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. Starting with the juniors, we’re going to take a look at the past decade of racing and (re)crown the best of the best…
#5: Sir William Borlase Grammar School, Fawley Challenge Cup, 2014-2015
Completing three wins in four years, this was the pinnacle of the late, great Robin Dowell’s work at the Marlow-based school. Their win in 2012 was impressive – with future Olympic silver medalist Jack Beaumont on-board – but the manner in which they collected back-to-back Henley Royal Regatta trophies cemented them as one of the stand-out junior crews of the decade. To win the Fawley Challenge Cup is arguably one of the event’s toughest tests – the entry list always dwarfs the allocated number of competitors and crews come from far and wide to win the richly-coveted trophy. Borlase did so in epic style, winning in 2014 by nearly three lengths before seeing off Nottingham Rowing Club in 2015 by 1 and 3/4 lengths.
#4: Scotch College, Australia, Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup, 2017
One need only glance down the list of Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup winners in the past 15 years to understand how tricky it is to win the competition from abroad. Before Scotch College travelled over from Australia, the last crew to win it from outside of the UK was Shawnigan Lake School of Canada in 2008, nine years previously. In 2017, Tom Woodruff brought what most described as one of the most powerful schoolboy crews ever assembled to Henley Royal Regatta and blew the field apart, beating a series of home favourites in an epic run to the trophy. Their trip to Europe also included a run down the Holland Beker course, which they covered in 5:40. Speedy stuff.
#3: Gloucester Hartpury, Diamond Jubilee Challenge Cup, 2014-2017
By the end of 2017, Gloucester Hartpury were responsible for 66% of the total wins in the Diamond Jubilee Challenge Cup. Such a period of dominance had not previously been seen at the highest level of junior rowing and, to be honest, has not really been seen since. They won four straight titles yet never seemed too bothered on the domestic circuit until push came to shove and Henley rolled around. They’d stroll into town and demolish their opposition with swagger and style then fade into the background for another year. It took a remarkable effort from Y Quad Cities – who were undefeated national champions in the USA – to unseat this run of Gloucester supremacy.
#2: Windsor Boys School, Fawley Challenge Cup, 2022
It speaks volumes about a program – and the relative quality of the ‘A’ boat – when both their top-ranked and second string crews make up the two boats in the final of a 24-strong field. That was precisely what happened in 2022 when the Windsor Boys School ‘A’ crew secured the much-coveted triple in schoolboy sculling and crowned a glorious year in emphatic style by beating their ‘B’ boat in the final of the Fawley Challenge Cup. Throughout the season, this crew had set new benchmarks for junior sculling and that glorious Sunday morning was the peak in a year that cemented Mark Wilkinson’s program as the one to beat.
#1: St Paul’s School, Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup, 2018
This was – and still is – the best junior crew of all time. Period. De-facto. The end. Having already secured every domestic title available alongside youth eights at the Head of the Charles, they won the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup at a canter. No crew got anywhere near them and their record-breaking run on a blisteringly hot finals day immortalised this crew as the finest schoolboy eight in recent memory. This was the moment Bobby Thatcher had been waiting for after stewing on an age group that had shown flashes of brilliance. The crew combined unbeatable power – with the middle grouping of Douwe de Graaf, Calvin Tarczy and Ollie Parish going on to race stateside and at the Boat Race in top-ranked crews – and flawless technique, led by the smoothest of operators in George Dickinson. They were so good that JRN did a pre-Henley feature on them – we were that confident they’d win the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup. They delivered on that and then some.
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