat Race day (Isis beat the Cambridge Goldie boat by 4 lengths in a time of 17 minutes 24 seconds). In the OULRC blue boat Pembroke was represented by Jonny Coppel and in Osiris, Gbemisola Coker.

Through the support of the Friends we offer financial assistance to those in the university squads.

Facilities

You will not find better training facilities at any other oxford club. We have a fully equipped gym with both free weights and static weights and 10 Concept II Model indoor rowing machines (with mirror/slider set-up), all for use by anyone in the club.

The men's side of the club has three Empacher VIIIs (2008 ,2003, 1994), two Janouseks (2000, 1990) and a Sims. The top women had a Stampfli VIII (2005) which was written off at the Women's Eights Head of the River Race 2007 after being crashed into Putney Bridge. This has now been replaced and was used by the Women's 1st VIII to gain blades from the bottom of Division I in Torpids 2008. They also have an Eton Phoenix (1996), a Janousek and an Aylings. In small boats the club maintains a fleet of one Empacher coxless four (2008), three Janousek coxed-fours, a Janousek coxless-pair and a single scull. In addition there are two Eton coaching launches for the men's and women's 1st VIIIs. In general the top boats are replaced every 4 years, with purchases alternating between men and women every 2 years. Blades are typically replaced each year.

Coaching

Coaching at Pembroke is of the highest standard. Pembroke benefits not only from good equipment but also good coaching. Recent coaches have included Ben Lewis, GB athlete and Leander coach; Wallingford RC and Leander high-performance GB coach Rob Dauncey and GB lightweights Chris Bartley and Simon Jones. The Men's 1st VIII is currently coached by John Gearing (former-South African international and Master in Charge of Rowing at Radley College). The college has also recently created one of the only permanent college coaching staff positions in Oxford to further increase the quality of our training system.