Leander Club

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.

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

History

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

Notable members include:

In fiction

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

Recent British champions

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

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

References

  1. Leander Club: History
  2. Sport, ancient and modern: Pastimes, A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 2: General pp. 283–292. Date accessed: 8 October 2008
  3. 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.
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