We are well and truly getting stuck into the summer season of side-by-side racing, and with Henley Womens Regatta and Henley Royal Regatta fast approaching. At the Metropolitan Regatta, there is the amazing opportunity to race both the Saturday and Sunday of the event within the same category, which many clubs and crews utilise to get the best of racing. In total, nine crews are doing both days including Thames RC, London RC, City of Bristol BC, Shandon BC from Ireland, City of Cambridge RC, Oxford Academicals RC, and Sons of the Thames RC.
Saturday
Considering this is Club Eights, it’s useful to look back to the WeHORR results and Tideway Scullers School were not only third overall, but won the club pennant. At Henley Women’s Regatta in 2021, they won the Aspirational Club Eight beating Cantabrigian RC in the final, and coming up against Thames RC, City of Bristol BC and Twickenham RC to get there. To further this, a Championship Eight was also raced at Henley Women’s Regatta, beating Thames RC ‘A’ to snag a place in the final against Oxford Brookes University.
Looking back over last year’s results also from the Met, Thames had crews in the A final. At the Met Regatta for 2021, Cantabrigian RC saw themselves into the A final coming eighth overall, beating such crews as Tyne ARC, Marlow RC, London RC and also a Thames RC crew.
Thames also held their ground in the Aspirational Club Eight and Championship Eight at Henley Women’s Regatta coming up against some competitive crews, beating Furnivall Sculling School, Agecroft RC, and Royal Chester. On top of this, a Cantabrigian RC crew also found themselves in the final of the Aspirational Club Eights for Henley Women’s Regatta.
Sunday
Thames RC are also racing again on the Sunday of the event, and so will have a better understanding of the course and weather conditions. This could also tire out the legs, however in the middle of a race, with adrenaline pumping I am sure these girls won’t listen to the pain and continue to drive through.
The Agecroft RC eight saw themselves comfortably within the B final at Met Regatta 2021 and will be looking to improve on that this year. Along with this, City of Cambridge RC also took part and came fifth in the D final beating Twickenham RC, Putney Town and Birmingham University.
City of Bristol RC at Henley Women’s Regatta last year saw good, strong racing in the Aspirational Club Eights, beating Twickenham to get a place in the quarter finals. Agecroft RC also managed to make it to the quarter finals.
Summary
It is also important to note London RC’s medium club pennant win at WeHORR, well and truly keeping them in the mix for this years events. Also, given that Shandon RC are coming all the way from Ireland, they could prove to be secretly speedy with no record for England based rowing. I predict for Saturday that Tideway Scullers School will come away with the win, followed by Thames RC and then Cantabrigian RC. For Sunday I predict that Thames RC will win, followed by London RC and City of Bristol RC. Best of luck to all, an interesting pair of days.
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