Leander Club

Coordinates: 51°32′17″N 0°53′57″W / 51.53806°N 0.89917°W / 51.53806; -0.89917 (Leander Club)
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Leander Club
Image showing the rowing club's emblem
MottoCorpus Leandri spes mea
LocationRemenham, Berkshire, England
Coordinates51°32′17″N 0°53′57″W / 51.53806°N 0.89917°W / 51.53806; -0.89917 (Leander Club)
Home waterHenley Reach, River Thames
Founded1818; 206 years ago (1818)
AffiliationsBritish Rowing
boat code - LDR
Websitewww.leander.co.uk
Notable members
See below

Leander Club, founded in 1818,[1] is one of the oldest rowing clubs in the world, and the oldest non-academic club. It is based in Remenham in Berkshire, England and adjoins Henley-on-Thames. Only three other surviving clubs were founded prior to Leander: Brasenose College Boat Club and Jesus College Boat Club (the two competing in a Head race in 1815) and Westminster School Boat Club, founded in 1813.

History[edit]

The winning Leander boat from the 1912 Summer Olympics

Leander was founded on the Tideway in 1818 or 1819 by members of the old "Star" and "Arrow" Clubs and membership was at first limited to sixteen.[2] "The Star" and "the Arrow" clubs died out sometime in the 1820s and Leander itself was in full swing by 1825. By 1830 it was looked upon as a well-known and established boat club.[3]

In its early days, Leander was as much a social association as a competitive club and it was steered by a waterman. It was the first club to support young watermen and instituted a coat and badge for scullers.

In 1831, Leander defeated Oxford University in a race rowed from Hambleden Lock to Henley Bridge, but when it lost the match with Cambridge six years later, Lord Esher noted at a dinner that Leander was:

A London Club consisting of men who had never been at the University but ... were recognised throughout England, and perhaps everywhere in the world, as the finest rowers who had up to that time been seen.

However, Lord Esher also noted that they were "verging on being middle-aged men."[2] Until 1856, the number of members was limited to twenty-five men. After this date membership was increased to thirty-five and the limit finally abolished in 1862.[3] In 1858 Leander began to recruit members from both Oxford University and Cambridge University.

Its first home is assumed to have been Searle's yard, Stangate – on the south bank of the River Thames (on land currently occupied by St Thomas's Hospital).[4] In 1860 the membership moved the club to Putney where a small piece of land was rented on which a tent was erected for housing boats. This land was bought by London Rowing Club in 1864 and is the site of LRC's current clubhouse. Leander was able to lease a piece of land adjoining and in 1866 started to construct a boathouse. Thirty years later, in 1897, the club purchased land in Henley-on-Thames and built its current clubhouse. The club's centre of gravity moved rapidly to Henley, although the Putney boathouse was retained until 1961.

Leander entered a crew at Henley Royal Regatta for the first time in 1840, the year following the regatta's foundation. Their crew which won the Grand Challenge Cup included Thomas Lowther Jenkins in the 5 seat. Jenkins' winner's medal was discovered in a Belfast junk shop more than 130 years later by a member who donated it to the club, where it sits in one of the trophy cabinets.

For the first 179 years of its existence, Leander was a male-only club but has accepted women members since 1998. On 1 January 2013 Debbie Flood was elected as the club's first female captain, and was re-elected the following year.

Leander was one of five clubs which retained the right until 2012 to appoint representatives to the Council of British Rowing. The others were London Rowing Club, Thames Rowing Club, Oxford University Boat Club and Cambridge University Boat Club.[5]

Leander members contributed 23 of the 45 British rowers selected for the 2020 Summer Olympics.[6]

Notable members[edit]

Notable members include:

In fiction[edit]

In Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited, the character Cousin Jasper (who "had come within appreciable distance of getting his rowing blue") wears a Leander Club tie when he first calls upon the protagonist Charles Ryder to offer advice on being a student at Oxford.[7]:24,25 In the 1981 television adaptation, Cousin Jasper (played by Stephen Moore) is depicted wearing the Leander's "city" tie (dark blue with small pink hippopotamus motifs).[8] In the novel Growing Up by Angela Thirkell, the Rev. Tommy Needham "thought how well his college and Leander oars, never to be used again, would look upon the wall...."[9] The Leander Club figures heavily in Deborah Crombie's detective novel, No Mark Upon Her.


Honours[edit]

Recent British champions[edit]

Year Winning crew/s
2013 Victor Ludorum, Open 2x, Open4x, Open 4-, Open 8+, Women 2x, Women 4-, Women 8+[10]
2014 Victor Ludorum, Open 2x, Open 8+, Women 8+[11]
2015 Victor Ludorum, Open 2x, Open 4-, Open 4x, Women 4x, Women 4-[12]
2016 Victor Ludorum, Open 2x, Open 4x, Open 8+, Women 4x, Women 8+[13]
2018 Open 4x, Women 4x, Women 8+[14]

Key

  • J (junior), 2, 4, 8 (crew size), 18, 16, 15, 14 (age group), x (sculls), - (coxless), + (coxed)

Henley Royal Regatta[edit]

Year Races won
1840 Grand Challenge Cup
1845 Diamond Challenge Sculls
1849 Stewards' Challenge Cup
1875 Grand Challenge Cup
1880 Grand Challenge Cup
1891 Grand Challenge Cup, Silver Goblets
1892 Grand Challenge Cup
1893 Grand Challenge Cup
1894 Grand Challenge Cup
1895 Diamond Challenge Sculls
1896 Grand Challenge Cup, Diamond Challenge Sculls
1897 Stewards' Challenge Cup, Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup
1898 Grand Challenge Cup, Stewards' Challenge Cup
1899 Grand Challenge Cup, Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup
1900 Grand Challenge Cup, Stewards' Challenge Cup
1901 Grand Challenge Cup
1903 Grand Challenge Cup, Diamond Challenge Sculls
1904 Grand Challenge Cup
1905 Grand Challenge Cup, Stewards' Challenge Cup, Diamond Challenge Sculls
1906 Stewards' Challenge Cup
1907 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup
1908 Diamond Challenge Sculls
1909 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup
1910 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup
1913 Grand Challenge Cup
1914 Stewards' Challenge Cup
1922 Grand Challenge Cup
1924 Grand Challenge Cup
1925 Grand Challenge Cup
1926 Grand Challenge Cup
1929 Grand Challenge Cup
1932 Grand Challenge Cup
1934 Grand Challenge Cup
1937 Stewards' Challenge Cup
1938 Stewards' Challenge Cup, Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup
1946 Grand Challenge Cup, Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup
1948 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup
1949 Grand Challenge Cup
1950 Diamond Challenge Sculls
1951 Double Sculls Challenge Cup
1952 Grand Challenge Cup
1953 Grand Challenge Cup, Stewards' Challenge Cup
1957 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup
1958 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup
1959 Double Sculls Challenge Cup
1960 Diamond Challenge Sculls
1962 Double Sculls Challenge Cup, Diamond Challenge Sculls
1963 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup
1964 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup, Double Sculls Challenge Cup
1965 Prince Philip Challenge Cup
1968 Thames Challenge Cup
1969 Thames Challenge Cup
1970 Thames Challenge Cup
1972 Double Sculls Challenge Cup, Wyfold Challenge Cup
1973 Double Sculls Challenge Cup+
1975 Grand Challenge Cup+, Double Sculls Challenge Cup, Britannia Challenge Cup
1977 Double Sculls Challenge Cup, Diamond Challenge Sculls
1978 Double Sculls Challenge Cup, Diamond Challenge Sculls
1979 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup, Double Sculls Challenge Cup+, Thames Challenge Cup
1980 Britannia Challenge Cup
1981 Diamond Challenge Sculls
1982 Grand Challenge Cup+, Diamond Challenge Sculls
1983 Double Sculls Challenge Cup+
1984 Grand Challenge Cup+, Diamond Challenge Sculls
1985 Ladies' Challenge Plate
1986 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup
1987 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup
1988 Grand Challenge Cup+, Stewards' Challenge Cup
1989 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup, Wyfold Challenge Cup, Britannia Challenge Cup
1990 Stewards' Challenge Cup+
1991 Grand Challenge Cup+, Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup, Queen Mother Challenge Cup+, Ladies' Challenge Plate+, Prince Philip Challenge Cup+
1992 Diamond Challenge Sculls, Prince Philip Challenge Cup
1993 Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup, Prince Philip Challenge Cup+
1994 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup
1995 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup, Prince Philip Challenge Cup
1997 Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup, Prince Philip Challenge Cup+
1998 Stewards' Challenge Cup
1999 Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Fawley Challenge Cup
2000 Stewards' Challenge Cup, Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup, Fawley Challenge Cup, Prince Philip Challenge Cup+
2001 Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup, Queen Mother Challenge Cup, Prince Philip Challenge Cup+
2002 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup, Queen Mother Challenge Cup+, Thames Challenge Cup, Fawley Challenge Cup
2003 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup, Prince Philip Challenge Cup
2004 Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Ladies' Challenge Plate, Princess Grace Challenge Cup,
2005 Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Double Sculls Challenge Cup+ Britannia Challenge Cup
2006 Double Sculls Challenge Cup+, Visitors' Challenge Cup+
2007 Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Visitors' Challenge Cup, Thames Challenge Cup
2008 Diamond Challenge Sculls, Ladies' Challenge Plate, Thames Challenge Cup, Remenham Challenge Cup
2009 Grand Challenge Cup+, Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Remenham Challenge Cup, Princess Grace Challenge Cup
2010 Queen Mother Challenge Cup, Visitors' Challenge Cup+, Prince of Wales Challenge Cup, Princess Grace Challenge Cup
2011 Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Double Sculls Challenge Cup, Queen Mother Challenge Cup+, Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup+, Visitors' Challenge Cup+, Prince of Wales Challenge Cup
2012 Double Sculls Challenge Cup, Prince of Wales Challenge Cup
2013 Grand Challenge Cup+, Queen Mother Challenge Cup+, Ladies' Challenge Plate+, Prince of Wales Challenge Cup, Remenham Challenge Cup, Princess Grace Challenge Cup
2014 Grand Challenge Cup+, Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Queen Mother Challenge Cup+, Prince of Wales Challenge Cup, Remenham Challenge Cup, Princess Grace Challenge Cup
2015 Grand Challenge Cup+, Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Double Sculls Challenge Cup, Queen Mother Challenge Cup+, Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup+, Prince of Wales Challenge Cup
2016 Double Sculls Challenge Cup, Queen Mother Challenge Cup, Ladies' Challenge Plate, Princess Grace Challenge Cup+
2017 Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Queen Mother Challenge Cup, Visitors' Challenge Cup, Prince of Wales Challenge Cup
2018 Stewards' Challenge Cup, Double Sculls Challenge Cup, Queen Mother Challenge Cup+, Visitors' Challenge Cup, Town Challenge Cup+
2019 Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Double Sculls Challenge Cup+, Queen Mother Challenge Cup, Visitors' Challenge Cup+, Fawley Challenge Cup
2021 Queen Mother Challenge Cup, Prince of Wales Challenge Cup, Remenham Challenge Cup, Wargrave Challenge Cup, Town Challenge Cup, Hambleden Pairs Challenge Cup, Princess Grace Challenge Cup, Princess Royal Challenge Cup

+ composite

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Leander Club: History
  2. ^ a b Sport, ancient and modern: Pastimes, A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 2: General pp. 283–292. Date accessed: 8 October 2008
  3. ^ a b Woodgate, W.B. (1891). The Badmington library - "Boating". Spottiswoode & co.
  4. ^ Burnell, Richard; Page, Geoffrey (1997). The Brilliants - A History of the Leander Club. Leander Club. ISBN 0-9500061-1-4.
  5. ^ "Corporate Governance Structure". British Rowing. Archived from the original on 20 January 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
  6. ^ "British Olympic Association selects Olympic rowing team for Tokyo 2020". British Rowing. 9 June 2021. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  7. ^ Waugh Evelyn (1945). Brideshead Revisited.
  8. ^ "An Act of Waugh". Hear The Boat Sing. 22 March 2013. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  9. ^ Thirkell, "Growing Up," at p. 253 (Chapter 11) (Wakefield, RI: Moyer Bell, 1996).
  10. ^ "Leander Club dominant at British Rowing Championships". British Rowing. 20 October 2013.
  11. ^ "2014 British Rowing Championships Race Centre". British Rowing. 17 October 2014.
  12. ^ "2015 British Rowing Senior Championships" (PDF). British Rowing.
  13. ^ "2016 British Rowing Senior Championships" (PDF). British Rowing.
  14. ^ "2018 British Rowing Senior Championships results" (PDF). British Rowing.

External links[edit]