Blackmore Club Blog

David Bishop has a larger-than-life personality who left a significant footprint on the landscape and culture of St Peter's College, most particularly on the School Boat Club. David arrived at St Peter's College for the 1996 School year as the new Director of Rowing and a teacher of Physical Education and English. 17 years later he retired with a successful teaching, rowing coaching and administration record and left the St Peter’s Boat Club in better shape.

The school enjoyed success in the Head of the River in 1996, 1997 and 1998, with David as Director of Rowing and John Jarvis as First VIII coach. In the 1998/99 season, David also took on the role of First VIII coach, with the crew in 1999 winning silver in the Schoolboy Eight A - Final at the Australian National Rowing Championships. The crew went on to place second at the Henley Royal Regatta in 1999 for the Princess Elizabeth Cup on the River Thames. The First VIII also won silver at the Australian National Rowing Championships in the following year under David's guidance. David continued coaching after his retirement from teaching in 2007 until 2013. He coached the First VIII to 9 Head of the River Victories. The 7 consecutive Head of the River victories from 2005 to 2011 equals the longest winning streak in the history of the event (the other occasion also being St Peters in the late 1940s-50s). David was a leading schoolboy rowing coach in Adelaide and Australia. On the occasions the First VIII crew entered the Head of the River race as underdogs, David was able to weave his magic, juggled the crew and secured an improbable victory from the maelstrom of likely defeat. He is the first to acknowledge that one or two victories have slipped from his crews' grasp, too: all of the First and Second Eights that have not won their final races in his time have placed second: an unprecedented achievement.

David was also active when it came to fundraising. The F.H. Digby Fund was established at his initiative, alongside the Boat Club Parents' Committee in order to help secure the success of the boat club in the future.

David, alongside Headmaster Richard Burchnall instituted many great initiatives during his time at St Peter's College. Burchnall was instrumental in seeing the Sports Centre built and equipped. David made available a separate area in the Conditioning Room of the Sport Centre for the storage and use of Boat Club ergometers and weight training equipment, all essential support systems for a modern school Boat Club. He also negotiated the lease on a bay in the rowing facility at the West Lakes Rowing Headquarters for our fleet. For these key moves, generations of St Peter's College oarsmen will be grateful to Richard Burchnall and David Bishop for their great support in establishing a leading schoolboy rowing program.

David entered St Peter's College as a student in Year 4 in 1951 and in Short House when he moved to the Senior School. As a nearly sixteen-year-old playing Senior House Cricket on the Caterer Oval, David was invited down to the Torrens to try out for the Short House tub four for the House Rowing in 1958. Little did he know then how that opportunity would affect his life. After rowing in the winning 1959 Second Eight, and in the winning Head of the River Eight in the Boat Club Centenary year in 1960, the last crew coached by the redoubtable WJ. Ferguson, “prince of coaches, but a coach of Saints”, David went on to represent South Australia and Victoria in a number of King's Cup crews. St Peter's College has been fortunate to benefit from David's outstanding teaching and coaching over many years, leading to a long and very successful period for the Boat Club.