The British Rowing Senior and Junior Club Championships is a new event for this year, combining the annual British Rowing Junior Championships with its Senior counterpart that was discontinued back in 2018. It promises to be an event full of great racing, coming at an interesting time of the year – right off the back of Henley Royal. Will crews have attempted to continue their momentum in the two-week break between Henley and Brit Champs, or will they have come off the boil?
There are only five boats in the championship coxless fours category, so I’ll try and give a rundown of each crew before offering a prediction at the end.
Derby RC/Oxford Brookes
This composite crew features three athletes from Derby‘s first VIII that raced the Thames Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta: Toby Reid, Tim Maine, and James Walker. Derby have stepped on pretty dramatically this season, putting the eight into the Thames for the first time since 2014 and winning their first round against Cambridge 99, falling to Avon RC, NZL in the second. The Derby boys are joined by Oxford Brookes‘ Shay Bradley, who rowed at Derby himself before joining the Brookes machine for this year. He was part of the Prince Albert-winning Brookes four this year, joining the ranks of Brookes athletes with a coveted red box, and will bring a ton of valuable experience and insight to this unit.
Hinksey Sculling School
The sole junior entry in this field, Hinksey will be looking for some scalps here. This four features two athletes from their quad – Max Campbell-Reide and Toby Harris – joined by Will Fletcher and Adam Gillett. Hinksey had some great results at HRR this year; the Fawley entry, coming off the back of making the final in 2023, fell just short this year, losing out to eventual winners Windsor Boys in the semi. This is a club that consistently produces units that are far greater than the sum of their parts, and that are able to achieve some pretty special results. If these guys have been putting the work in since Henley, I can absolutely see them pulling off a great performance here and challenging for the top spot.
London RC
This strong London boat features two athletes from their first VIII – Matt Reeder and Calum Jenkins – joined by the stroke of London’s Wyfold four, George Christian, and George Cowley, who rowed in the Prince of Wales quad. There’s plenty of experience in this boat. Reeder has been rowing for London for many years, and has been a key part of their recent resurgence; Jenkins was the Captain of the England rowing team for HIRR back in 2023. Cowley has represented Wales in the Commonwealth Rowing Association Beach Sprint Championships. There’s no shortage of talent here, but perhaps most crucially, these guys will be smarting from a Henley campaign that fell short of expectations – despite being London’s most successful Henley in many, many years. The guys that were in the first VIII from this year will be particularly vengeful. Having been neck and neck with Thames virtually all season, it seemed that LRC had managed to make one great – and potentially unassailable – stride out ahead of their Tideway rivals with a fantastic result at Marlow Regatta, finishing within sight of Brookes’ Grand-winning eight, and ahead of everyone else, a few lengths in front of Thames’ Thames Challenge Cup eight. It was a crushing loss for the boys in black and red, and London seemed poised to take the crown at HRR. But, when the inevitable showdown with Thames rolled around in the semi-final, London seemed unable to live with Thames’ pace, and were knocked out. It will have been a bitter pill to swallow for a crew that must have been going in with some weight of expectation on their shoulders. With a strong Thames crew entered at the British Championships, these London guys will be out for revenge – that much I’m sure of.
Nottingham RC
This Nottingham crew, formed of Joe Spratley, Freddie Andrews, Ruaraidh Little and Ryan Gillard, is half of the Thames Cup eight that failed to make it through qualifiers at HRR. These guys aren’t at the top end of things at Nottingham RC, and realistically, they will struggle to match the pace of the other entries here. That being said, if they’ve kept momentum up since Henley qualifiers and have been training this crew consistently, they may well have a shot to cause an upset or two here.
Thames RC
The perennial powerhouse Thames RC have a strong four entered here, featuring Joe Bright, who won the Thames Cup last year and stroked the Visitors’ four this year; Jamie Woodford, who was in the ill-fated Wyfold entry from this year that fell to an unexpectedly quick Marlow RC four in the final; and Stan Cannons and George Nelson, both of whom were in the Thames ‘B’ entry in the Thames Cup. It’s an interesting mix of athletes in this boat, but they’re all pretty technical and obviously have some fantastic experience being part of the Thames machine. I think they’ll be quick, but I’m not sure if they’ll have the pace to live with London in this race. That being said, the showdown is tantalising.
Prediction
Several of these boats are realistically in with a shot of winning, but I think that London RC will have the strength and the drive to get over the line first come race day. I think second will be a battle between Thames and Derby, with Hinksey right in the mix too.
Best of luck to all crews.
Five Man
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