Alistair Potts

{{Short description|British rower}}

{{Use British English|date=July 2011}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}

{{BLP sources|date=July 2011}}

{{Infobox sportsperson|name=Alistair Potts|image=Alistair Potts.jpg|alt=Alistair Potts in 1990|caption=Alistair Potts in 1990|

|sport=Rowing|medaltemplates=

{{MedalSport|Men's rowing}}

{{MedalCountry|{{GBR2}}}}

{{MedalCompetition | World Rowing Championships }}

{{Medal|Gold|2000 Zagreb|Coxed four}}

{{Medal|Silver|1999 St.Catherine's|Coxed four}}

{{MedalCompetition|Henley Royal Regatta}}

{{Medal|Winner|1996 Ladies' Plate|Eight}}

{{Medal|Winner|2000 Prince Philip Cup|Coxed four}}

{{MedalCompetition|University Boat Race}}

{{Medal|Winner|1995 Cambridge Women|Eight}}

{{Medal|Winner|1996 Goldie|Eight}}

{{Medal|Winner|1998 Cambridge Men|Eight}}

}}

Alistair James Potts (born 7 July 1971) is a former British World Champion cox.

Potts was born in Chertsey, Surrey. He was educated at Winchester College and the University of Edinburgh, where he studied architectural history. He coxed the men's four, men's lightweight eight and women's eight at the 1994 Commonwealth Regatta representing Scotland. After going up to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, at the end of 1994, he was winning coxswain in the record-breaking CUWBC crew at the 1995 Women's Boat Race. This was quickly followed by coxing Trinity Hall BC to the headship in the May Bumps. In 1996 Potts was selected for Goldie, which beat Isis by 11 lengths in a then record time. That year, he also won the Ladies' Challenge Plate at Henley Royal Regatta with CUBC (rowing as Goldie Boat Club). In 1998 he steered the record-breaking Cambridge Blue Boat in the Boat Race.

Potts won a silver medal at the 1999 World Championships at St. Catharines, Canada in the coxed four with Jonny Searle, Jonny Singfield, Rick Dunn and Graham Smith. Gold came in 2000 at Zagreb in the same boat class with Dunn, Smith and Toby Garbett and Steve Williams. This was the first time Great Britain had won the coxed four at the World Rowing Championships since its inception. That same crew also won the Prince Philip Challenge Cup at Henley.

Potts' rowing career finished in 2000 coinciding with the completion of his doctoral thesis on "The Development of the Playhouse in Seventeenth-Century London".{{cite web |url=http://playhousehistory.co.uk |title=The Development of the Playhouse in Seventeenth-Century London |author=Alistair James Potts |date=June 1998 |access-date=16 July 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110824150304/http://playhousehistory.co.uk/ |archive-date=24 August 2011}} Potts is now a writer and broadcaster, and had a brief acting part in the Australian soap opera Neighbours in 2004.{{cite web |url=http://perfectblend.net/neighbourhood/bio/potts-alistair.htm |title=Guest Character Profiles |work=Neighbours: The Perfect Blend |access-date=16 July 2011| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110716130336/http://perfectblend.net/neighbourhood/bio/potts-alistair.htm| archive-date= 16 July 2011 | url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=http://www.tv.com/neighbours/episode-4476/episode/329349/summary.html |title=Neighbours Episode 4476 |work=TV.com |publisher=CBS Interactive Inc |access-date=16 July 2011}} He and his wife Emily are directors of Party Ark, an internet-based children's party supplies business{{cite web |url=http://www.partyark.co.uk/information/about-us |title=About Us |publisher=Party Ark Ltd |access-date=16 July 2011| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090607011547/http://www.partyark.co.uk/information/about-us| archive-date=7 June 2009| url-status=live}} and administer the Titulus Regius website on the history of Richard III.{{cite web |url=http://partyparcel.co.uk/information/security.html |title=About – Titulus Regius |access-date=21 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130902193453/http://www.partyparcel.co.uk/information/security.html |archive-date=2 September 2013 |url-status=dead }} Since 2013 he has been a director of New York–based solar finance company Open Energy Group.{{cite web |url=https://www.openenergygroup.com/about |title=Open Energy – Solar Finance: Company and Directors }}