As the year draws to a close and the world’s gaze shifts towards 2024 (an Olympic year, no less), the JRN leadership team found one last chance to reminisce on our favourite races of 2023.
Ten editors, ten races, and your chance to vote for your favourite.
Amy: The Boat Races – Men’s Boat Race
It’s a conventional choice, but my favourite race of 2023 was the men’s boat race. As a former cox it was nice to have the importance of coxing highlighted so clearly, but for me the excitement came because Cambridge never truly walked away from Oxford. The tideway always has such fantastic potential for upsets and comebacks, but so often the boat race looks to have been decided by Hammersmith. It was great to watch a boat race that felt competitive the full way down the course.
Ira: Henley Royal Regatta – Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup Final (St Paul’s Vs. Teddies)
Seven-time Henley Royal champions St. Paul’s defending their championship. National Schools’ winners St. Edwards with overwhelming crowd support. Bold steering from a 15-year-old cox in a race that has yet again defined the standard of schoolboy rowing.
In the aftermath of a crosswind-dominated NSR, both schools came into HRR with something to prove. St Paul’s wanting to take back the title they felt rightfully theirs, Teddies to silence all doubters once and for all. And this they did, in the most grandiose manner of all. Just getting ahead of SPS from the start, poised in their rhythm and immaculate with their bladework; the boys in blue were able to hold up the trophy for the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup, one that has eluded them since 1999.
A nailbiter of a race that kept the crowd on their toes until the very end. The highest quality of rowing seen this year around the junior circuit. What more could we ask for?
Rachel: Henley Royal Regatta – Fawley Challenge Cup Semi-final (Los Gatos Vs. Hinksey Sculling School)
This may be a rouge nomination for race of the year, but nonetheless this transatlantic matchup between Hinksey Sculling School and California’s Los Gatos (HOCR champions) was a tightly contested race which ensured an all-English final in the Fawley Challenge Cup. Hinksey were able to come from behind at the Barrier and resist Los Gatos’ numerous attempts to regain control of the race, settling on a length and a half victory. What makes this race so significant for me is how the whole of British club rowing seemed to come together to support this Hinksey Crew.
On Finals day, the boat tents were lined with blazers of all colours to clap out the newly proclaimed people’s champions, and while they may have not claimed overall victory the boys from Oxford demonstrated just what local club rowing is capable of.
Phoebe: Henley Royal Regatta – Fawley Challenge Cup Semi-final (Leander Club Vs. Windsor Boys’ School)
After watching the season unfold the Saturday of Henley brought about what I expected, and was then proven, to be one of the most exciting races of the year. The Semi Final of the Fawley Challenge Cup had the two favourites to lift the trophy: Leander Club and The Windsor Boys’ School take on some combative racing. No crew gave the others the security of knowing if they were safe. Stroke after stroke the two crews truly showed how ruthless rowing can be, especially on the duelling running of the Henley Track. Whilst it was Leander who took the victory, the final metres of the race had nothing in it, no one could call it but all could watch in awe as the eventual winners of the event alongside Windsor Boys’ School put on a race to be remembered for years to come.
Rosie: Henley Women’s Regatta – Rayner Cup Final (Sydney Rowing Club Vs. Wycliffe Rowing Club)
Historically I think it’s safe to say that people are a fan of the underdog, especially in sports- you only have to look at the current blockbuster film hitting the screens to know that. However, as the final race in the Rayner Cup at Henley Women’s Regatta began, otherwise known as junior double sculls, the only real question on anyone’s mind was how much would Sydney Rowing Club win by? As it turns out, the answer is with the exact same lead as their teammates had in 2022 when they too made the journey across the world to race along this prestigious course- two and a quarter lengths. They took a decisive lead and rowed down the course with the kind of skill and assurance that some rowers search for their whole lives. Lucy Searle and Talisa Knoke-Driver were never the underdogs, but during that final against Wycliffe they showed us why sometimes we should root for the champions.
Alex: Henley Royal Regatta – Princess Royal Heat (Zeidler Vs. Robinson Ranger)
This was a battle worthy of finals day. With both scullers neck and neck all the way down the track, even watching the replay gave me chills. Side-by-side single scull racing can be brutal, and it was Henley native Robinson Ranger of the University of London that came out victorious. Robinson Ranger’s poetic combination of decisive moves and the home advantage drove her forward to take the win and progress to Friday. Take nothing away from Zeidler, however, she had an equally outstanding run down the track. From the moment both scullers passed the Enclosures, the grimaces on their faces were enough to illustrate that this was a race of extremely fine margins. Both left it all on the water, and left the press box on their feet.
Tom: National Schools’ Regatta Championship Boys Eights Semi-Final (2)
To see three of the country’s finest schoolboy eights sprinting to the line at the national championships is special in its own right. When you then factor in the reality that the results of this race would determine lane draws for the final and provide shelter for those who fared well and expose to the elements those who did not, then you have a recipe for pure drama. That is exactly how this epic played out – three of the fastest eights in the UK pitching for the best possible seat at the table and crossing the line exhausted and locked together in almost inseparable unison (less than 0.3 seconds to be exact). A truly remarkable example of junior rowing and one that will live long in the memory.
Ed: HRR – Wyfold Challenge Cup Semi-Final (De Hoop, Netherlands Vs. London Rowing Club)
This contest was arguably the race of the Regatta. Two crews locked together for the entirety of the 2112m course. So intimate was their connection that they crossed the line blades entwined after clashing violently with mere meters to go. The Dutch did everything they could to hold off a late London charge, having led for basically every stroke barring the final ten. In the end, this race was arguably the final a day or two early as Thames got nowhere near as close to London in the final of the Wyfold Challenge Cup.
Becca: The Boat Races – Women’s Spare Pair Race
The race that wasn’t a race…
Cambridge cruised to glory in the Women’s Openweight Spare Pair – against no opposition! With Oxford pulling out injured from the race, it was left to CUBC’s Beth Taylor and Lucy Harvard to take on the Tideway alone. While just finishing the distance would have been enough for victory, they certainly didn’t rest on their laurels and gave it their all to help make the Light Blues’ clean sweep.
Fergus: Henley Women’s Regatta – Championship Doubles Final (Strathclyde Park RC/ Twickenham RC vs Leander Club/ Twickenham RC
This race had the largest finishing margin of any on this list but it was special for a different reason. The Strathclyde/Twickenham combination had what looked like an insurmountable lead at the halfway mark – they had led from stroke one and their rhythm was powerful and composed. Clearly, no-one told Vwaire Obukohwo & Katherine George, who found something remarkable to overhaul their opposition with seconds left. Their battle was waged via attrition for so long before they dropped the hammer in the closing stages to scull away with a well-deserved victory.
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