91��ɫ

91��ɫ Award winners recognised at celebration lunch

The Thames Room at Henley’s River and Rowing Museum was jam packed on Saturday as winners of the 2024 91��ɫ Awards were presented with their prizes

The 2024 91��ɫ Awards recognised the achievements of individuals, crews and clubs during the 2024 season, and included the winners of the prestigious Medals of Merit and Honour.

Winners and guests were in attendance for the first time the awards have been held in person since 2019. Speaking to the 80 people present, 91��ɫ Chairman Mark Davies said, “Congratulations to everyone who has won. This is not an awards ceremony like some that you go to where there aren’t many nominations so they just give awards to the people who have been nominated. I saw every single one of the nominations that came in for our awards and I can tell you, as you read through them, they are extremely humbling, because you realise quite how many people out there in our sport do quite how much for how many people. It’s fantastic to see you celebrated for that today.”

Award presenters Claire Briegal, Morgan Bolding, James Rudkin, Lauren Henry, Emily Craig and Jack Beaumont.

After the celebration lunch, 91��ɫ Deputy Chair Clare Briegal acted as Master of Ceremonies and was joined by a wealth of Olympic rowing talent to present the prizes. Emily Craig MBE handed over the Club of the Year Awards whilst Lauren Henry MBE did the honours for the Volunteer of the Year categories, including a very special moment when she gave out the East Midlands Volunteer of the Year Award to Liz Pulford from her home club, Leicester Rowing Club.

Morgan Bolding, who was in the gold medal winning Men’s eight at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games presented the Young Volunteer Awards and also a Lifetime Achievement Award to Mike Hendry from Walton Rowing Club, where Morgan had developed as a junior rower. Speaking before presenting his awards, Morgan commented on how, after a difficult early childhood, rowing had helped to shape his life and said to the winners, “I’m so grateful to all of the people in this room who have done so much to make our sport so special.”

James Rudkin, also from the men’s eight, presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Brian Thompson, Chairman of Northampton Rowing Club where Rudkin trained every day between 2007 and 2012. Thompson, who co-founded the club in 1976, was also one of the initial coaches of 2024 Olympic Champion Georgie Brayshaw MBE.

The final Lifetime achievement was presented to Jo Rafferty of Northwich Rowing Club who, fifty years ago, was one of several women who lobbied for women to be admitted as full rowing members to the Club.

Tokyo 2020 silver medalist Jack Beaumont presented a Medal of Merit to Di Binley (Ardingly Rowing Club) and a Medal of Honour to Kate O’Sullivan (Tees Rowing Club), sharing stories of how he personally had witnessed how much they had each given to the sport.

The winner of the Beryl Crockford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Junior Rowing, Mike Martin, couldn’t be present at the celebration lunch, as he was on duty at the GB Rowing Team Junior Trials, but a presentation of the medal was made to him during the briefing in Boston.

The inaugural Environmental Sustainability Award was won by Stratford-Upon-Avon BC with five Club representatives attending to receive the award and a package of cleaning products supplied by 91��ɫ partner Delphis Eco. Dawson Curnock accepted the award on behalf of the Club and said, “As Chairman of the club, I am so grateful that we’ve got a team of people at the club that are so passionate about what they do and they give us the drive to do what we’ve done at the club so far.”

Medal of Honour winner Kate O’Sullivan (left) with representatives from Infinity Boat Club, Affiliated Club of the Year 2024.

The final award to be presented was Club of the Year, which went to Infinity Boat Club. Speaking before handing over the award, 91��ɫ Chairman Mark Davies said, “There are a number of people in this room that have been responsible for making the Club of the Year work. It is only a recently formed club. The genesis of it was less than five years ago. There are people in this room who dare to dream. They put together a boat club because they understand that rowing can change lives.”

Accepting the award on behalf of Infinity Boat Club, Stephen Peel, Trustee, Founder and Funder of the club, spoke about the power that rowing has, saying, “We learn to turn up, we learn to work as teams, we learn to work hard, we get stronger, we get more resilient. We take these skills and take them through our lives.

“We have a simple, ambitious mission – we want to transform young lives through rowing in disadvantaged communities.

“It’s a programme we’re very, very passionate about, we’re very early on. This award means a huge amount to the Coaching Team, Keith [Brown, CEO] and his full-time coaches, the volunteers, and the Trustees, a number of which are here today, and we really, really appreciate 91��ɫ’s recognition for this.”

Nominations for the 2025 91��ɫ Awards will open in the autumn and we encourage you to start planning who to nominate now!