Thursday at Henley Royal Regatta saw the entry of the selected crews into the regatta, having not been racing on the Wednesday. As such, many of today’s races have seen some comfortable margins, as those crews flex their collective muscle and laid down intentions for the coming rounds.
The 3rd race of the day saw Claires Court School make their entrance, with an assured performance in defeating the German crew from Frankfurter. This was a race that saw the crews level initially, but Claires Court, rowing a much more fluid style drew away, easing up towards the finish, to take a win by 1.25 lengths.
Taking the idea of easing up at the finish perhaps one step too far was Henley RC ‘A’. This crew appeared to finish their race 10m too soon, before realising the mistake and taking one more stroke. Fortunately, they had a comfortable lead over Scotch College from Melbourne so it wasn’t costly, but this is something they will want to put right for tomorrow, where they will go on to face their own B crew tomorrow.
Christiania of Norway produced a superb row to knock out the selected Eniskillen Royal of Ireland in a good, tight race the whole way down the track. The eventual verdict was around 1/3 of a length, but this could have been closer were it not for the wash of an errant launch somewhat disrupting the Enniskillen charge to the finish. Speaking to the Norwegians after the race, they seemed delighted with their efforts and are excited for their race tomorrow against Claires Court.
The final Fawley race of the morning pitched Walton up against Henley RC ‘B’. Again, the selected Henley crew took a comfortable win to set up a meeting with none other than the Henley top quad tomorrow.
Leander B took on the kiwi crew from St Peters College, who had a flirt with the booms coming out of the island, that required some significant steering. to correct, which gave Leander the initiative, which they seized upon, and drew out to a 3/4 of a length victory. This sets up a race with Lea RC which promises to be a stormer, given the results from Marlow.
One of the tighter matchups of the day came between the two ‘C’ crews, of Tideway Scullers and Henley. This was a tight race with Henley holding the advantage until the Remenham Club, where Tideway Scullers dropped the hammer to move through Henley, and extended out to a 1.25 length win at the finish. This result was a big deal for Scullers, with the bowman saying how proud he was of the crew as they rolled out underneath the press box. Scullers go on to face Leander A tomorrow, as the last remaining TSS crew in the Regatta.
Lea and Clydesdale served up one of the more scrappy races of the day in thw Fawley, with both crews having moments at certain places down the course. The Clydesdale 3 man came off his seat at the start, and this affected their rhythm, and whilst in a comfortable lead, they caught what could have been a costly crab, but this had no bearing on the race, and Lea ran out winners, in a race that neither crew will be particularly happy with.
The final Fawley race of the day was a contest between Tideway Scullers School A and Leander A. This was a result that was never really in doubt, and Leander took a comfortable win, to set up a contest with the sole remaining Scullers crew, the C crew.
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