Illustrious members of the rowing community in Buckinghamshire celebrated its leadership in the sport at a film screening and reception to raise funds for a new school boathouse.
Sir Steve Redgrave, the Marlow-born Olympian widely revered for his five consecutive gold medal wins, was among the rowing talent in attendance at a film screening and reception fundraiser aimed at providing up-and-coming talent with a new boathouse on the River Thames last weekend.
The screening of George Clooney's latest directorial feat, The Boys in the Boat, generously supplied ahead of its UK release date tomorrow (January 12), was held before a fundraising reception hosted by Mr Redgrave at the Everyman Cinema in Marlow on Sunday night (January 7).
Organised by Nick Harding, a rowing coach at Great Marlow School who also coached actors on-set of the Clooney production, alongside his wife Mary, the evening drew support from a number of the town's sporting alumni.
Notable names accompanying that of Mr Redgrave included former Great Marlow School pupil Steve Turner who rowed in the Seoul Olympics in 1988 and in Barcelona in 1992, and Sir William Borlase's Grammar School alum Jack Beaumont, who won a silver medal at the Tokyo Games in 2020.
The Marlow and District Schools Boathouse Trust, a registered local charity, launched a fundraiser in May 2023 to build a new school boathouse for the rowing talent of tomorrow on newly acquired land near Gossmore Lane in Marlow, after years of limited operations from a base at Longridge Activity Centre.
Sunday night's reception raised over £80,000 towards the cause and a GoFundMe page shows that a total of £233,925 has so far been banked of the £400,000 target.
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Sir Steve Redgrave, who learned to row whilst he was a student at Great Marlow School, said both the film screening, which dramatised the unlikely success of a university rowing team at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, and the boathouse campaign both resonated with him in their centralisation of the underdog.
"When I was on the junior (championships) team in 1979 and 1980, half of the team was from private schools and that percentage hasn't really changed now. But now that the education system's changed, the sport is beginning to change too. Wherever there is a body of water available, there's the potential for a strong rowing community.
"Marlow has two schools which are now both doing well - it's impressive for such a small town. Steve (Turner), Mark Buckingham and I were all at Great Marlow at the same time and we've all come fourth (in the Olympics) or better. It's all about opportunity."
Fergus Murison, director of rowing at Great Marlow School, also stressed the "central role" rowing plays in the local community and described the dual film screening and boathouse fundraiser, brought about by Nick, as a "fortuitous" happenstance.
"I'm a huge proponent of sports as part of education - I think it is undervalued and should be taught across the board. Every young person will have a right to this boathouse and I think while all sports are important, there's something special about rowing in particular.
"I'm very proud of our alumni who have gone on to do such great things and I'm glad that the fundraiser evening has had so much support, even at short notice."
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