Annual Dinner 2025
The Annual Dinner is a black tie event for Full Members of Leander Club, which takes place on the evening of the Fours Head.
At the Annual Dinner on Saturday 15 November Stan Louloudis (Olympic Bronze medal 2012 and Olympic Gold medal 2016) was the guest speaker. After a superb meal in a packed dining room the Club President, Dick Lester, thanked a number of people for their services to the Club and introduced the speakers. The Club Captain, Lola Anderson, gave a very well-received summary of the year and its highlights, paying tribute to Stan’s inspiration. Stan responded with an entertaining account of his rowing career, an early success being to win the P.E., after which he joined Leander. The President concluded by pointing out that Stan’s achievements were all before the age of 25 and that he was someone “who not only wins gold medals but inspires others to win gold medals”.
Scroll below to see photos of the night, and the full text of Lola Anderson’s speech.
Speech by Lola Anderson, Captain of Leander Club
Good evening and thank you all for being here tonight. It is always an honour to take part in our annual Leander Club dinner and I am pleased to deliver my report tonight on the hard work and successes of our talented athletes.
Starting off with today’s racing at the Fours Head, Leander saw much success. Welcoming our Caversham athletes back to represent and race, all were excited and ready to take on the 6.8km long course. In no particular order or priority – the women’s coxed four took the win, and our men’s coxed four raced and fought impressively, placing in 2nd by just 0.1 of a second. Following this tight racing, we won both the men’s and women’s quads, with our women’s and men’s second quads finishing 3rd and 4th. Furthering the day’s success, both of our coxless fours won their respective categories, with our second women’s coxless four finishing 2nd. All of this to say Leander demonstrated depth and strength not just across our men’s and women’s squads but through our international and club-based athletes as well.
Rewinding now to some of the earlier season’s highlights, we saw the close of winter training and racing take place, yet again on the Tideway, and this year WEHORR fell on International Women’s Day. As athletes it created further significance for the race. Reflecting on the many women who came before us, fearlessly and determined to make a difference to the sporting world, WEHORR became an opportunity not just to race but to represent the steps and progress these women laid for us. With this in mind, and the winter’s training coming to an end, to say all crews were excited to get down the track may be understating it. All four crews placed provisionally in the top 10 (before a time penalty) with Leander A winning the headship. This was a historic result for the club, displaying the strength and depth of the Leander women’s rowing program.
Shifting focus slightly away from the results and the standard our women set, I think all can agree how special it was to see the club lead with such passion. Our Leander D boat was actually comprised purely of scullers. Allowing and encouraging our athletes to take part outside of their comfort zones saw them thrive, and I for one cannot stress how inspiring it was to see them race so intensely and passionately for our club. All crews raced relentlessly and were the perfect ambassadors for us, and with the race held on International Women’s Day we can only hope that the results we collated inspired some of the next and future generation of little girls and rowers.
Next came the Men’s Head of the River race and after the successes of our women’s squad, the pressure was on. Despite fierce competition from Brookes, our men’s A crew delivered the win – 5 seconds ahead of them. Further celebration was to be had with our B and C crew placing a highly respected 4th and 10th. To once again showcase the prestige and standard of Leander at one of the most competitive races on the rowing calendar sends a clear message of dominance. With the standard of rowing going up and up each year, both the women’s and men’s Heads provide constant challenge and we can never take these wins for granted or lightly. A huge congratulation goes out to all our competing athletes and especially our winning crews.
Following the success of Paris and the previous international cycle, 18 new Leander athletes were moved into the national training centre program and all raced internationally this season. No other club or high performance training centre has managed to match this contribution.
Kicking off the racing season in Plovdiv at the European Championships, both British rowing and Leander saw great success. To sum up, GB won the men’s and women’s quad, the men’s and women’s eight and secured two bronze medals in the women’s pair and fours. This medal haul is made all the more impressive when you factor in the women’s doubling up as well as the amount of Leander representation in each boat class. More than half of the racing squad were made up of our athletes, our winning women’s quad made up entirely of Leander rowers, and for many of the squad marking this as their debut senior international race. Sixteen of our athletes returned as European Champions and some with multiple medals from doubling up. Looking forward to rest of the racing season, the World Cups looked promising and provided further opportunities for British rowing athletes to hone their skills ahead of Henley and the World Championships.
The international racing circuit ran on a tight schedule this year, with Europeans, World Cup 1, Henley Royal Regatta and World Cup 3 happening within a week to two in succession. The travel, the preparation and fatigue unfortunately took its toll on parts of our team with some crews left unable to compete for long stints. Despite the knock-backs crews faced, racing continued to bring success! With the women’s eight taking a confident win at World Cup 1 in Varese and another gold home. Eleanor Brinkhoff winning a bronze alongside her pairs partner at Lucerne. Our men’s quad continued their medal streak picking up a bronze in Varese, a fantastic win at Henley royal in the Queen Mother and yet another gold at the third World Cup.
Henley Royal Regatta, as always, brought fierce racing and competition. Our Ladies Plate eight, comprised of Jack Prior, Alex Abuhoff, Thibaud Turlan, James Cartwright, Kenny Coplan, Levin Graaf, Ethan Blight, George Reed and cox Hermione Hill took every race from the start of their campaign to their final with aggressive intent. Watching their races the crew looked calm under pressure trusting in their teamwork, fight, experience from cox Mimi and the expert leadership of our very own Matt Beechey. Although nerves were high come finals day, it was by no surprise and to our clubs delight to see our Leander Ladies Plate crowned the winners, each taking home their well-deserved red boxes. In the face of challenge and external pressure the crew more than rose to the occasion – please may they stand so we may properly celebrate theirs and the club’s success.
With many of our Leander and Leander Caversham crews narrowly missing out on their Henley hopes, the racing may not have given us all the medals we were looking for, but it did provide the learnings necessary to carry forward for our latter success on the World Stage in Shanghai. Racing in a new world circuit in what can only be described as tropical conditions – with temperatures reaching 36 degrees and humidity sitting at a comfortable 80% – the climate brought challenge in itself. Having been prepped with heat chambers, many, many packs of electrolytes and even attempting to get ahead of the jet lag with some criminally early starts, we were ready to race!
After a couple days spent acclimatising to the conditions and the time zone, racing started with the women’s and men’s pairs, with Leander represented by Lizzie Witt, James Vogel and Harry Gething. In such a densely packed field of racing our athletes stayed composed with our women’s pair finishing 6th in the world and our men 5th in the B final.
Next to race were our British quads, and after a challenging season of illness Hannah Scott, Tokyo 2021 Olympian and Paris 2024 Olympic champion, managed to make her debut race of the 2025 season. Excited to get into racing our boat of – Becky Wilde, myself, Hannah Scott and Sarah McKay – were immensely proud to come away with a silver medal, conceding to the Dutch after a flying start. The men’s quad, in the last race of the day battled with the Italians and Polish down the whole track. In baking conditions our quad, represented by Rory Harris and Cedol Dafydd, finished off an impressive racing season with another silver medal.
The women’s and men’s doubles – represented by Tobias Schroder and Cam Nyland – a European Champion from the quads in Plovdiv – were met with intense competition. In the small boats every inch of the course is unpredictable with boats jumping position and rank every 100m. For both Cam and Tobias this would be their debut at a World Championships. Taking in every race and fighting for every inch Cam finished in 5th place of the B final and after a last-minute crew substitution fellow Leander athlete Jamie Gare joined Tobias to finish off the racing.
Our women’s four, of Heidi Long, Eve Stewart and Lauren Irwin facing the task of yet another round of doubling up, raced to a 5th place in their A final before their final race in the eights, and were just 2 seconds off the bronze.
The men’s four, with late additions to the team following their successful Boat Race campaign with Cambridge, saw George Bourne, Douwe De Graf, James Robson and Dan Graham take each race into their stride, culminating in their first World Championship title. Despite not having had the racing season together, this crew raced with unphased confidence, trust and belief in their speed. They have represented Leander at some of the highest racing possible and were a standout not just for us as a club but for British rowing.
Bringing in the end of our Leander crews racing at the championships we had just the eights left to race. First off, the women’s eight – represented by Eleanor Brinkhoff, Juliette Perry, Amelia Standing, Lauren Irwin, Eve Stewart, Heidi Long and coxed by Jack Tottem – our women having come into the 1k in 5th spurred themselves on into a spectacular finish, clawing back through the Germans and the US to finish off in third with a hard fought bronze.
Last to race were the men’s eight. After a nerve-wracking false start and eventual restart, our men’s crew comprised of William Stewart, Archie Drummond, Miles Beeson and Matt Rowe kept calm and composed before another blistering start. Inching with the Dutch the whole way down the course and fending off attacks from the US they secured the silver. As a club we are so incredibly proud of each and every one of our athletes, and it is especially important to take this moment tonight to thank and commend each of you here tonight for your contributions to our club’s rich history of international success. Please may all those listed here in attendance please stand so we can recognise this.
Before I close, it is now my job to thank all the coaches for their contributions to each of our individual journeys onto the world stage, without the tireless work and support of them and this very special club we may not be here tonight, this is something we do not take for granted and does not go unnoticed. Hopefully, some of those grateful athletes cover some of your bar expenses tonight.
Thank you all here tonight for your dedication, contributions to the club and your attention to this report – enjoy the evening!
