Stratford Rowing Club’s juniors show their quality at Henley

Stratford Rowing Club’s junior squad produced a string of brilliant performances at the 2025 Henley Long Distance Sculls on Saturday.

With autumn sunshine and a stiff headwind developing through the morning, competitors faced a measure of their training so far against a deep field drawn from clubs across the country.

Just two crews represented Stratford’s J17/J18 squad, with the women's J18 double scull of Becca Smith and Lily Warren posting a creditable 11th place in a busy field.

The mixed coxless quadruple scull of Sophie Franklin, Ollie Rowlands, Theo Richter and Becca Smith stepped up to row in the senior event and showed the way to their competition on Henley Reach with an emphatic win.

Stratford’s J15 squad fielded four crews with three boats racing in the morning division.

The girls’ doubles of Meredith Paul and Martina Bruce-Bonilla and Lillian Parsons and Scarlett Wheeler finished ninth and tenth in a strong field.

Later in the morning, in the boys’ singles, Reuben Stanford stuck well to his task to finish in ninth place.

In slightly lighter winds in the afternoon, the boys’ double of Reuben Stanford and Tristan Hammick claimed fifth sport.

J15 coach, Dave Parkin, said: “The crews should be proud of their efforts and they will have taken much learning from their day on the Thames.”

The club’s youngest members, the J14s, revelled in their first chance to row Henley’s world famous stretch of the River Thames.

The J14 girls’ quad of Islay Milles, Eva Cruise, Amelia Cruickshank, Charlotte Franklin and Mary Heenan (cox) performed strongly in their category, finishing comfortably within a tightly packed peloton of four crews chasing the remaining podium places after a blistering time was laid down by the home favourites.

A special mention must be made of Cruickshank, who was competing in her first event, having only taken up the sport last month.

Division Two saw the boys’ quad deliver what they have long been threatening to do for some time.

Ethan Siwakowski, Chris Durance, Arthur Burt and Archie Eaton, driven mercilessly forwards by Charlotte Franklin (cox), brushed aside competition from some much larger clubs to rightfully earn a podium place, finishing third out of eight crews in a commendable time.

J14 coach Jon Francis said: “Considering that this was a much longer course than they have previously encountered and in conditions far more challenging than any they have ever endured, this was immensely rewarding to see them perform so well.”