This is the great exhalation before the sprint. The final reflection before the ramp-up. The silence that precedes every great storm. Henley Royal Regatta – one of our sport’s most revered and cherished events – is looming large in the foreground and we as punters, pundits, athletes and coaches are teetering on the edge of one of rowing’s great long summer weeks. Come fall of the first flag on Tuesday, we’ll be subjected to relentless racing, constantly evolving narratives, winners and losers and the spectrum of emotion that falls between those polarities alongside a host of frivolity and formality on the bank.
Whether record entries attracts record eyes to Henley’s Town Hall for the Draw remains to be seen, but what today’s rummage at the scrummage did bring us was the final touches to a starting grid that is dripping in intrigue, drama and the potential for stunning racing.
Selection Question
Across 26 trophies, hundreds of crews and thousands of athletes, the task of selecting one boat over another in pursuit of the fairest set of racing is unenviable, to say the least. By and large, the Stewards’ get it right, as evidenced by the way in which the club, student and junior events are largely stacked. In the Open events, not selecting the German Olympic quad (Ruder-Klub Normannia Braunschweig e.V. and Sportclub Magdeburg e.V. Abteilung Rudern) was a curious one but keeping the Americans (Penn Athletic Club Rowing Association and California Rowing Club) and Estonians (SÕudekeskus Kalev and Pärnu SÕudeklubi) apart in the hope of another epic showdown could be one explanation. In the Grand, we’re guaranteed a transatlantic tussle between the victors of Brookes and Leander against either the IRA-winning Washington outfit or one of the Rowing Canada/Princeton Training Center and Craftsbury Green Racing Project development contingent. The deep nature of this year’s draw is never more apparent than in the small boats, where Paris-bound prospects and world championship A-finalists are being made to race on opening day in the Hambleden and Diamond Challenge Sculls to name but two.
Eye-Openers
We love a first day blockbuster and Henley’s 2024 vintage has served up more than a few to tuck into on the Tuesday and Wednesday. Before we even touch the Open events – where top-quality competition is in abundance right from the off – the junior categories are serving up a range of delicious prospects. In the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup, Eton College will face off against Bedford School whilst Westminster School will face Schülerruderverein Alter Teichweg, Hamburg of Germany. The latter’s first-day contests at Henley Royal Regatta have not been kind; in 2023, they matched up against eventual winners from St Edward’s School. Although we may not see the same level of speed from Westminster, the boys in pink are national A-finalists.
Sir William Perkins and the holders from Tideway Scullers School – who did not receive a selection much to my personal surprise – will meet on the Tuesday in the Diamond Jubilee Challenge Cup whilst the Fawley Challenge Cup throws us curveballs all over the shop. Ruderclub Zürich, Switzerland meet the Tideway Scullers School (another slightly tricky draw for the Chiswick-based group) whilst Maidenhead – winners of the National Schools’ Regatta ‘B’ final – face Miami, who were seventh at their respective nationals.
Pair Paradise
Not events that I often go to when deep-diving on the Henley Royal Regatta draw, the Silver Goblets and Nickalls’ plus Hambleden Challenge Cups are stacked full of fascinating features. With a middle grouping in the Goblets containing FOQR nearly-rans, spurned Olympians and former world championship A-finalists, this is a stunning set-up before we get anywhere near the water. The Hambleden is so packed that Eliza Gaffney and Samantha Morton of Rowing Australia do not get a bye to the second round, instead meeting Phoebe Robinson and Sarah Tisdall (University of Texas, USA and Thames Rowing Club).
Clubbed Together
Thames will be fancying their chances of repeating their remarkable feats of 2023 in the Wargrave Challenge Cup, when they placed four crews in the quarter-finals and two crews into the semi-finals. In 2024 though, their competition is fierce with significant international interest alongside a host of rapidly-improving domestic outfits from the likes of London, Molesey and Leander.
Elsewhere, there is the very real prospect that the mighty Thames may not win any other club events in 2024. I am so excited to see this much-heralded London boat in action in the Thames Challenge Cup alongside a roster with beaten finalists from De Hoop, the Kiwi national title-holders from Avon and selected outfits from Der Hamburger und Germania Ruder Club and Riverside Boat Club, U.S.A. In the Wyfold and Britannia Challenge Cups, the fastest domestic prospects at the most recent UK regatta come from Marlow and Royal Chester respectively, who will be contending with entries from the likes of Sydney Rowing Club, 2016 Wyfold winners from Grasshopper Club, Zürich, Calgary Rowing Club of Canada and the aforementioned De Hoop.
Heralded Henley
Is this the best week of the year for rowing? Sure, the Head of the Charles is a spectacle that only the Americans could probably pull off and the Olympics represents the finest, fastest folk in the game. But, there is nothing quite like Henley Royal Regatta. Walk the Boat Tents on the Tuesday morning and see the wonderment at schoolboys and girls rubbing shoulders with Olympians, the grit and gusto generated by crews whose entire season depends on the next 90 minutes, the fanfare from footfall into the enclosures that stands at imperfect odds to the forceful focus in the very centre of this community’s universe. It is a peculiar thing that so many flock to the banks of the Thames yet are ignorant to the reality that the unofficial World Cup for rowing is unfolding in front of their very eyes. We’re blessed in 2024 with a wide entry, a deep roster, a tale of titans and a story of survivors. Every year, I re-fill my hyperbolic canon to fire literary prose at the Thames Valley but, with JRN operating on all cylinders and a Regatta full to bursting, this edition promises to be one of the finest yet.
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