TWO junior women rowers who learnt to row on the Wye at Ross Rowing Club stormed to championship glory over the Boat Race stretch of the Thames on Friday.

Yasmin Howe and Violet Holbrow were on board the Wycliffe Rowing 8 that ended a decade of dominance by the powerhouse squads of Henley RC and Headington School to take the Girls’ Championship 8s title in the prestigious national Schools’ Head of the River Race.

Even more remarkably, the crew only started rowing together with one blade – sweep oaring – last month, as most of them are sculling specialists more used to rowing with two blades.

Two weeks earlier, they placed a brilliant third just five seconds behind the two established junior pacesetters in the Women’s 8s Head of the River – the largest all-female rowing race in the world – over the same 4.25-mile reverse Boat Race course from Chiswick to Putney, taking an overall placing of 24th out of 307.

This time, the cream of Britain’s school and junior rowers set off in 339 eights and quadruple sculls at 10 second intervals, with Wycliffe, who train on the Gloucester-Sharpness Canal, starting last of the 17 boats in their championship category.

And with Yasmin at six and Violet at four, they used that momentum to push on and overthrow the top two, beating Henley by 4.7secs in a time of 18 minutes 45.8secs, with Oxford-based Headington a further 13.4secs adrift in third.

Wycliffe headteacher Nick Gregory posted: “Only those @WycliffeRowing girls, and the coaching team, truly know just how much hard work and sacrifice sits behind that success.

“However, all of the @WycliffeCollege community nevertheless has a strong sense of how well-deserved this is.”

Full results can be seen at www.shorr.org.uk/2023/results.html