With qualifiers as competitive as they have ever been – in a year with a huge record entry – we thought it was high time to take a look at the crews required to qualify for the club events in 2024. Our expert analysts have put together their bets on who they think will be making it through Friday’s time-trial, starting with the eights.
Thames Challenge Cup
TOTAL: 38
SUBJECT TO WITHDRAWALS THE FASTEST 16 CREWS WILL QUALIFY (42.11%)
The common theme across the qualifying events this year is that there are more entries with less places available. The battle for entry to the main draw of the Thames Challenge Cup is one that’ll be fraught. It will provide, however, a level of quality and depth that might have been unseen in recent years. As ever, with the Marlow Regatta less than a week before qualifiers, we have a good idea as to who has the speed that they might need to get across the line. The slowest of the pre-qualifiers, it should be noted, was 39th-placed Derby RC. Beaten by a number of the ‘B’ crews who’ll have to trawl down the course on Friday, there’s a degree to which the distribution of prequalification places is meritocratic but it makes you wonder. Though it ensures a diversity of clubs are in the draw with certainty, it makes the qualification event itself tough for those who are outside of the big clubs. Crews such as Molesey ‘B’ and London RC ‘B’ can feel hard done by though the extra run down the course under a racing environment could be considered advantageous for crews that’re less experienced.
Here are the 16 crews that I believe find themselves most likely to qualify in alphabetical order:
- Agecroft RC
- Cambridge 99 RC
- City of Cambridge RC
- Cantabrigian RC
- City of Bristol RC ‘B’
- Lea RC
- London RC ‘B’
- Marlow RC ‘B’
- Minerva Bath RC
- Molesey BC ‘A’
- Royal Chester RC
- Thames RC ‘B’
- Twickenham RC
- Tyne Amateur RC ‘A’
- Upper Thames RC
- Vesta RC ‘B’
There’s a degree to which some of these might change. Away from the top end of the time trial there was very little between a number of the entries that I have said will qualify and those that won’t. Some of these crews will take qualifiers in their stride knowing that, should they do what they know they can, they’ll be in the main draw. The magic of qualifiers, however, rests on that ‘one-off’ row that a crew can put together, a row that they produce by the sheer grandeur of the occasion. It’s this that makes Henley special and this that can defy the predictions that we expect.
Wargrave Challenge Cup
TOTAL: 20
SUBJECT TO WITHDRAWALS THE FASTEST 5 CREWS WILL QUALIFY (25%)
86 Green Lake Crew U.S.A.
This is a crew that have been in the same boat all year and have been winning races, pushing off their ‘A’ crew. This line-up will be a well drilled race crew and know what they have to do to get up in front and stay there. A lot of domestic crews won’t have had this consistency all year and many will have been in different boat combinations, up to and including last weekend. I don’t think the Stewards would force an international crew to do the time trial if they weren’t relatively confident that they’d move through on merit.
93 London Rowing Club ‘B’
This is the line up that made the final in the Copas Cup for aspirational club eights at Henley Women’s Regatta (The ‘A’ crew were half championship four and half the winning aspirational four). They’ve been in this crew for several months now and put up a gutsy fight against Thames ‘B’ (who have prequalified) and I’d expect them to put a solid shift together in the time trial.
108 Thames Rowing Club ‘C’
109 Thames Rowing Club ‘D’
Reasoning? It’s Thames. These crews are possibly the winners of the Copas Cup. Five crews in the top 21 at the Women’s Head of the River shows extraordinary depth and I pretty confident they’ll get at least the ‘C’ crew through but I would put money on the ‘D’ boat too, particularly given they had four boats in the quarter-finals in 2023.
110 The Tideway Scullers’ School ‘A’
Despite not having raced together in the Copas Cup, they jumped in the eight for the Sunday of the Metropolitan Regatta in preparation for the Wargrave Challenge Cup. Given they hadn’t been in this crew, they had impressive speed and were ahead of London’s ‘B’ boat and Vesta A – so comparatively speaking the speed is there
A couple of dark horse may emerge from:
97 Molesey Boat Club
Molesey have an entry in the Remenham, so this will likely be their ‘B’ boat. It’s likely this crew raced as the second eight from Molesey at the Women’s Head of the River, which finished 78th overall.
OR
87 Henley Rowing Club
They won the ‘B’ final of championship girls’ eights at the National Schools’ Regatta, but they didn’t get past the quarter finals in the Peabody Cup. Junior girls have another gear, so are not to be counted out.
Wyfold Challenge Cup
TOTAL: 37
SUBJECT TO WITHDRAWALS THE FASTEST 11 CREWS WILL QUALIFY (29.73%)
With 11 crews set to qualify from the 37 scheduled to race at qualifiers, the Wyfold is one of the more forgiving events this coming Friday. Several of the following clubs were unlucky to miss out on a prequalification spot based on their results from Marlow Regatta. Those who competed in the C-Final at Marlow, such as Nottingham, Curlew and Grosvenor, should book themselves a slot in the draw should they race to the level they are capable of.
One of the most interesting finals from Marlow was the D-Final which saw many of those required to qualify go head-to-head. Lea should count themselves lucky they have prequalified given they were over ten seconds back on St Andrew and the Stewards are sending the Scots through Friday’s time trial.
While Henley struggled in the E-Final, I expect them to be able to take care of business on home water. Speaking of that final, Reading seemed to build throughout Saturday’s racing and if their proverbial ducks align and they can find some speed for the most important race of the year, then there’s no reason why they couldn’t hear their name being called on Saturday in Henley Town Hall.
Here are the 11 crews that I believe find themselves most likely to qualify in alphabetical order:
Curlew Rowing Club
Grosvenor Rowing Club
Henley Rowing Club
Hereford Rowing Club
Kingston Rowing Club
Nottingham Rowing Club
UK Armed Forces Rowing Club
London Rowing Club B
St Andrew Boat Club
Reading Rowing Club
Vesta Rowing Club
Britannia Challenge Cup
TOTAL: 15
SUBJECT TO WITHDRAWALS THE FASTEST 2 CREWS WILL QUALIFY (13.3%)
With 15 crews entered, only two spots will be available for the Britannia Challenge Cup’s main draw. There have been a lot of talk recently about the prequalified crews and how few spots there are at qualifiers. While two out of 15 reflects what other events may be seeing in respect to spots available, it does also mirror what we saw last year as only two spots were available for the Britannia from 15 competitors at the 2023 qualifiers.
Marlow Regatta is always the go-to regatta for examining which of the men’s crews may qualify. There was a tight battle for first place in the B-final of the coxed fours, with Upper Thames narrowly beating City of Oxford by 0.5s, a fight that has been seen throughout previous regattas such as the Metropolitan Regatta. As the top two crews racing on Friday who also competed last Saturday, they could be the favourites to qualify. Sitting half a second off the City of Oxford are Northwich. Having finished almost eight seconds behind Upper Thames at the Metropolitan Regatta, the upwards trend suggests a strong commitment to doing what’s needed. The question will come down to if they run out of time…
There’s some good international talent, but I think they will have a hard time. Mercantile raced Marlow, but placed 13th, behind three other crews competing for this Britannia Challenge Cup spot. Riverside BC ‘B’ and Princeton National Rowing Association both come from across the pond, with some results in fours. Riverside show a little more with club-level wins in eights and fours at the Head of the Charles, US summer internationals and the Independence Day regatta. Princeton, however, claimed a win in the mid-Atlantic regionals.
In conclusion, Upper Thames strike me as the safest bet. They have not only beaten many of the competing crews already, but also have home water advantage. I also think City of Oxford will beat Northwich to the punch, largely thanks to the Henley experience present in this crew. Question marks remains over whether Mercantile were suffering jet-lag at Marlow or whether they simply do not have the speed to live with the competition. Riverside are my wildcard – they could go either way.
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