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 student categories…
#5: University of Washington, USA, Visitors Challenge Cup, 2022
We always love it when the Huskies come to town. This crew was four of their 1V who had placed fourth at the IRA National Championships a few weeks earlier and came to Henley with one goal in mind – to win the Visitors Challenge Cup. With soon-to-be New Zealand Olympian Logan Ullrich on-board, Washington blitzed through the competition before facing off against the nominal British U23 four – who would go on to beat Ullrich and his New Zealand compatriots in Varese some weeks later. They were led by the British quartet basically until the line, before that venomous Husky finishing sprint emerged to take them over by three feet.
#4: Oxford Brookes University, Ladies Challenge Plate, 2019
There are a few Brookes victories that I could select here. Their season-long tussle with Leander for supremacy last season, which culminated in the burgundy boys edging out the pink palace by three feet, or their first outright win in this event in 2018 over an Oxford/Edinburgh composite. The truth is though that their win in 2019 was extra special; it was the most competitive staging of the Ladies Challenge Plate for several years and was the crowning glory of a Regatta that saw Brookes also collect the Temple Challenge Cup and nearly the Prince Albert Challenge Cup (falling to the eventual winners in the semi-finals by four feet). It firmly put them on the map as not just the best-in-class at student level but also serious competitors in the intermediate bracket.
#3: Schuylkill Navy High Performance Center, U.S.A, Prince of Wales Challenge Cup, 2016
I’m unashamed to admit that this category – for intermediate open quads – does bore me a little. This was never more apparent than in the first half of last decade, when Leander went on a six-year unbeaten streak in this event from 2010 to 2015. It took the crew from Schuylkill Navy High Performance Center to stop them extending that win to eight years (they won in 2017 too). This was a brilliant performance from a crew that many had touted to lose to Leander in the final. In the end, the Americans breathlessly triumphed by four feet in arguably the race of the Regatta, holding off a late Leander charge to the line.
#2: Yale University, Ladies Challenge Plate, 2015
For me, 2015 was the best version of the Ladies Challenge Plate that we’ve had in the past decade (excluding perhaps 2022). Three Varsity crews going punch for punch, fresh from a gold (Washington), bronze (Princeton) and seventh-placed finish (Yale) alongside a really strong crew from Melbourne and Leander’s top-ranked boat. What was remarkable is that it was Steve Gladstone’s boys who emerged at the top of the pile after three days of fantastic racing. Some could even argue that it was this victory that kickstarted a period of Yale dominance stateside that saw them win three of the next four IRA National Championship titles. This was a seismic shift in the power weightings, showing for the first time that Callahan’s west-coast wolves could be got at by the brutality and bravery of Gladstone’s Bulldogs.
#1: Leander Club, Ladies Challenge Plate, 2022
In a Regatta jam-packed with action – with the entry roster indicative of a Regatta that missed a year and therefore had to make up time – this was arguably the win of the week. Leander Club only really emerged as serious contenders after seeing off a crew from Yale University, some of whom had very recently finished second at the IRA National Championships. What was more impressive though was the manner in which they dispatched the newly-minted American collegiate champions from the University of California, Berkeley by a length in the final. This Cal crew were the talk of the Regatta, striding into town off the back of a sensational undefeated regular season. They brought with them to Henley the bulk of their 1V but that didn’t phase a Leander boat, who simply had more to offer on the straights of Henley. An epic victory on the highest of all stages.
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