With three weeks to go until Henley Royal Regatta 2024, the excitement in the rowing community is at fever-pitch. Crews are tightening the screws in final preparation and rowing enthusiasts are turning to YouTube to immerse themselves in regattas of old. With that in mind, we thought it might be time to also scroll through the pages of (recent) history and earmark some of the greatest boats to travel down the Henley straights. We’re going to take a look at the past decade of racing and (re)crown the best of the best, with this piece focusing on the club categories…
#5: Thames Rowing Club ‘A’, Thames Challenge Cup, 2015
This was the win that set the ball rolling on nearly a decade of Thames domination in the club events at Henley Royal Regatta. It took a while for the smaller boats and the women to catch up but this victory, engineered by a brilliant Ben Lewis, put to bed the long-heralded rumour that Thames would choke on the biggest stages. Since victory in 2015, the club have won four of the seven available Thames Challenge Cups and arrive into 2024 as the strong favourites once again. This crew might not have been the strongest or fastest of the four winning units since, but they did something the others did not; they broke the mould and set a course to Thames becoming the #1 destination for club rowing.
#4: Frankfurter Rudergesellschaft Germania von 1869 e.V., Germany, Thames Challenge Cup, 2014
These guys were just fun. From winning their final two races by a cumulative ten feet or so, to snapping a blade over the line in celebration on the Sunday, to two of their delegates singing German victory songs on the much-loved Regatta Radio, Frankfurter brought serious vibes to the 2014 edition of the Henley Royal Regatta. They weren’t just unserious entertainers though – they saw off a batch of strong crews, including Molesey Boat Club, Mercantile Boat Club of Australia and Sport Imperial, who the previous day had beaten Thames in an epic tussle.
#3: London Rowing Club, Wyfold Challenge Cup, 2023
Although I may be suffering from recency bias here, this crew from London were fearsome fighters and endured their fair share of frantic racing. This was eptiomised on the Friday (semi-finals day for the Wyfold) when their contest with ‘De Hoop’ of the Netherlands went right down to the wire, with the crews clashing in the final strokes. London’s bow was adjudged correctly to have been slightly ahead upon initiation of the clash and, with yours truly on commentary trying to call the action alongside Sarah Cook, they carved themselves into the fabric of this epic trophy. Beyond that though, they also stopped Thames from winning all four club events, a feat not easily achieved given the might of their Putney neighbours.
#2: Thames Rowing Club ‘A’, Wargrave Challenge Cup, 2023
Despite only debuting at the Regatta in 2021, this trophy has already generated significant domestic interest alongside a slow-growing international fervor. Although Thames dominated in both 2022 and 2023, the manner in which they did so right across the board last year means they’ve earned their slot as one of the most impressive club crews of the past decade. The club had both ‘A’ and ‘B’ crews in the semi-finals – who unfortunately drew each other – whilst their ‘C’ and ‘D’ outfits made the quarter-finals, where they again drew club-mates. To progress four boats to the final eight contestants of any competition is worthy of a shout-out and credit must go to the remarkable program that Thames have stood up on the women’s side in such a short space of time.
#1: Upper Thames Rowing Club, Wyfold + Britannia Challenge Cups, 2014
To quantify the magnitude of Upper Thames’ double win in 2014, you have to contextualise the situation. Clubs very rarely won back-to-back trophies at club level at Henley Royal Regatta, let alone two events in the same year. Upper Thames had never tasted victory at this level and this glittering gild of glory was a tale for the ages, a story of magnificent redemption on home water. After losing in the final of the Thames Challenge Cup in 2013, the crew split into two separate boats. The ‘A’ team went about securing the Britannia Challenge Cup in effortless style, winning their final against German opposition by two lengths, whilst their Wyfold compatriots engaged in a series of epic races up to and including their final, when Tideway Scullers were disqualified along the enclosures. Thames and Brookes have since made winning multiple events at Henley Royal Regatta look easy but given these dual victories came nearly a decade before either club got into that groove, it stands the test of time as one of the most remarkable sequences at any Regatta.
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