Maidenhead Rowing Club proudly remembers 40th anniversary of Henley Royal Regatta win

Maidenhead Rowing Club proudly remembered the 40th anniversary of their historic win by five athletes in the 1985 Britannia Challenge Cup for coxed fours at the Henley Royal Regatta.

The crew consisted of Zoe Barker (cox), Jim Lawther (stroke), Eric Sims (3 seat), Chris Shawcross (2 seat) and Michael Harlow (bow), having been coached by the late Derek Cook.

Coach Derek Cook, who sadly passed away in 2020, started rowing at MRC in 1947.

He later held the office of club president as well as coach.

Zoe Barker joined the Britannia crew at only 11 years old, despite her young age she became a crucial part of the team as Cox.

Zoe was just 12 when the team won at HRR and remains the youngest ever to win a Henley medal.

Michael Harlow (bow) represented GB in the 1974 world junior championships at Ratzeburg in the double scull and in the 1975 Junior rowing team at Montreal in the quadruple scull.

Michael was MRC’s first ever national champion in 1973 and was MRC club captain in 1986.

Chris Shawcross (2 seat) joined MRC when he was 15 and represented GB at the 1973 and 1974 world junior rowing championships and holds a two HRR medals, winning the Visitors Challenge Cup in 1978, representing Durham BC.

Eric Sims (3 seat) represented GB over a 9-year period, competing in multiple world championships.

His first HRR win came in 1979 in the Grand challenge cup and later partnered with Sir Steve Redgrave for his first HRR win in the double sculls. He now has 5 medals in the competition representing MRC and was club captain for approximately 10 years.

Lastly, Jim Lawther (stroke) joined MRC at age 14 and later gained a place in the GB junior rowing team. He has 2 HRR medals to his name.

The 1985 Britannia Crew were unseeded and had to compete to qualify.

After a successful qualification their first race fell against Scottish National crew, Sterling Rowing club, who established an early lead.

However, the final verdict was that MRC had won comfortably, a testament to Zoe’s ability to read a race.

The next race was against competition favourites, Tideway Scullers. During the race, Zoe once again broke from the race plan and Maidenhead won by 4 lengths.

Newark Rowing Club stood in their way in the semi-final. This time sticking to the game plan, they slowly creeped away from NRC to win by over 2 lengths.

The final was against Lea Rowing Club in which Maidenhead had a lengths lead by the barrier and continued to slowly edge away, winning the race – and ultimately the event by three lengths.

Club president, Laura Lion comments that, ‘we are still incredibly proud of the Brit four after 40 years. The win will always be part of our club's history and continues to inspire our athletes young and old’.