JRN are delighted to announce that the Windsor Boys School Junior Men’s Quad are our Junior Crew of the Year.
Bettering excellence is never an easy task, but the Windsor Boys School set themselves to the challenge with aplomb in 2025. Their clean sweep of domestic schoolboy sculling titles – peaking in a retention of The Fawley Challenge Cup – is an earnest reminder that they are the programme to beat. They took their talent overseas too, taking trophies in the USA and the Netherlands on their way to a remarkable season.
Mark Wilkinson, Director of Rowing, said: “The season has been immense on so many levels, but the biggest of factors without doubt is the squads and crews themselves, which resulted in this first boat. Pressure comes with the territory, and real leaders are needed to ensure the changing room copes. As a coach, you can only do so much – you hope and even demand the culture and the structure, but unless the athletes get on board, it is challenging in any environment. The long-standing line has been ‘Four boys in a boat, but a whole boat club and school in there with them’. This is critical – it allows them to express themselves without fear. The coaches have been vital, too. It is a centralised system at the Windsor Boys School; everyone is buying into the same model, and I credit the other coaches, especially Ben Liddell and Chris Morrell.“
“Recent success does allow the current squads to believe it is possible, but that is far from enough – in Joe Wellington and Ruben Taylor, you have perhaps (certainly in my experience) the ultimate changing room leaders. Both will go down as true greats of the school’s rowing programme. They do everything, on and off the water, to the best of their ability, leading and demanding the way, and always with a smile – they learnt from previous generations and then they do it better. They have led the way, and Bailey Taylor and Isaac Thornton have learned from them and bought into it. The results, and now the awards, are theirs, unquestionably, alongside the whole team. Thank you for the nomination and the votes!“
