As yellow-flag conditions stopped the full record-breaking field from being able to race the course, 161 crews were able to race down the Championship course as the focus of the rowing world turns to the Tideway for the month of March.
At the head of the field sat Leander Club as they retained the headship, keeping it within the Pink Palace – as it has been since 2017. Steered by Henry Fieldman, one of very few Olympic hopefuls taking to the tideway this year, they were the fastest to all of the time checks along the course as they managed to establish a 3.8 second victory over the crew representing Oxford Brookes University Boat Club. A strong performance for the women from Wallingford as while they failed to wrestle the headship away from the Henley outfit, they provided the closest finish since the dead heat of 2005. Their second crew, following up that dominance, would finish in fifth place.
Rounding out the top three were the home favourites Thames Rowing Club. Victorious in the club category with a 17.4 second margin over an impressive Molesey Boat Club, this crew contained many of the athletes from their all-conquering group last year, bolstered by reinforcements from Edinburgh and Yale Universities.
In fourth place and rounding out the rare occasion of four different training groups represented in the top four was the crew from the University of London, with some alumni on board including national-teamer Saskia Budgett. This meant that they were not eligible for the ‘University’ event but flew the purple colours well.
Among those crews eligible for the ‘University’ pennant, it was the Cambridge University blue boat who claimed top honours, almost ten seconds ahead of Newcastle University, despite receiving a five second penalty. The Light Blues are entering the run-in to The Boat Race as the underdogs, a position they are not used to, and may be unhappy with their placing behind the University of London and two Brookes crews as they head into the most important three weeks of their season.
The Blue Star, however, will likely be happy with this performance as they placed 1.4 seconds ahead of the Oxford Brookes ‘C’ crew, the highest boat in the University category, while they also managed to overhaul a Durham outfit who had the better of them at BUCS Head two weeks ago.
Edinburgh University will be disappointed with their 13th overall finish as they ended up behind both of their northern university rivals. The pride of Scotland did once again underscore their depth though, as their intermediate eight-winning second boat from BUCS Head would finish less than ten seconds behind their first crew, the best of the ‘B’ crews in the University division.
Another impressive ‘B’ crew was that of Thames Boat Club who managed to finish eighth overall, notably ahead of the club offering from Leander in claiming the ‘Senior’ pennant, while their third crew finished in front of all of their Putney neighbours. London Rowing Club in 15th were the best of the rest on their journey to collect the prize for best ‘Medium’ club.
In the School/Junior event, Headington School Oxford Boat Club defended their pennant, finishing 17th, but it was the performance of Hinksey Sculling School that really caught the eye; they fought their way from deep in the draw to finish within the top 20 crews overall, just three seconds behind Headington. How they will compare rowing in more similar water conditions will be one of the narratives to look out for at the Schools’ Head in ten days time.
In the other awards, Cantabrigian Rowing Club were the best Provincial Club in 27th overall, SD Santiagotarrak from the Basque County were the best Overseas Entry in 42nd, St Andrew Boat Club from Edinburgh were the fastest entry in the Challenge Division as they snuck inside the top fifty to protect their start position for next year and the Challenge Academic prize went to the nominal ‘C’ crew from the University of Exeter, who managed to beat their own ‘B’ crew. The Masters pennant was awarded to an eight-club composite, who on raw time placed 68th but after the handicaps were applied came out on top. Derby Rowing Club were the only ‘small’ club to survive Thursday’s shrinking of the draw and so no pennant will be awarded.
This brings to an end the head season for many of the women’s programs, and eyes will now turn towards the regatta season in the summer. The university crews seem more balanced than they have in a number of years, while Thames look to continue their dominance of the club programs. With Olympic preparations potentially weakening the field, how the chips will fall between Brookes and Leander as they both eye up a potential Remenham Challenge Cup showdown will be one of the narratives of the year.
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