UK Broads Authority helps rowing club buy British Olympic squad boat
A 20 year old blind rower is one of a growing number of young members of Beccles Rowing Club who are benefiting from two new sculling boats which were part funded by the Broads Authority’s Sustainable Development Fund (SDF).
Mark Banham, from Loddon, who has been blind since the age of three, has trained with the club for the past seven years. This year his determination and skills paid off with two major wins which has moved him up from the novice to the senior divisions.
The Sustainable Development Fund (SDF) granted £8,500 to the club which tracked down and bought a brand new double scull which was built for the Great Britain rowing squad. With its eye-catching canvas in red, white and blue and still under wraps it was a bargain at £4,400 because Eton Racing Boats, a subsidiary of Eton College, had closed down.
The club also used the money to buy a second hand quadruple scull from Royal Holloway College, which can be used with sweep oars or sculls.
Beccles Rowing Club’s junior membership has doubled to 20 since its new boathouse was built last year and needed new boats to meet the demand.
Many of them are competitive and some of the juniors, aged from 12 to 19, took part in their first regatta in Cambridge this summer and are competing in another on October 5th.
On 21st September 21 year old Matthew Lawes from Beccles, won the senior 4 sculls in the 31 mile Boston Marathon in 4 hours 5 mins.
Mark, who suffers from a genetic condition, Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) learnt to row at a school for the blind in Worcester, but returned to Norfolk at 13 and joined Beccles Rowing Club. His 15 year old sister Rebecca sculls and coxes for the club.
“I like the team aspect of it,” explained Mark. “I like being in a crew and the physical side of it, and if I had been sighted I would have taken up other team sports. You are all going backwards at the end of the day anyway!”
Mark, who went to Loddon and Langley schools, rows for Hatfield College, Durham where he is studying psychology. He is committed to as many as eight training sessions a week, and in addition, after Easter, he is juggling regattas around exams, starting with the Head of the River Race from Mortlake to Putney, which draws 500 competitors.
This year he had the thrill of being in the winning boat at St Neots in a double scull with Matthew Lawes, who rows for Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. He also won the novice coxed 4s rowing event at Durham’s 175th anniversary regatta.
“You have to do a lot of losing before you start to win,” he said. “But it’s very fulfilling when you do.”
Club chairman Robin de Vere Green said: “Mark is one of those delightful people with an enormous sense of humour who doesn’t want to miss anything. He just goes by the rhythm in a crew of four and is a great part of the team.
“We are very grateful to the Broads Authority’s Sustainable Development Fund for its grant. Rowing is a sport of high attainment with very limited funding and the new boats will be very effectively utitilised. Anything which encourages rowing as an Olympic sport must be worthwhile.”
