Martyn Rooney

Martyn Rooney rowed in Cambridge with Rob Roy where he was an elite rower and Captain for 2 years. He ‘retired’ from rowing at the age of 24 to concentrate on running. After 5 years, and a series of injuries, he returned to rowing with St.Neots where he was Captain for 2 years and rebuilt the coaching and racing structure. After he properly retired from racing in 2000 he turned his full attention to coaching.

Main domestic success – won SHoRR twice; WHoRR on the 2 occasions they entered in 2009 and 2010; HWR wins in the Junior Quads (2005), Coxed Fours (2008) and in 2010 the Eights in a new record time. National Championships 15 Gold medals 4 of these at senior level; National Schools Regatta 11 Gold medals; Indoor Ergo Championships 6 medals including 2 Gold.

Internationally 18 different athletes from his squad have earned a total of 80 international caps, 10 World Championships, 15 Coupe de la Jeunesse, 6 GB vs. France, 19 Home Country Internationals and 30 other international events, a total of 62 medals won – 33 Gold, 15 Silver and 14 Bronze. Most notable were 2 Bronze medals at the WJC in 2005 and 2008 and in 2010 two of his girls were in the first ever GB WJ crew to win a Gold medal at a WJC. He has coached GB crews at 6 Coupe de Jeunesse and 2 World Championships before withdrawing from the GB team in 2008 because of work commitments.

Martyn can be contacted by email: martyn@cuwbc.org

Jonathan Conder

Having rowed for Molesey Boat Club and Cambridge ’99 Rowing Club, Jonathan Conder “JC” has over 30 years of rowing experience both as a rower and a coach. He first starting coaching CUWBC 2009 and has become increasingly involved since then. JC holds several coaching qualifications including the UKCC Level 3 Coaching Award and is also a British Rowing ‘Coach Educator’.

Crews coached by JC have won gold at the National Championships, finished in the top twenty of men’s and women’s Head of the River Races, reached the semi finals at Henley Royal Regatta and the finals at Henley Women’s Regatta.

He is currently studying for a diploma in Sports Psychology.

James Appleton

James “Jimmy” Appleton began his involvement with CUWBC in 2005/6 in the second year of his degree when he coxed Blondie. The following year he coxed a victorious blue boat and has been coaching with CUWBC since then.

In 2009/10 Jimmy took on more coaching than ever before, and was finishing coach for the lightweight boat, in addition to taking on a temporary post as Christ’s College boatman.

Jimmy is a professional landscape photographer, and when he’s not taking photographs or coaching rowing he spends his time running.

Tom Copeland

“New to the CUWBC coaching team for the 2011/12 season, Tom started his rowing career at Shrewsbury School fifteen years ago. He went on to race and coach for Trafford, the University of Birmingham and Caius College Boat Clubs before joining Cantabrigian RC in 2008. Having served as Men’s Captain for two years he is now the Club Captain and, in addition to work with CUWBC, works with the club’s top senior and masters athletes. In 2011 Tom coached athletes to wins at the Scullers’ Head and several National Masters titles.”

Mel Harbour

Mel rejoined the coaching team in 2010, having previously coached the record breaking CUWBC lightweights in 2006. Following learning to row in Cambridge, he rowed for Granta (CULRC reserves), beating Nephthys, and competed at the 2002 Commonwealth Regatta, representing his native Guernsey in the LM1x. He now lives in Cambridge and enjoys his ‘family sport’ of squash in his spare time. He has strong interests in technical aspects of rowing such as biomechanics, physiology and psychology.

Nick Acock

Nick joined the coaching team of CUWBC for the 2003-04 season, having been cox of Blondie 2003. Since then he has been progressively more involved each year, normally coaching Blondie and being their finishing coach for 2008 and 2009.

In 2005 Nick was appointed Head Coach/Boatman for Clare College and his efforts here are begining to show through; the women’s first eight acheived its only ever Lent Bumps Headship in 2006 and the first men’s eight is now at it’s highest position in the Lent’s since 1986. Still an active cox with local club Cantabrigian RC, Nick regularly competes at a high level around the country and has several wins at S1 level under his belt, but most notably he reached the quarter finals of The Britannia Challenge Cup at Henley Royal in 2007. This continued success and immersion in the rowing world proves invaluable in feeding back the experience into CUWBC.

Andrew Powell

Andrew graduated from Glasgow Caledonian University as a physiotherapist in 2004 and started working with CUWBC (and CUBC) during the 2012 campaign. In a previous life, Andrew rowed on the Cam as a teenager, learning to row with City (and even earned his blades in the town bumps with IoERC), but he was more successful on a rugby pitch. When Andrew isn’t in the treatment room, he can be found water skiing or training for triathlons, as well as walking his dog, Bear.

Rob Milner

Having been a guest coach for CUWBC for the 5 previous years, in September 2008 he increased his coaching role and has been coaching continually ever since. Rob learnt to row as an undergraduate at LMBC and moved on to row at Cantabs where as well as rowing competitively until the summer of 2008, also was mens captain and club captain. After leaving university Rob worked within a small group of engineers at Peach Innovations building a rowing instrumentation system which is now used by many national squads including the GB squad. He continues to work developing systems for sports and medical applications.