With only two weeks until Henley Women’s Regatta and under four to Henley Royal, we are finally reaching the season’s climax and will soon see the fruits of everyone’s labour this year. This is an event which directly maps to HWR in the Aspirational Club Coxless Four, with this in mind many of the crews entered will be targeting the event or at least trying to work out whether to prioritise the four or eight. Indeed, we see all the big names one would expect and this is likely where the winners will come from
Worcester RC
The winners of the Women’s Club Coxed Four at Wallingford, Worcester are probably the only name on this preview you might not expect to see. What’s perhaps more surprising is that they won on that day by an impressive 13 seconds over the next crew, indicating that the relatively small club has managed to pull together a genuinely strong crew. Racing the same crew on both days at Met their hand has been shown, but let’s see how they stack up against the big clubs.
London RC
London were not present at Wallingford as they were on training camp in Varese, so this will be our first glimpse of how they are doing this summer. With the one crew entered on Saturday, it looks like moat athletes will be in the eight, however who knows which one they are stacking…
Thames RC
The form club in this event is undoubtedly Thames RC after their dominant showing at Wallingford where they took a 1-2 in Women’s Championship Fours ahead of the likes of Leander Club. With three entries on Saturday and two on Sunday in additional to multiple eights entries this is a demonstration of the depth of the club. Under the coaching of Tom Mapp this season the Thames women’s squad is beginning to make their own mark on the domestic rowing scene and move out of the shadow of their successful men’s squad.
Tideway Scullers School
With coach Kieran Clark bidding farewell at the end of this season this is an interesting time for Scullers. After much success last season the club will want to emulate this in the upcoming regattas but their competition is arguably stronger than it ever has been. It looks like their top boat is racing on both days which indicates the entry for HWR, and the battle between TSS and Thames, a local derby, will likely determine the winner on each occasion.
Prediction
On each day I can’t see much difference at the top of the field, while quite a few more entries on Saturday than Sunday the crews which are coming and going are not ones I foresee being in contention. Instead, I’d say that the winners will be Thames followed by Tideway Scullers and then Thames ‘B’.
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