It’s official, with preceding regattas such as BUCS and National Schools’ out of the way we are now on the home straight on the way to Henley Royal Regatta. It is now that clubs at all levels will need to demonstrate their class to the Stewards in their bid for qualification. In this event, many crews will be eyeing up the Britannia Challenge Cup for men’s club coxed fours, an event with a long history and some famous winners over the years. This year we see familiar names entering with 15 crews on the Saturday and 17 crews on the Sunday.
London RC
With two entries in this category each day, it seems London are spreading their athletes across all boat classes this season. That’s not to say this crew will not be strong, only that the bulk of the club’s athletes are competing in the eights and coxless fours. We see this strategy from many of the big clubs, since the Brit only offers space for 16 crews whereas the Wyfold and Thames 32 it is common for these clubs to enter few, but strong, crews. London RC did not attend Wallingford Regatta as they were away in Varese on training camp, but a 16th place finish at Head of the River in March would suggest the club is a little off the pace compared to rivals Thames and Molesey, who they will undoubtedly need to take on in this category.
Henley RC
It looks as though the same crew will race both days (at least the listed stroke is the same), which could indicate Henley are aiming for a strong Brit crew this season. While not a big club compared to those on the Tideway, Henley RC is proud and well placed to support crews to go all the way. Making the semi-final of the Thames Cup last year, perhaps some of the athletes from that crew are making a bid in the four this year. At Wallingford, the club entered Challenge Coxed Fours but didn’t make the final, an indicator of their ambition if not their actual speed
Thames RC
As always Thames will be right in the mix whatever crew is selected to compete on the day. With YouTuber Pat Hanratty in stroke of Saturday’s ‘A’ crew, it looks like they are mixing it up with racing eights on one day and fours another – but hard to tell as the club has crews entered in pretty much every event on both days. At Wallingford Thames did not race in the fours, stacking their eights entries instead, meaning there aren’t any recent results to base a prediction on.
Marlow RC
The winners of Club Coxed Fours and finalists in Challenge Coxed Fours at Wallingford, Marlow are well placed to be a challenger at Met. With what looks to be the same crew entered on both days, it seems Marlow are making a play for the Brit this year and a club with such history is definitely capable of putting in a competitive bid if it has managed to attract athletes of a high calibre.
Prediction
Obviously it’s hard to tell at this point who will come out on top as this is the first time that all these crews will be competing against each other, be it due to crew changes or due to certain clubs not entering Wallingford. However, I will do my best.
On both days I reckon the top three will come from the same clubs: London, Thames and Vesta, given recent form. The order remains to be seen and will as always be interesting to see what changes from Saturday to Sunday
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