One of the most exciting races of the year, Marlow Regatta will soon host a number of the best crews from across the country in one of the last – and most important – pre-Henley Royal Regatta events. It’s the last of the ‘big three’ Dorney-based regattas (the others being Wallingford and Metropolitan), and, less than two weeks before HRR, is an absolutely crucial part of ongoing preparations. It attracts top domestic talent, and usually features international crews that have come over to compete at Henley (though only Harvard this year have come over for Marlow). The Champ Eights this year are made up of a selection of the best junior, university and club crews, and battles will be playing out across this contest as crews vie for possible seeding in the Princess Elizabeth, Temple and Thames Challenge Cups.
As ever, I’ll be doing more detailed previews of the category’s top crews – though in a field like this, basically every crew poses a pretty significant challenge – before finishing with a prediction of the top three finishers.
Durham University Boat Club
Durham have had a solid season thus far despite some difficult internal circumstances. They were third behind two Brookes boats at BUCS Regatta in May, and won BUCS Head earlier in the year. They came a little unstuck on the Saturday at the Metropolitan Regatta, missing out on the A-Final and only narrowly winning the B Final ahead of UCD. A better result came the following day – fifth in the A-Final – though again, very narrowly ahead of UCD, and behind Bristol – a result which would’ve been very disappointing for a Durham program that would probably have wanted to prioritise their Temple entry for HRR. Their crew entered here does seem to be the same first eight athletes as have rowed in the top boat all season, which suggests that Durham haven’t moved their top guys to the coxed four with a view towards the Prince Albert Cup. Their performance here, however, may well change things – or not. There will be a lot riding on this coming weekend for the Palatinate – that much is a certainty.
Edinburgh University Boat Club
The Scottish powerhouse Edinburgh has shared the fate of a number of UK universities this season – locked in a quite tightly spread pack featuring pretty much every big university program that isn’t Oxford Brookes, but with Brookes so far out in front that it feels like every major race is an absolute foregone conclusion. To focus on the closer rivalries, then, Edinburgh will want to get back up on the Durham, Newcastle, UL, Imperial and Bristol crews that narrowly had their number at the Metropolitan Regatta. However, as some may have predicted, Edinburgh have moved their strong top end into a coxed four for Marlow, suggesting a top PA entry is on the horizon. If that’s the case, then Edinburgh will, I think, struggle to make any headway in the Temple, and I can’t see an A-Final place for this Edinburgh crew at Marlow.
Eton College Boat Club
Perennial powerhouses Eton will be entering here with one pretty large point to prove – that they can be the crew to defeat Bobby Thatcher’s St Paul’s unit. Eton had a pretty great race at the National Schools’ Regatta after missing School’s Head, tracking St Paul’s all the way until the 1500 where they were overhauled by Radley and Shiplake for the silver and bronze respectively. Eton showed some real speed, though, and as a program that often steps on pretty dramatically for Henley, I would certainly highlight Eton as ones to watch.
Imperial College Boat Club
Imperial have had an interesting season. Having lost a lot of their top athletes at the end of last year, they were all but written off, and early season results suggested that they were a way off the pace of the domestic university scene. However, after a pretty disappointing BUCS Regatta performance, in recent weeks they seem to have found a good boost of speed – starting, perhaps, with their narrow win over an Oxford Blue Boat/Isis composite at the Sveti Duje International Regatta out in Split, Croatia back in May. At the Metropolitan Regatta, Imperial performed really well to make the A Final on the Saturday, and ended up in a very tight battle with Bristol. They’ve really worked themselves back into contention, and are right back in the mix; obviously Imperial are still a way off the very top end of the university scene – namely, Brookes – but they’re certainly heading in the right direction.
Leander Club
This seems to be Leander‘s Thames Challenge Cup entry – a group of younger club guys that largely use a gap year at Leander to give a big boost to their performance (and their rowing resumes, if they’re looking to get recruited). This group is pretty solid, with a number of exciting young athletes like Osian James, Marlow DePeza-Purvis and Isaac Hillicks-Tulip. They won’t be close to the top, here – the likes of Brookes are just too strong and too experienced – but it will be interesting to see how they fare against the top Thames competition (from, unsurprisingly, Thames RC, as well as the resurgent London RC).
London Rowing Club
The war between London and Thames this year has been thrilling to watch from the outside. So often Thames go into the summer season almost preordained to win the Thames Cup at Henley; so often they are relatively untroubled by other domestic clubs. The fact that their Putney Embankment neighbours, London, have managed to rise from the doldrums to become a true rival is pretty enthralling, and the possibility of a Thames/London final at HRR is just too tantalising. London are in an interesting place at the moment; they were a little behind Thames most recently at the Metropolitan Regatta on the Saturday, but then managed to reverse their fortunes on the Sunday, pretty convincingly beating both the Thames club crew and their intermediate crew which is looking to enter the Ladies Challenge Plate and winning the category outright. The London crew that won on Sunday seems to be a bit of a mix of club and intermediate athletes, however, so a more accurate reflection of their speed is likely their fourth-placed performance on the Saturday at the Metropolitan Regatta. It was still a strong performance in a bad lane in a big crosswind, so I think there’s another level of speed that we may get to see from London this weekend. I’m certainly excited.
Newcastle University Boat Club
Newcastle have been locked in a battle with their Northern rivals Durham all year, and recent results at the Met would suggest that things are very tight between the two. On both days, Durham pulled off victories over Newcastle, but the gap shrank from three seconds on the Saturday to just one second on the Sunday. Newcastle’s aggressive style of racing suits duals quite well, and I think they are often well placed for good performances at Henley. If they can show that they’ve stepped on this weekend, they’ll go into HRR with great momentum.
Oxford Brookes University Boat Club
No introduction needed, really. Oxford Brookes will come into this as clear favourites, and I don’t think any crew will get close to either of their top entries. Their first boat is the same one that just managed to pull off an unbelievable victory against the Dutch Olympic eight at Holland Beker, and features multiple Henley winners and U23 world champions in its ranks, as well as Oxford Blue James Doran. Several of these guys – Louis Nares, Jake Wincomb, Matt Heywood and Doran – just represented GB at World Rowing Cup 3 as part of the ‘Project LA’ squad, and performed very impressively in a strong pairs field. This top boat will doubtlessly storm out to a big victory, and I think their second eight here, also entered in championship and likely their Temple Cup combination, will be second, a way in front of anyone else.
Shiplake College Boat Club
After a great bronze medal performance at the National Schools’ Regatta, Shiplake will be keen to continue to push back on the notion that they are a program that peaks too early. This is a talented squad with a massive amount of motivation to finally pull off a win at HRR after years of consistently improving and challenging at the very top of British schoolboy rowing; Marlow will be an important indicator of whether they’ve been able to pick up speed after the National Schools’ Regatta, or whether they’ll still find themselves stuck behind St Paul’s.
St Paul’s School Boat Club
Currently the fastest schoolboy boat in the country, St Paul’s enter here as the winners of the National Schools’ Regatta and the highest-placed junior crew at the Metropolitan Regatta – but they have a massive target on their back. Early indicators that this crew might be shaping up to challenge the greatness of the indomitable 2018 St Paul’s first eight have proven to be a little overblown – this is a very good crew, but it is not untouchable. The National Schools’ Regatta was a close-run affair, and even Westminster were within touching distance at the Metropolitan Regatta. Head Coach Bobby Thatcher is no stranger to peaking for Henley, however, and he’ll be more keen than ever after the disappointment in the PE final last year. With many of the top school crews racing at Marlow, it will be very interesting to see whether St Paul’s have stepped on, or whether they’re under threat of being caught and overhauled.
Thames Rowing Club
Always strong in the run-up to Henley, Thames have entered both their club and intermediate boats here, and both of which will have some serious ambitions here. Interestingly, there doesn’t seem to be a massive gap in speed between the top club boat and the intermediate boat – on the Sunday of the Metropolitan Regatta, the intermediate crew only managed to hold off the club crew by 0.03 seconds in the final, with London a little out in front – which bodes well for the Thames Cup entry; not so much for the Ladies Plate entry. I imagine Thames will have come away from the Metropolitan Regatta with some clear goals and an urgency to step on, and Thames is undoubtedly one of the best clubs around in terms of peaking at the right time, so I think both entries here will have improved relative to their Metropolitan Regatta performances. It won’t be enough to beat Brookes – no question – but it may well put them back ahead of London, at a crucial time.
University of Bristol Boat Club
Bristol‘s rise has been really exciting this year, and they have found themselves in a position where they could arguably be the fastest university crew in the UK behind Brookes (and a new Cambridge Temple VIII that won the Met on the Saturday). At the Met, Bristol were able to come out as the fastest academic crew on both days, holding off challenges from Imperial, Durham, UCD, Newcastle and Edinburgh. It’s been a really strong season for Bristol, and to now be nearing Henley with a very strong Temple VIII that could potentially make the weekend – that is pretty great to see. If they can continue to perform this weekend, the stage will be set for one of Bristol’s best summers to date.
University of London Boat Club
With their top athletes now racing in the coxed four with their sights on the PA, this UL boat will struggle to make headway here. UL have had some decent results this season, and were very much in-the-mix at Met with the likes of Edinburgh, Newcastle and Durham, but without their strong top end I just can’t see these guys making much headway at Marlow – or, indeed, in the Temple.
Harvard University Boat Club, USA
The sole international entry in this field, this is the Harvard Lightweight Varsity VIII that went undefeated this year, dominating the dual season before winning at the Eastern Sprints and at the IRA National Championships. This is a really strong crew that have produced some unbelievably quick times for a lightweight boat, and are undoubtedly ones to watch looking towards HRR and their entry in the Temple Challenge Cup. It will be really interesting to see if Harvard can get close to the top of this category – they won’t catch the top Brookes boat, but could they challenge the Brookes student boat and potentially set the stage for a Temple showdown? My instinct is that they just won’t have the power to hang with the Brookes boys, but this is a classy unit, and I may yet eat my words.
Other crews
There are some other strong entries here, including Westminster, who defied expectations to make the A Final at the Met Regatta on the Saturday, running St Paul’s pretty close. Both King’s College School and St Edward’s School are here, too; they were fifth and sixth respectively at the National Schools’ Regatta with less than a second between them, and both were pretty close to Eton, Shiplake and St Paul’s. Hampton were a little further off the pace, but they’re a program that can never be discounted. Both Molesey and Vesta are also entered here; both are strong club programs that will be eyeing Thames and London and seeing if they can make any headway on the pack leaders.
Prediction
This is a relatively easy one for the top two: Brookes will put two eights out in front of everyone else. As for that third position… that’s a little more tricky. I think I’m going to go with Thames‘s intermediate crew, as I think they probably have stepped on quite a lot from the Met, but I am expecting London and Harvard to pose a pretty significant challenge to that prediction.
Good luck to all crews.
Five Man
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