The rumours are true, Oxford Brookes have made the step this year and are going for the blue-ribband event at Henley Royal Regatta. As we do often see in Olympic years, the top tier events are relatively open and indeed it looks as though Brookes will have an easy run against a crew which is made up of Brookes and UL old boys.
OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY BOAT CLUB:
The Brookes outfit is mainly a combination of the two boats which travelled to World Cup III earlier in the season: Freddie Davidson in stroke, David Ambler, Sam Nunn, Henry Blois-Brooke, Ollie Wilkes (having not made it into the GB Olympic squad), Sam Bannister, Tom Digby and David Bewick-Copley, with Brookes stalwart and potential GB senior cox Harry Brightmore at the helm.
TAURUS B.C. & TYRIAN CLUB
Against them, a crew with some familiar names in Henry Swarbrick, Matt Hnatiw and others, certainly quality athletes in their heyday, the question is, what condition are they in now? Not to put this crew down at all – they will be up for the challenge, but I suspect it will be more about ‘winning to the end of the island’ than genuinely winning the race.
To me, it’s a bit of a shame their isn’t a really strong crew entered to challenge Brookes. Some of the GB Rowing Team have entered here in their Olympic similar crews, it would have been awesome to see the bronze medal winning GB crew or a combination of athletes going in the Grand, alas, it’s not to be.
Prediction:
Brookes to win by a margin of ‘easily’.
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