A decent six entries into the Plate this year sees the best of the British Clubs go head-to-head. Three crews from Oxford Brookes stands out on the entry list, with crews from Molesey, Thames & London, and Leander making up the numbers.
Oxford Brookes
Brookes have three crews in the Ladies’ and one in the Temple this year, indicating to me that if an event win isn’t on the line, they’d rather their athletes be exposed to a higher level of racing. Their aim is to repeat their 2018 result with a Brookes-Brookes final, which I think will be a push this year given how stretched their athletes are across different events. Their top boat – made up of Seb Newman, Jamie Axon, Matthew Aldridge, Mike Glover, Oscar Lindsay, Lenny Jenkins, Matt Rowe, Will Stewart and cox Scott Cockle – is littered with U23 champions, previous Henley winners and athletes who were part of the Project Paris squad for World Cup III this year.
Brookes ‘B’ is essentially the student athletes who didn’t make it into either Temple ‘A’ or Prince Albert ‘A’, but as we saw at BUCS Regatta, the depth in this squad is unparalleled and the second eight would have broken the course record at Nottingham had their first boat not gone a couple of seconds faster.
Molesey
This Molesey crew has been a little off the pace so far this season, they were disappointed with their performance at Met Regatta and Marlow Regatta. However, since then, the crew has been strengthened with U23 champions in Miles Beeson and Mikey Dalton and former Harvard Captain of Boats, George Cozens will eek out every drop of speed from this speed from the coxing seat. This is probably the strongest Molesey crew we have seen for a few years, but the big question is whether or not they can match the competition. Realistically this crew won’t win, but with some luck in the draw stands a chance of making the final.
Leander
With their top athletes in the Stewards’ and Visitors’, this is essentially Leander’s third boat. Nevertheless there are quality athletes in this crew who know the ropes and several of whom are on a pathway to the GB Rowing Team. Similar to the Molesey crew, they simply aren’t going to win, but a good result would be to make it to the final.
Prediction in this is for the final to be Brookes vs Brookes, and for Brookes to win (obviously). Leander and Molesey to go out on the Saturday.
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