In 1830, after a ‘boozy night out’, barrister Henry Colsell Wingfield announced that he would present two silver sculls to the winner of a race on the 10th of August each year. The race would be held on the Tideway between Westminster and Putney (although the first ran from Battersea to Hammersmith), with only the best scullers taking part.
190-years later and the Wingfield Sculls is still raced, despite undergoing a plethora of changes throughout its long history. To find out more about this unique event, we sat down with two previous winners of the Wingfields: Wade Hall-Craggs, and Adam Freeman-Pask.
“To start with, the scullers would just put five guineas on the table, and the winner would take everything.”
This elegant simplicity is what made the race so appealing to scullers in the early 19th-century; a time when men were beginning to experiment with exercise as a form of competition. This wholesome nature of racing was not to last, however.
“We have records detailing when people would refuse to race because their would-be opponents were, what they considered, professional scullers.”
Today, the race is still run by a committee of champions, with the races also being umpired by previous winners of the Wingfields. For the committee, this exclusivity is what has allowed the race to maintain some of its unusual quirks.
“Each sculler is allowed a steerer, but before we had launches, this was done by an eight. The bowman wasn’t rowing, and instead faced forwards to direct the scullers over the course.”
In the modern-day, each sculler is steered by their coach from a launch; but an original rule that prevents fathers from navigating their sons’ still stands today, after a particularly savage rivalry between two competitors.
It’s not only steering convention that has changed, with the course moving from its original Westminster to Putney route, to the Championship Course in 1861, where it has remained ever since.
For most of its history, the Wingfields was a men-only affair, with sporadic women’s races falling out of favour after a few scullers continually dominated the event. That all changed, however, in 2007 with the support of the Wingfield Family Society who provided a new trophy for the event; first won in that year by Elise Laverick, a two-time Olympic bronze medalist in the double scull.
Today, however, the most significant problem faced by the Wingfields in not one of sport, but instead of marketing.
“We would love to be more relevant, but for us, the passing of the traditional broadsheet press and the rowing correspondents has hit us particularly hard.
With just ten years to go until the bicentenary of the Wingfield Sculls, the questions of relevance in this day and age is more pertinent than ever. We have discussed at length the likely path of rowing in coming years, with spectator-friendly versions such as the Power8 Sprints and FISA’s Beach Sprints attracting a more massive – and more diverse – crowd.
It is well understood within the committee that the race to be crowned Champion of the Thames is a private affair, with its long course not lending itself easily to public viewing. After all, some have argued that if it weren’t for the BBC Coverage, the Boat Race might have ended up like other Oxford-Cambridge Varsity matches.
The Wingfields have therefore launched a campaign to improve their presence on today’s broadsheets: Social Media. Their Instagram and Twitter are flooded with images and stories designed to spread the word about one of the most exciting races in the UK. It is even rumoured that a ‘junior Wingfields’ could be just around the corner…
2020 has posed a different obstacle for the committee; not – as some would expect – Covid-19, but rather the closure of Hammersmith Bridge, interrupting the Championship Course.
“We did ask the PLA if we could go back to our original course [from Westminster to Putney], but with the river traffic down-stream that was a no-no. So we had to adapt, we’re going to race from Putney through to UL.”
The Wingfield Sculls is one of the most dramatic events on the Tideway; which makes its current state of secrecy all the more depressing, but its future with the potential for more events and a larger audience, even more exciting prospect.
The 2020 race will take place on the 29th October at 10:30 (Women) and 11:45 (Men).
The Women’s Race will be contested by:
Saskia Budgett
Charlotte Hodgkins-Byrne
Matilda Hodgkins-Byrne (2015 Champion)
Hannah Scott
Georgina Brayshaw
Katy Wilkinson-Feller
The Men’s Race will be contested by:
George Bourne
Angus Groom
Matt Haywood
Victor Kleshnev
Sam Meijer (2019 Champion)
Calvin Tarczy
That’s all for now. If you’re hungry for more, check out any of our other pieces from The Catch, listen to the latest podcast episode, or flick through our race previews.
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Images by Hear The Boat Sing
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