RIP Noel Casey

British Rowing was sad of hear of the passing on Wednesday of legendary coach Noel Casey at the age of 90

Noel Casey grew up in Kerry, Ireland. His father, Jack, was one of seven brothers who won worldwide fame for their sporting feats in professional boxing, wrestling and rowing. Noel’s grandmother, Bridget, rowed with him to church and to the shop and taught him boat craft. “I learnt rowing technique at about four,” he said.

After moving to London as a teenager, Noel worked in the building industry for 52 years. He joined Vesta RC in 1966, where he competed successfully  Later he moved into coaching, first at Vesta RC and later at Thames RC, where he formed a junior women’s squad when his daughters Caroline and Bernadette were old enough to row. Under his guidance, the Thames women’s squad developed into the dominant force in the country from the late 1970s through to the mid 1990s. He once said he treated women as adults, “same as the blokes on the building sites”.

Noel’s first recorded involvement with GB rowing was in 1980, when a semi-formal women’s development squad was based at Putney, under the supervision of him and others. In 1981, he put together a Thames coxed four outside the official GB squad system that was selected to go to the World Championships after racing at early season international regattas at their own expense. The crew contained both of his daughters. Bernie had previously been in the Women’s Coxed Four in 1979 when Caroline had been selected for the Junior Women’s Double Sculls, only the second year that GB had a Junior Women’s team.

In 1983 he was the senior coach for GB Women, coaching the eight at the World Championships that year, and then again for the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, where they finished fifth, just 1.6 seconds off bronze. One member of that crew, Kate Holroyd, remembers that, “we really benefited from his strong, uncompromising leadership.” Noel also coached the GB Women’s Coxed Four in 1985. In the early 1990s he brought a crew sculling focus to the Thames women’s squad at a time when sweep rowing was still the dominant discipline for women at most clubs. Memorably, Thames crews took all three medals in the Women’s Quadruple Sculls at the 1993 National Championships.

Noel’s enormous contribution to women’s rowing was recognised by British Rowing in 2007 when he was awarded its highest accolade, the Medal of Honour. Since 2019, Thames and Vesta’s women’s squads have raced annually for The Casey Cup named in his honour.

After moving back to Ireland at the turn of the century, Noel continued to coach, first at Muckross Rowing Club and more recently at Kenmare Rowing and Boating Club. He was still providing coaching advice on the phone just days before he passed away.

With thanks to rowreport.ie and Rowing Ireland for biographical details and Guin Batten for the photo.