Leander Club

Leander Club, founded in 1818, 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 clubs older than Leander survive: Westminster School Boat Club, founded in 1813, and Brasenose College Boat Club and Jesus College Boat Club, which competed in a head race in 1815.

History

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

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:

However, Lord Esher also noted that they were "verging on being middle-aged men." 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. 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 land currently occupied by St Thomas's Hospital on the south bank of the River Thames. 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 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.

Leander members contributed 23 of the 45 British rowers selected for the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Notable members Notable members include:

Jack Beaumont Karen Bennett Robin Bourne-Taylor Chloe Brew Sholto Carnegie John Collins Ed Coode James Cracknell Jacob Dawson Katherine Douglas Rebecca Edwards Charles Elwes Henry Fieldman Debbie Flood Emily Ford Thomas Ford Tim Foster Fiona Gammond Thomas George Harcourt Gilbey Gold Jürgen Gröbler Angus Groom Mark Hunter Frederick Septimus Kelly Hugh Laurie Ran Laurie Harry Leask Stuart Mackenzie Alexander McCulloch Rowan McKellar Gully Nickalls Guy Nickalls Alex Partridge Matthew Pinsent Steve Redgrave Pete Reed Rebecca Romero Matthew Rossiter Will Satch Hannah Scott Colin Smith Tom Stallard Polly Swann Victoria Thornley Anna Watkins Josh West Steve Williams Oliver Wynne-Griffith

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. 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). 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...."Thirkell, "Growing Up," at p. 253 (Chapter 11) (Wakefield, RI: Moyer Bell, 1996). The Leander Club figures heavily in Deborah Crombie's detective novel, No Mark Upon Her.

Honours British champions since 2013 +YearWinning crew/s 2013 Victor Ludorum, Open 2x, Open4x, Open 4-, Open 8+, Women 2x, Women 4-, Women 8+ 2014 Victor Ludorum, Open 2x, Open 8+, Women 8+ 2015 Victor Ludorum, Open 2x, Open 4-, Open 4x, Women 4x, Women 4- 2016 Victor Ludorum, Open 2x, Open 4x, Open 8+, Women 4x, Women 8+ 2018 Open 4x, Women 4x, Women 8+

Key J (junior), 2, 4, 8 (crew size), 18, 16, 15, 14 (age group), x (sculls), - (coxless), + (coxed)

Henley Royal Regatta +YearRaces won 1840 Grand Challenge Cup 1845 Diamond Challenge Sculls 1849 Stewards' Challenge Cup 1875 Grand Challenge Cup 1880 Grand Challenge Cup 1891 Grand Challenge Cup, Silver Goblets 1892 Grand Challenge Cup 1893 Grand Challenge Cup 1894 Grand Challenge Cup 1895 Diamond Challenge Sculls 1896 Grand Challenge Cup, Diamond Challenge Sculls 1897 Stewards' Challenge Cup, Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup 1898 Grand Challenge Cup, Stewards' Challenge Cup 1899 Grand Challenge Cup, Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup 1900 Grand Challenge Cup, Stewards' Challenge Cup 1901 Grand Challenge Cup 1903 Grand Challenge Cup, Diamond Challenge Sculls 1904 Grand Challenge Cup 1905 Grand Challenge Cup, Stewards' Challenge Cup, Diamond Challenge Sculls 1906 Stewards' Challenge Cup 1907 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup 1908 Diamond Challenge Sculls 1909 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup 1910 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup 1913 Grand Challenge Cup 1914 Stewards' Challenge Cup 1922 Grand Challenge Cup 1924 Grand Challenge Cup 1925 Grand Challenge Cup 1926 Grand Challenge Cup 1929 Grand Challenge Cup 1932 Grand Challenge Cup 1934 Grand Challenge Cup 1937 Stewards' Challenge Cup 1938 Stewards' Challenge Cup, Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup 1946 Grand Challenge Cup, Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup 1948 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup 1949 Grand Challenge Cup 1950 Diamond Challenge Sculls 1951 Double Sculls Challenge Cup 1952 Grand Challenge Cup 1953 Grand Challenge Cup, Stewards' Challenge Cup 1957 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup 1958 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup 1959 Double Sculls Challenge Cup 1960 Diamond Challenge Sculls 1962 Double Sculls Challenge Cup, Diamond Challenge Sculls 1963 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup 1964 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup, Double Sculls Challenge Cup 1965 Prince Philip Challenge Cup 1968 Thames Challenge Cup 1969 Thames Challenge Cup 1970 Thames Challenge Cup 1972 Double Sculls Challenge Cup, Wyfold Challenge Cup 1973 Double Sculls Challenge Cup+ 1975 Grand Challenge Cup+, Double Sculls Challenge Cup, Britannia Challenge Cup 1977 Double Sculls Challenge Cup, Diamond Challenge Sculls 1978 Double Sculls Challenge Cup, Diamond Challenge Sculls 1979 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup, Double Sculls Challenge Cup+, Thames Challenge Cup 1980 Britannia Challenge Cup 1981 Diamond Challenge Sculls 1982 Grand Challenge Cup+, Diamond Challenge Sculls 1983 Double Sculls Challenge Cup+ 1984 Grand Challenge Cup+, Diamond Challenge Sculls 1985 Ladies' Challenge Plate 1986 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup 1987 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup 1988 Grand Challenge Cup+, Stewards' Challenge Cup 1989 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup, Wyfold Challenge Cup, Britannia Challenge Cup 1990 Stewards' Challenge Cup+ 1991 Grand Challenge Cup+, Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup, Queen Mother Challenge Cup+, Ladies' Challenge Plate+, Prince Philip Challenge Cup+ 1992 Diamond Challenge Sculls, Prince Philip Challenge Cup 1993 Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup, Prince Philip Challenge Cup+ 1994 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup 1995 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup, Prince Philip Challenge Cup 1997 Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup, Prince Philip Challenge Cup+ 1998 Stewards' Challenge Cup 1999 Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Fawley Challenge Cup 2000 Stewards' Challenge Cup, Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup, Fawley Challenge Cup, Prince Philip Challenge Cup+ 2001 Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup, Queen Mother Challenge Cup, Prince Philip Challenge Cup+ 2002 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup, Queen Mother Challenge Cup+, Thames Challenge Cup, Fawley Challenge Cup 2003 Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup, Prince Philip Challenge Cup 2004 Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Ladies' Challenge Plate, Princess Grace Challenge Cup, 2005 Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Double Sculls Challenge Cup+ Britannia Challenge Cup 2006 Double Sculls Challenge Cup+, Visitors' Challenge Cup+ 2007 Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Visitors' Challenge Cup, Thames Challenge Cup 2008 Diamond Challenge Sculls, Ladies' Challenge Plate, Thames Challenge Cup, Remenham Challenge Cup 2009 Grand Challenge Cup+, Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Remenham Challenge Cup, Princess Grace Challenge Cup 2010 Queen Mother Challenge Cup, Visitors' Challenge Cup+, Prince of Wales Challenge Cup, Princess Grace Challenge Cup 2011 Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Double Sculls Challenge Cup, Queen Mother Challenge Cup+, Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup+, Visitors' Challenge Cup+, Prince of Wales Challenge Cup 2012 Double Sculls Challenge Cup, Prince of Wales Challenge Cup 2013 Grand Challenge Cup+, Queen Mother Challenge Cup+, Ladies' Challenge Plate+, Prince of Wales Challenge Cup, Remenham Challenge Cup, Princess Grace Challenge Cup 2014 Grand Challenge Cup+, Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Queen Mother Challenge Cup+, Prince of Wales Challenge Cup, Remenham Challenge Cup, Princess Grace Challenge Cup 2015 Grand Challenge Cup+, Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Double Sculls Challenge Cup, Queen Mother Challenge Cup+, Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup+, Prince of Wales Challenge Cup 2016 Double Sculls Challenge Cup, Queen Mother Challenge Cup, Ladies' Challenge Plate, Princess Grace Challenge Cup+ 2017 Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Queen Mother Challenge Cup, Visitors' Challenge Cup, Prince of Wales Challenge Cup 2018 Stewards' Challenge Cup, Double Sculls Challenge Cup, Queen Mother Challenge Cup+, Visitors' Challenge Cup, Town Challenge Cup+ 2019 Stewards' Challenge Cup+, Double Sculls Challenge Cup+, Queen Mother Challenge Cup, Visitors' Challenge Cup+, Fawley Challenge Cup 2021 Queen 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 Cup2022Grand Challenge Cup, Ladies' Challenge Plate, Remenham Challenge Cup, Prince of Wales Challenge Cup2023 Fawley Challenge Cup, Town Challenge Cup, Prince of Wales Challenge Cup, Princess Grace Challenge Cup2024 Queen Mother Challenge Cup, Prince of Wales Challenge Cup, Visitors' Challenge Cup 2025 Ladies' Challenge Plate, Visitors' Challenge Cup, Queen Mother Challenge Cup + composite

Leander Club

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