With the calendar year now coming to a close, we at JRN are looking back over the previous 12 months, the highs, the lows, those individuals and clubs that shone the brightest and a look ahead to the excitement 2023 promises. With the first half of the year serving as the apex of the first Covid-free season for a few years, it was a celebration of the sport of rowing, events like Henley Royal reminded us all of why we love our sport and instilled a new desire for those across the country settling back into the grind of winter training.
The men’s club scene has become a predictable affair in recent years, and so it was again…
The Spring
The head season for clubs is marked by success as the Head of the River Race on the Tideway in March. 2022 was the first time the race had run since 2019, cause enough for celebration. The fierce rivalry between Brookes and Leander burned hot as it has in previous years but in the club events it was Molesey and Thames who stood out, with the former winning the Page Trophy and the latter winning the Vernon Trophy and overall Club Pennant. The two were separated by only two seconds, setting up a rivalry that would later come to the fore again.
Elsewhere, Cork Boat Club did well to secure the Overseas Pennant with a very solid 19th Place and City of Bristol took the Jackson Trophy with their 27th place.
Regatta Season
The lead up to Henley Royal is split nicely for club crews by the three Dorney regattas of Wallingford, Metropolitan and Marlow. While many clubs attend all three it was difficult to compare the top clubs as they did not meet, Thames, Molesey and London, three of the stronger contenders, all opting to miss one or another to go on training camps abroad. While this is frustrating for the spectators, one cannot argue with the logic, as clubs must take into account their athletes’ limited time off work, therefore choosing to go on training camp over bank holidays.
Nonetheless, the usual suspects stood out at the preceding regattas. Thames in particular looked very strong, particularly in eights. Vesta’s coxed four emerged as a strong contender with previously mentioned London and Molesey also proving their pace.
Henley Royal Regatta
The beginning of Henley Royal was marred with controversy over the pre-qualified crews, with the Henley Stewards opting to pre-qualify a large number of crews for events across the board. This manifested in the club events with ‘B’ or ‘C’ crews larger clubs missing out to slower ‘A’ crews from smaller clubs. This was particularly apparent in the Thames Cup.
Once the regatta got underway, however, it was back to its best. The extra day meant the scheduling was somewhat confusing, with events having days off in the middle of the week and even semi-finals taking place on the Friday (in the Wyfolds and Britannia events). This did not detract from the quality, however, as a strong contingent of international crews from New Zealand, the U.S. and elsewhere added excitement to what we had seen on the domestic scene.
As the dust began to settle the scene was set on finals day, with Thames, who had dominated all season, set for a clean-sweep in the club events. In the Thames Cup, they faced arch-rivals Molesey, in the Britannia it was London and in the Wyfolds it was NSR Oslo.
The day began with a win for Thames in the Brit, followed by another in the Wyfolds, the eight men who were theoretically Thames’s ‘second eight’ all coming away Henley winners. Towards the end of the day the Thames Cup final took place and in this Thames were second best. Molesey put together a fantastic race to take the win and prevent Thames sweeping all four club events.
Back into Winter Training
After a well-earned break or perhaps some pot-hunting many returned to their clubs in September to take on the 2022/23 season. It began with Scullers’ Head on the Tideway with the overall win taken by Rui Xu of London RC.
Next came Pairs Head where Xu took another win, this time in the Championship Double with teammate Matthew Curtis. Thames returned to winning ways, taking the Club Double, Vesta showed up in force and did well in the pairs, winning the Intermediate Double category, and a host of other clubs from across the country added some vibrancy to this event.
Fours Head was next, and aside from Leander’s domination in the Championship events, winning all, locals London and Thames were the victors in the club events.
Rutherford Head and Remenham Challenge rounded off the year with select crews competing at those.
Looking Ahead
With the relatively boring part of the season out of the way, it’s exciting to consider who the contenders might be for the big races taking part from the spring of 2023. It looks as though Thames have reasserted their dominance on the men’s club scene and with eight of their top athletes still available for the club events at HRR following defeat in the Thames Cup, the scene looks set for them to dominate again.
London continue their ascension, with strong performances in small boats, but the question will be whether they can translate this into the bigger boats and on bigger stages.
Molesey have seen an exodus of the athletes that won the Thames Cup, so need to rebuild. Their form is largely unknown so far but they tend to come good with competitive crews in the summer.
The main question I ask now is who will step up to challenge Thames Rowing Club? Will it be one of their Tideway rivals or perhaps a foreign club? I for one would like to see them challenged, if for nothing else to provide some more excitement.
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