Henley Royal Regatta 2023 – The Thames Challenge Cup Preview

Holders: Molesey Boat Club

Entries: 40

Henley, it’s back for another year and set to be bigger than ever. Rowers up and down the country and across the globe have been waiting for this for months and before we know it, it will be over, and we’ll be craving that buzz again. These last days are worth savouring as the sun shines and the engines are tuned ahead of being unleashed on the 2112m course.

The Thames Challenge Cup for Men’s Club Eights is one of three events for club men’s crews, but arguably the most exciting, as the others are smaller, slower fours. This year it looks to be the easiest of the three to qualify for, with 40 crews entered for 32 spots in the draw.

At the time of writing the list of crews required to qualify has just been released. The Thames Cup is a bizarre case where only 12 crews have been pre-qualified, leaving a massive 20 places available at the Qualifying Races. This goes against the policy adopted across other events, where Qualifiers looks to be a brutal affair of many crews vying for only a few places, the same policy that applied to the Thames Cup last year.

For the crews that are discussed in this preview, however, qualification is not the concern, they will instead be seeking seeded spots, giving them the best possible chance of advancing far into the regatta. For a few, their sights will be set firmly on the weekend with the aim of winning outright.

Deutscher Ruder Club Hannover von 1884, Germany

The beauty of Henley Royal is its ability to attract crews from outside of the UK. There are a number of international entries in the Thames Cup and the first to discuss is Hannover, Germany. This is not the crew’s first trip abroad this season, they have competed in Belgium and Hungary, including at the Ghent International Regatta in May, where they placed third in the B final of the Men’s Eights.

The club is a regular at Henley Royal, making the trip over with Britannia coxed fours in 2022 and 2021, though they were knocked out on the Tuesday and Friday, respectively. This year they have opted for the larger eight and judging by their results at some big European events in the lead up to Henley, they might have the quality to go further into the regatta.

Koninklijke Amsterdamsche Roei-en Zeilvereeniging ‘De Hoop’, Netherlands

This club, known colloquially as KARZV ‘De Hoop’, has not been a regular at Henley, certainly compared to some of the other international entries we’ll see. There have been a couple of Dutch national or U23 team members representing the club in open events, but there hasn’t been a club-level crew at the regatta since 2019.

Their results this season have been impressive, however. They demonstrated their competitiveness against British club crews early at the Heineken Roeivierkamp, where they placed third overall, behind two Dutch student crews (Nereus and Skoll), and beating Molesey from the UK. This theme continued into the domestic regatta season, where the crew placed well, in the mix with the same crews as above plus Laga, Triton, and Njord, all familiar names to Henley fanatics.

Their fastest time over the preceding races is 5.47, indicating that they’ll be competitive with the top club crews in the UK, though unfortunately conditions at Dorney have not presented British crews with the opportunity to demonstrate their true speed this year.

Leander Club

After a brief spell away from this event, Leander returned last year to compete in the Thames Cup, making it to the Saturday where they lost to Thames RC by two thirds of a length. With their top athletes competing in the intermediate level events, the Ladies Plate and the Visitors, the athletes making up the Thames Cup entry is typically their development squad, gap year athletes and those lower down the pecking order within the squad.

Considering this, the crew put in a decent shift at Met Regatta where they placed sixth in the A final in tough conditions, making them the second Thames Cup crew on ranking. A couple of weeks earlier, they took a trip to Germany to compete in the International Wedau Regatta in Duisberg where they placed eighth against arguably stronger competition.

More recently at Marlow, this crew finished at the top of the B final, a solid result though a bit behind the front runners who featured in the A final.

Based on these results, Leander should get a seeded spot, positioning them well to repeat their result last year and make a bid for a weekend finish.

Molesey Boat Club

Molesey took the win in the Thames Cup last year in an incredible final where they prevented rivals, Thames RC, from a clean sweep of all four club events at the regatta. This came after several members of the crew had their hearts broken when they lost against Thames in the final the previous year.

The crew entered this year is much changed, as expected given those winners from last year are now ineligible to compete in the event again. They performed well on the Saturday of Met Regatta, where they won the B final, posting a time that would have placed them sixth in the A final (though the conditions will have favoured them significantly in their final).

They put in a good performance at Marlow to get into the A final ahead of some quality competition, but they were off the pace at the back of the field, posting a time about eight seconds slower than the crew ahead. The Leander and Thames crews that were in the B final went faster on time, although the lanes had a significant impact, once again, on raw times.

In a way it could have been easy to overlook Molesey this year, as the limelight goes the way of Thames during most of the season. However, they often come good towards Henley, and they will go in as one of the top crews for this event.

Münchener Ruderclub von 1880 e.V., Germany

For the eagle eyed, this club will be familiar, as they have been a regular at the bigger events in the UK over the last twelve months. Based in Munich, Germany, Münchener Ruderclub travelled for Henley Royal in 2022, where they also competed in the Thames Cup, and finished on the Friday, losing to Molesey. Earlier in 2023, they came over for the Head of the River Race, where they finished third in the overseas category, and 36th overall.

More recently, this crew competed at Cham International Regatta in Switzerland where they finished second in the Men’s Eights. This result positions them as one of the top crews in the region, and puts them on course to repeat their Henley result from last year.

Sydney Rowing Club, Australia

Making the trip across the world for a second year running after making the semi-finals in 2022, it’s Sydney. One the top Aussie clubs, they either enjoyed last year so much or are confident in their chances of winning this time around, hopefully both.

This year’s crew contains a slew of athletes who won silverware at the 2023 Australian Championships, in pairs, fours, eights, and across the club and championship categories. It also contains a two time U23 international in Harry Crouch, in the five seat.

They made their first appearance on UK soil at Marlow Regatta, where they did well to make it into the competitive A final, finishing just behind the top boat from Thames. Having only just been in the country for a few days, this is a really positive result, as they will gain speed as they acclimatise.

These guys will be serious contenders once again, and are in with a great shot of upsetting the domestic titans and taking the Thames Cup abroad for the first time in a while.

Thames Rowing Club

The blot on an otherwise perfect results sheet for Thames at HRR 2022 was losing out in the final of the Thames Cup, having already won the other three club events. The memory of that loss will be fresh in the minds of the Thames ‘A’ crew that competes next week, whether or not the athletes themselves were part of that crew.

So far it’s been yet another season of dominance for Thames, with strong performances at all the major events up until now. At Met the club finished fourth and eighth on the more competitive Saturday, positioning both among the fastest entrants to the Thames Cup. At Marlow, the top Thames boat finished third behind two boats from Brookes, and crucially, about a second ahead of Sydney RC.

The club and coaches will probably be kicking themselves for not entering a ‘C’ or even ‘D’ boat this year, as the Stewards’ qualifying policy would have meant that they’d likely both qualify. That’s irrelevant, however, as the ‘A’ crew is the one we’re really interested in, which remains one of the favourites to win the event.

Vesta Rowing Club

With a massive four entries, Vesta take the title for (potentially) the most prominent club in the event. Their ‘A’ crew has pre-qualified and their ‘B’ and ‘C’ crews have a good chance of making it through the Qualifying Races. The ‘D’ crew will likely have a harder time, unless it’s some young masters who still possess a decent level of fitness to make a good showing in the time trial.

The ‘A’ crew is Vesta’s third ranked boat, behind fours in both the Wyfolds and Brit. This means they will aim to make it through a couple of rounds, a Friday finish being a great showing, rather than really contending the win.

Prediction

The Thames Cup is stacked, much like many events at Henley this year. The 40 entries for 32 places might make it seem ‘easy’ compared to some of the other categories, but at the top end the quality is all there.

This might be a bit bold, but my prediction is that Thames ‘A’, Thames ‘B’, Molesey, Leander, Münchener, Sydney, and ‘De Hoop’ will all make Friday (note that is only seven out of the eight spaces). From there the draw will come into play.

The crews that stand out within this group as being genuine contenders are Thames ‘A’ and Sydney, and I’ll be bold once again and predict that the Thames Cup goes down under this year, with Sydney taking the win.

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