Agecroft Rowing Club is a rowing club based at

Salford Quays Salford Quays is an area of Salford, Greater Manchester, England, near the end of the Manchester Ship Canal. Previously the site of Manchester Docks, it became one of the first and largest urban regeneration projects in the United Kingdom foll ...

, Greater Manchester, England. It was formerly based close to the

Agecroft Hall Agecroft Hall is a Tudor architecture, Tudor manor house and estate located at 4305 Sulgrave Road on the James River (Virginia), James River in the Windsor Farms neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia, United States. The manor house was built in the ...

Pendleton Pendleton may refer to: Places ;United Kingdom *Pendleton, Lancashire, England *Pendleton, Greater Manchester, England ;United States *Pendleton, Indiana * Pendleton, Missouri *Pendleton, New York *Pendleton, Oregon *Pendleton, South Carolina *Pe ...

north. Its current location is its third within today's

City of Salford The City of Salford () is a metropolitan borough within Greater Manchester, England. The borough is named after its main settlement, Salford. The borough covers the towns of Eccles, Swinton, Walkden and Pendlebury, as well as the villages ...

on a site close to the city centre of

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

History

There has been rowing in

and

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

since 1823, with more than 15 clubs operating during the 1860s. Agecroft R.C. was formed by the gradual merging of these

River Irwell The River Irwell ( ) is a tributary of the River Mersey in north west England. It rises at Irwell Springs on Deerplay Moor, approximately north of Bacup and flows southwards for to meet the Mersey near Irlam. The Irwell marks the boundary be ...

-based clubs. Agecroft R.C. was established in Oct 1861 by Ishmael Lythgoe with its first boat house in the grounds of

Pendlebury Pendlebury is a town in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England. The population at the 2011 Census was 13,069. It lies north-west of Manchester city centre, north-west of Salford and south-east of Bolton. Historically in Lancash ...

before the

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

was sold and rebuilt by the

James River The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 to Chesapea ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. The club soon moved to the River Irwell further upstream at Littleton Road and were based there for over a hundred years. However, in early 2000s, the stretch of river had been allowed to return more to reeds to support fishing and the boathouse lay on part of a new flood plain so the club moved to a new boathouse close to Manchester City Centre at Salford Quays. This new home triggered a huge growth in club size and successes throughout the UK.

Current activities

The club regularly competes across the UK at all levels and has a broad membership base, from complete novices and juniors through to semi-professional athletes competing at international level. The club regularly hosts a small boats

head race A head race is a time-trial competition in the sport of rowing. Head races are typically held in the fall, winter and spring seasons. These events draw many athletes as well as observers. In this form of racing, rowers race against the clock wh ...

in the winter and supports a

British Rowing British Rowing, formerly the Amateur Rowing Association (ARA), is the national governing body for the sport of rowing (both indoor and on-water rowing). It is responsible for the training and selection of individual rowers and crews representin ...

world class start coach. The club hosts a wide variety of rowers of different abilities, ambitions and ages, with a large membership and a wide variety of members from juniors through students to masters. The club has achieved qualifications and wins at the

British Rowing Championships The British Rowing Championships usually take place every year. The event is held at the National Water Sports Centre, Holme Pierrepont (Nottingham) with occasional championships held at the Strathclyde Country Park. The championships original ...

, Nottingham and

Henley Royal Regatta Henley Royal Regatta (or Henley Regatta, its original name pre-dating Royal patronage) is a rowing event held annually on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, England. It was established on 26 March 1839. It differs from the thre ...

and a course record at

Henley Women's Regatta Henley Women's Regatta, often abbreviated to "HWR" or "Women's Henley", is a rowing regatta held at Henley-on-Thames, England. Chris Aistrop and Rosemary Mayglothling were jointly responsible for setting up the Regatta in June 1988 and Aistrop wa ...

in the Intermediate 4+ event.

International performances

The club has been successful in the World Class Start squad with wins in the World Under 23s coxless pairs and a Home Countries win for England in the single sculls by Olivia Whitlam who has since gone on to represent GB at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics and the three intervening World Championships. Other internationals since 2010 include Brendan Crean (4x 2010), Graeme Thomas (World Cup win Australia 2013), Zak Lee-Green (lwt 4x u23 bronze 2010), Oli Lee (GB U23 4x 2010), Rebecca Chin (GB U23 eight Bronze, 2012) and Olivia Oakes (GB U23 eight bronze 2012). Both Brendan (England) and Graeme (Wales) have also won National Championship gold medals in 1x and Home Countries Internationals.Graeme has gone on to represent GB at 3 successive Worlds, winning silver and Bronze. He missed the Rio Olympics due to ill health, but was named as part of the GB Rowing Team for Tokyo 2021 after winning a bronze medal in the 2021 European Championships held in Varese. Zak Lee Green is another successful Agecroft graduate and was part of the GB Lightweight team, having been to 5 World Championships winning a silver in LM4x.

Daniele Gilardoni Daniele Gilardoni (born 1 April 1976) is an Italian lightweight rower. He is rated among the Top 10 male rowers active in 2008 and is an eleven-time gold medalist at the World Rowing Championships. Biography After his sports career he became t ...

joined Agecroft in February 2013 where he rowed and coached.

Henley Royal Regatta

At HRR, under the coaching of Denis O'Neill, the club, in successive years lost a semi-final by one foot, then a Final, then a semifinal, after which Agecroft won for the first time The Britannia Challenge Cup in 2009. In other highest results: *Brendan Crean reached the semi-final of the 1x

Diamond Challenge Sculls The Diamond Challenge Sculls is a rowing event for men's single sculls at the annual Henley Royal Regatta on the River Thames at Henley-on-Thames in England. First run in 1844, it is open to male scullers from all eligible rowing clubs.

('the Diamonds'), 2010 *An Agecroft World Class Start 4x reached the semi-final

Prince of Wales Challenge Cup The Prince of Wales Challenge Cup is a rowing event for men's quadruple sculls at the annual Henley Royal Regatta on the River Thames at Henley-on-Thames in England. It is open to male crews from all eligible rowing clubs and has similar qualifyi ...

, 2011 setting a course record. *Graeme Thomas reached the final of the Diamonds, 2012, he won the Queen Mother Cup in 2014, 2015 and 2018. He won

Double Sculls Challenge Cup The Double Sculls Challenge Cup is a rowing event for men's double sculls at the annual Henley Royal Regatta on the River Thames at Henley-on-Thames in England. It is open to male crews from all eligible rowing clubs. Two clubs may combine to mak ...

in 2019 and the

in 2021.

Henley Women's Regatta

Recent successes include the following wins *2010 Sen 1x in a course record *2011 Elite 8+ (composite) *2012 Elite 8+ (composite) *2013 Elite 4- (composite) *2014 Elite 8+ and Elite LW4x (both composite) *2016 Senior 4x *2018 Development 4+ and Junior 1x *2021 Development 4+

Junior rowing

The junior section of Agecroft was restarted in earnest in the 2000s with dedicated junior club officers and has over 60 members racing locally and at British Junior Rowing Championships (see below)

Masters rowing

The Masters squad was reformed in 2006/7 after the considerable success of the Agecroft Veteran squad in the 90's. From a starting point of just two members, the masters squad has circa 20 members with strong performances in the 35-50 age groups (B and C racing categories) at local, regional and national events. The squad has recorded the following wins at the British Masters Rowing Championships *B4- in 2015, 2016 and 2017, *C8+ in 2019 *C4- in 2021. At Henley Masters Regatta there have been wins in *B4- in 2017, *B8+ in 2018 whilst they were finalists in B8+ 2019 and C4- 2021

Honours

British champions

Henley Royal Regatta

Notable members

Notable members include: * Rebecca Chin *

Zak Lee-Green Zak Lee-Green (born 5 February 1991) is a retired Welsh and British rower. Rowing career Lee-Green from Cardiff, was initially selected for the Welsh squad before winning a bronze medal for Great Britain at the 2010 World Rowing U23 Championship ...

Graeme Thomas Graeme Edward Thomas (born 8 November 1988) is a British rower. Rowing career Thomas competed at the 2013 World Rowing Championships in Chungju, where he won a bronze medal as part of the quad sculls with Sam Townsend, Charles Cousins and Pe ...

Olivia Whitlam Olivia Rose Whitlam (born 16 September 1985) is a female rower from Daresbury, near Warrington, England. She became the Under-23 World Champion in 2007 in the pairs with partner Heather Stanning. She competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics with new ...

Gallery

Image:Senior_men_henley.jpg, Senior Men at Henley Image:Agecroft_whenley.jpg, Women's Henley 8+

Notes and references

;Notes ;References

External links

Agecroft Rowing Club

Agecroft Rowing Club archive
at

John Rylands Library The John Rylands Research Institute and Library is a late-Victorian neo-Gothic building on Deansgate in Manchester, England. It is part of the University of Manchester. The library, which opened to the public in 1900, was founded by Enriquet ...

, Manchester. {{United Kingdom rowing clubs Rowing clubs in England Sports clubs established in 1861 Sport in the City of Salford 1861 establishments in England