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Rowing at GMS

Rowing is a sport of choice at GMS. Our excellent sports centre is named after Sir Steve Redgrave, who was a former student of the school.

GMS has an outstanding history in rowing. The excellent sports centre is named after Sir Steve Redgrave, a former student of the school. The illustrious history of the club, created by alumni Sir Steve Redgrave, Steve Turner and Mark Buckingham, all of whom represented GB at the Seoul Olympics, has been enhanced by numerous students being selected for international competition and GB trials over more recent times. 

Rowing is a sport of choice at GMS. Once students become involved they are ‘hooked’ by the sport and by the camaraderie of  the sport. Students bond with their crew ‘mates’ because of, rather than in spite of, the early mornings and hard training, whether on the ‘ergo’ indoor, sessions or on the river.

Great Marlow School Boat Club was formed in May of 2008, and began with a negotiated use of facilities at Marlow Rowing Club (MRC). Yet, within 12 months, the club had become so popular that it moved from MRC and went to Longridge.


GMS purchased its own fleet of boats, coaching launches and boat trailers. External coaches were recruited to train the rowers.

Over the following years, Great Marlow built a reputation as a serious rowing school, competing with the top schools and clubs in the country.
Annually, the club attends rowing events across the country and rarely leaves without a win. Frequently, GMS’s top senior rowers attend GB trials: since 2012 there have been students at trials every year.

Our GMS rowers have competed in international competitions for GB and England in the following categories: Coxless Four, Eight, Pair, and Quad. The names of our talented ‘Honoured’ international rowers are: Oli Pearce, Ollie Emmett-Bird, Jamie-Jack Westfold, Josh McKenzie, Hugo Loretto, Henry Gavin, Sal Dunn, Tome Wiles, Rafael Quinn, Noah Grottrup, Graham Lyons, Sam Haynes, Ross Honey, Ed Nunn, Ellie and Bethany Osborn, Emma Boddy, Emily Paul, Dan Magnusson and Leanna Beswick.


All our rowers are celebrated in GMS. GMSBC regularly competes and has success at all the top regattas in the UK, winning medals at the Junior Sculling Head, The Schools Head, The Junior Inter-Regional Regatta, National Schools Regatta and British Rowing Championships. We dominate our local Marlow Town Regatta and have a number of crews racing at Henley Royal Regatta regularly.

Open Past Rowing Events
( Then, scroll down to the rowing)

Yes, GMS encourages the Year 7s to row. The Year 7s can join the indoor sessions in the winter term; timetables of the sessions are available. Learn to Row events are organised in the second half of the summer term.

Learn to Row sessions are also available during the summer holidays.

All varieties of rowing boats including:

Single Scull, Double Scull, Coxless Quad, Coxed Quad, Octuple, Coxless Pair, Coxless Four, Coxed Four, Eights

There are two main types of events in rowing.

  • Heads are time trials over a distance of approximately 3 – 7 kilometres, depending on the event, which happen during the autumn and winter months.
  • Regattas are shorter (500m to 2000m), mostly side-by-side races which happen during the spring and summer months.

GMSBC competes at most major Junior events in the Thames Valley region.

There is a formal training schedule that specifies when and which rowers train on the ergs. Training takes place before school 7:00 to 8:00 and in the winter months, after school.

For indoor rowing, students can wear their own trainers, leggings/ shorts and T-shirt.

On the river, students wear the branded GMS kit.

There is a vibrant GMSBC following, with parents and carers being actively involved. Please contact rowing@gms.bucks.sch.uk for further details of the rowing support group.

GMSBC have a dedicated site on the River Thames, just down the tow path from Gossmore Park.