With a swathe of cancellations to end 2023, we arrive in a new year with little to no real guide on how fast crews across the UK are going. We can take educated guesses; Thames, London, Vesta, Scullers and the provincial leaders in Cantabrigian, Agecroft, City of Bristol etc will have competitive squads but who is really going to be leading the charge for Henley silverware is a relative unknown. Given that club sculling is a far smaller bracket here in the UK, we are going to primarily focus on sweep with some notable sculling mentions.
We find ourselves starting far too many articles praising Thames but it is impossible to look past this Putney-based juggernaut. With a wealth of resource, experience and know-how, they’ll be right at the business end of competition come Henley Royal Regatta and pitching to win the holy trinity of Wyfold, Britannia and Thames Challenge Cups (a historic feat that has thus far eluded them). London were the latest to put paid to the Thames triple tilt, stealing the Wyfold from under their noses in 2023. If they’ve retained and developed a helpful bulk of muscle into 2024, we expect them to be very punchy. Lea are another boat club who often come good in the summer. Their top crew crashed out at Henley Royal Regatta in round one, so they’ll be hoping for a faster feature in 2024. Leander are obviously worth a mention, given the fact they usually put out a competitive club eight in the Thames and tend to dominate the Prince of Wales (although you could argue the athletes who comprise the latter entry stretch the definition of ‘club’). Molesey won the Thames in 2022, much to everyone’s surprise, and were competitive in 2023. Can they find the recipe for success in an Olympic year? On the sweep side, honorable mentions must go to Upper Thames, City of Bristol, Royal Chester, Agecroft, Vesta and our friends from overseas in Australia, Holland, Germany, Ireland and the USA.
For sculling, well, it’s tough to justify much beyond Leander. Thames had a tasty, and independent, sculling outfit last year and will be looking to build on that in 2024. It’s not unusual for provincial clubs to team up in quads, in a similar fashion to City of Cambridge Rowing Club and Cambridge ’99 Rowing Club last year.
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