Rowing with Leeds Rowing Club
We welcome new members of all abilities
Leeds Rowing Club welcomes rowers with previous experience of the sport, whether this is at university, club or junior level. Our squad structure enables new members to fit into the club in a place appropriate for their lifestyle and rowing needs. For those wishing to be competitive, our Senior, Masters and Junior squads are available and for those who wish to row recreationally or on an ad-hoc basis we offer recreational/casual rowing.
Mens Squad
The Mens Squad is for people with ambition to row at the top domestic heads and regattas in the country including the Head of the River Race, Metropolitan and Marlow Regattas and Henley Royal Regatta; as well as ensuring the club is one of the most competitive rowing clubs at a local level. The senior end of the squad has an impressive track record of success, consistently being in the top 100 at HORR, winning at major regattas including Nottingham City and Marlow, plus consistently qualifying crews for Henley Royal Regatta in the Wyfold Challenge Cup and Thames Challenge Cup.
Our club men compete at most local heads and regattas and are highly competitive winning at events at York, Nottingham and Peterborough. We have an excellent fleet of boats comprised mostly of Filippis and have dedicated coaching for the squad.
If you wish to row with the Senior Mens Squad, or would like more information, please contact us and indicate any previous experience.
Womens Squad
The Women’s Squad is for people with the ambition to row at the top domestic heads and regattas in the country including the Women’s Head of the River Race, Metropolitan Regatta and Henley Women’s Regatta with the very best aiming to compete at the women’s events at Henley Royal Regatta, as well as becoming one of the top club women’s squads in the North of England. Leeds Rowing Club has had a hugely impressive track record at Henley Women’s Regatta in less than 20 years, with a win in the Senior Single Sculls and final of Elite Single Sculls event, semi-final of Club Fours, and qualifying crews in the Development Coxed Fours, Aspirational Club Coxless Fours and Aspirational Club Eights events.
The Women’s Squad at Leeds Rowing Club has also been a pathway for the very best female athletes to aim for the Great Britain Rowing Team, including the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Champion Ellen Buttrick.
If you wish to row with the Senior Women’s Squad, or would like more information please contact us and indicate any previous experience.
Performance Development Academy - Yorkshire
Leeds Rowing Club is home to the British Rowing Performance Development Academy for Yorkshire (formerly known as World Class Start). Based at our Stourton Boathouse, the Yorkshire Performance Development Academy is home to some of the top domestic athletes in the country and has produced some of the top rising stars in rowing including Paris 2024 Olympic Champion Georgie Brayshaw, GB Rowing Team lightweight Dan Jones and Los Angeles 2028 Olympic hopeful Katie Mole. Click on the button below to find out more about the Yorkshire Performance Development Academy.
The Performance Development Academy is also supporting our highest performing athletes in our Junior Rowing Academy, and is actively talent recruiting from schools across Leeds and Yorkshire.
Leeds Junior Rowing Academy
The Leeds Junior Rowing Academy is the clubs junior rowing programme.
The Junior Rowing Academy was a concept shaped by the pandemic. During Covid, the lockdown period caused our junior squad to sadly close. Faced with this, the club decided to use this as an opportunity to radically change how children get to participate in rowing. We wanted to truly break the stereotype that only people from certain backgrounds could access rowing so we worked with over 27 schools in some of the most deprived areas of Leeds where children on free school meals and where English was not a first language far exceeded the national average. We selected children from these schools who had the potential to become future rowers, and created an environment where teamwork, hard training and fun could bring long-term success and opportunities for the children.
Our commitment as a club is that these children and their families won’t find barriers to participation stopping them, many of our athletes are on programmes subsidised by the club, ensuring that any child on the Academy Programme is able to train and compete free of these barriers.
Within less than four years, the squad has grown in size from 0 to 80 juniors, with a new cohort of 20 joining each year. Alongside this, the squad success has been phenomenal, with our juniors competing and winning at local heads and regattas, and now making themselves known nationally, with A Finals at the Junior Inter-Regional Regatta, British Junior Rowing Championships and National Schools Regatta including numerous 4th places and a bronze medal. Our juniors represented over 50% of the Yorkshire JIRR Team places in 2024.
Masters Squad
Leeds Rowing Club has a small but thriving masters squad. People aged 27+ can join the masters squad and compete at local and national events with the squad. Our Masters are well known on the rowing circuit for their trips abroad to regattas across Europe as well as competing at FISA Masters Regatta. The squad has had huge success over the years with wins in women’s quads, doubles and eights at British Rowing Masters Championships
Our squad is currently comprised of scullers in Masters C to E categories, but we are now seeing many of our club members starting to take part in events at Masters B. The squad predominantly sculls, but is very well known for mixing in with the senior rowers and swapping two oars for one at heads such as Rutherford and at the Tideway Heads.
Still have Questions?
We welcome rowers of any ability. For complete beginners, we run several Learn to Row courses during the year. For experienced rowers, we have a network of expanding squads. If you’d like to know more, please contact us on rowingatleeds@gmail.com or get in touch for more information.