Monmouth School and Shrewsbury School have put aside their rivalries and pulled together to achieve outstanding rowing success.  The two schools teamed up to produce one of the sport’s best young crews.

“Although we regularly compete against each other in a range of sports - and are fiercely competitive when we come face to face in many rowing events - the boys have proved that collaboration can also triumph,” said Phil Lapage, rowing coach at Shrewsbury.

He explained that eight boys from each of the schools – Mark, Hugo, Sam, Steve, Joshua, Tom, James, Alistair, Hollie and Oliver from Monmouth, and Fiennes, Ben, Richard, Rupert, Sam, James, Tom, and Welsh team captain Fred from Shrewsbury, made up a joint crew to row for Wales in the Home Countries International Regatta in Cork recently.

“They rowed with distinction against England, Ireland and Scotland, coming away with four gold medals and two second places, putting the Welsh team onto the winners’ score sheet for the first time since the regatta started in 1962 - brilliant achievement,” Phil said.

Wales selector Robin Fletcher commented: "I am delighted with the result. What started as quite serious rivalry between them turned into a close knit and effective team. It was a very exciting weekend." 

The first example of teamwork between the two establishments came earlier this summer when the crews worked together to get boats to Strathclyde for the GB Rowing National Championships Regatta.

The two schools travelled up together and then rowed against each other in various races.  In one grueling final, Shrewsbury made it to the finish just four seconds ahead of Monmouth, who had led the way for the first half of the race. 

In another final, the Shrewsbury crew ‘borrowed’ Monmouth’s cox Hollie, who helped them romp through to victory a full 13 seconds ahead of the opposition.

Phil Lapage concluded: “Most pupils are happy to walk away from their school at the end of the summer term and not have anything more to do with them for a couple of months but the boys from both Monmouth and Shrewsbury have chosen to continue to compete at a national level and are putting in a huge amount of effort, which is being rewarded.”