News

Posted: 08 October 2025

Written by Andy Dobson.

For many of us, the season culminates in a small town in Oxfordshire – in one regatta or another – but the sense of an ending here is deceptive. Henley has the history and the Pimms – not to mention a few hundred hectares of blazer-cloth, and more hats than a millinery catalogue – yet in terms of participation, it’s a rather trifling backwater. Rumbling into view at the start of each September is the largest regatta by far: World Masters. The numbers speak for themselves; this year, almost 4,000 athletes aged from 26 to 96 converged on the little town of Banyoles, Spain, forming 5,171 crews to contest 763 races over five days.

Image provided by Laura Graham. Branded World Rowing feather flag overlooking racecourse.

Given these figures, it is perhaps surprising that Masters rowers sometimes seem to play second fiddle to younger practitioners across all competitions. Not only is this relative lack of publicity a poor reflection of the composition of the sport in the UK and elsewhere, but it is also a wasted opportunity to highlight one of rowing’s more remarkable features: the fabulous potential for longevity as an athlete. How many active team sports can be meaningfully pursued for more than half a century? Rather few, I suspect. Moreover, a novice may take up rowing far into middle age (and beyond) and still reasonably expect to go faster every year. Athleticism declines, of course, but the skills of power transfer, momentum conservation, and ‘boat feel’ are acquired gradually, allowing improvement for quite some time after the first flowering of youth has wilted, so to speak.

Accordingly, among the regular stalwarts of the Scottish Masters scene present in Banyoles were a strong showing of debutantes who frequently surprised themselves with performances that might have seemed beyond them in the early days of hacking up and down the Union Canal, the River Dee, or the iron-grey fastness of Strathclyde Park’s top 1km. Indeed, the 2025 World Masters regatta was a particularly noteworthy one for Scotland. Making the journey south were nearly 100 rowers, of which an almighty 52 came from Aberdeen Boat Club alone. The ABC contingent was the largest of any from the UK, and they ended the regatta as the 3rd-ranking club in the women’s competition, and 6th overall – out of 745!

Image: World Rowing. Aberdeen BC celebrating 3rd place in Women's Team Trophy.

Banyoles is famous in rowing circles as the scene of the Searle brothers’ heroic last-gasp victory over the Italians in the (mercifully defunct) coxed pairs event at the 1992 Olympic Games. The course is still gloriously scenic, the improbably clear water fringed with ornate fishing huts and the reflected slopes of hills to the south and west. What is less obvious from the television footage is the rather abrupt transition from water to solid ground just beyond the finish line; throughout the regatta, the air thereabouts resounded not with the gentle calls of ‘Easy oar’, but with frantically yelled ‘Stop!’ ‘Hold it up, hold it up!’ and assorted linguistic variants thereof, as bow-balls disappeared into reeds amid a flurry of squared blades.

Despite such hazards – and in weather that cycled between implausible heat and skull-denting rain – rowers from the eight Scottish clubs in attendance notched up a string of impressive performances, often forming composite crews to take on whatever the rest of the world could offer. First mentions must go to Ailie Ord and Gillian Connal from Strathclyde Park, who not only co-drove a trailer of boats (with yours truly) from Glasgow to Girona, but also won a hatful of medals each across all boat classes. The abundance of their victories in such competitions can sometimes be overlooked, such has been this duo’s consistent quality over the years, but these are hard-won successes, and we must celebrate the fact that we have two of the finest Masters’ rowers in the world here in Scotland.

Image provided by Laura Graham. W E 4- with their medals featuring athletes from Strathclyde Park RC & Aberdeen BC.

Elsewhere, the ABC rowers backed up quantity with quality, taking gold in the WA4+, WC4+, WE4-, and in the mixed H-M8+. St Andrew Boat Club had a record-breaking year led by Tom Duke with three golds, and Jan Swedlow and Neil Paul with a brace each. Skilfully marshalled by cox Jo Collings, Robert Young and Simon Lloyd took their first WM golds with great

aplomb and several side-orders of Prosecco, whilst Martha Walsh raced just once between bouts of back pain, but made it count by winning the WC2- in almost processional style with Gillian Connal. Meanwhile, Graeme Duff, Natalie Firth, Christine Graveling, and Gregor Hall (the fastest single sculler of the whole regatta) filled Stirling’s silverware cabinet with five medals between them, and the Loch Lomond/Clydesdale composite of Jacqueline Irons and Eva Rankin demonstrated that they weren’t content with winning the WG2x by also dropping down an age category and winning the WF2x, too, for good measure.

Overall, nineteen gold medals were claimed by Scottish or part-Scottish crews, in what is surely one of our small nation’s finest showings in international Masters’ rowing. Bled next year; the bar is set high.

Image provided by Laura Graham. M C 8+ featuring athletes from Stirling RC & St Andrew BC with their medals, holding a Scotland flag.