With racing kicking off tomorrow I’ve just got time to look at the student and junior events…

Temple Challenge Cup

Holders: Oxford Brookes University

Selected crews: Proteus-Eretes Netherlands, University of Washington USA, Princeton University USA, Yale University USA, Brown University USA, Newcastle University “A”, Oxford Brookes University “A”, Syracuse University USA

Oxford Brookes “A”: The holders, having won the last two editions of this event. The production line rolls on for Oxford Brookes – this crew won Championship Eights at BUCS Regatta and were second at Ratzeburg Regatta, behind their Ladies Plate entry. They also recorded the fastest time ever by a Temple eligible Brookes crew in that race – 5:33. They are the fastest Temple crew from the UK, the question is, how do they match-up to the rest of the world.

Brookes have a 2nd crew racing and their “A” crew will be watching their “B” crew race with great interest – not just to support their club mates, but also because the “B” crew are racing one of their main rivals for the event – The University of Washington. A combination of athletes from the first, second and third Varsity Eights. The University of Washington won the James Ten Eyck Trophy as the overall points winner for the 11th time in the last 12 years at the IRA National Championships – they won both the Second and Third Varsity Eight titles. They last won this event in 2012 with a freshman eight. UW and Brookes “A” are on opposite sides of the draw so this sets up a potentially mouth-watering final on Sunday (if the form book runs true).

Another selected crew in the top half of the draw are the Dutch of Proteus-Eretes. They finished 3rd in the ARB Regatta behind Nereus and a Gyas/Skadi/Vidar/Skoll composite. At the Holland beker recently they split into Senior and Development 4+’s both reaching the A-Final of their respective events.

The next Selected crew are Princeton University. This is the Princeton’s lightweight eight, who were silver medallists in the lightweight category at the IRA National Championships and Eastern Sprints. The most successful lightweight eight from Princeton since 2010, they’re looking to become the tenth crew from the Tigers to win at Henley. The crew includes Brits Adam Teece and Marcus Jonas.

The final selected crew in the top half of the draw are Yale University. Another extremely strong US crew, This crew is led by Cole Tilden from the IRA Championship winning 1st Varsity 8 along with members of the Yale 2nd and 3rd Varsity Eights. This crew includes Angus Morrison, who has been voted as Captain of Boats next season. The Second Varsity crew beat Harvard in their annual match and finished third at the IRA National Championships. Yale could well be the strongest crew in the top half of the draw and will have a potential showdown with Washington in the semi-final.

In the lower half of the draw Brown University are the first Selected crew. Several British athletes on-board – former junior world oarsman Oscar Bird and Coupe gold medallist Thomas Phelps (winner of the Thames Challenge Cup last year). Finalists in 2014, Brown finished sixth in the Varsity Eight final at the IRA National Championships and won a bronze at the Eastern Sprints. This is largely their Varsity Eight and as such, should pose the biggest challenge to Oxford Brookes’ defence of their title.

Apart from Brookes, the only other British selected crew are Newcastle University. Third in Championship Eights at Marlow Regatta only 2 seconds behind the Leander Ladies Plate crew, and fourth in the same event at BUCS Regatta, this is the strongest Newcastle Temple eight for a few years and the draw could give them a potential meeting with Brown University on Friday.

Syracuse University are the final selected crew in the event. Visiting Henley Royal Regatta for the first time in eleven years, Syracuse are one of nine NCAA Division 1 institutions competing in the Temple Challenge Cup this year. Their Varsity Eight finished second in the Petite Final at the IRA Championships. They face a tough first round All-American meeting against Cornell University One of the most prestigious lightweight programs in the world, this Cornell crew is a combination of the second Varsity Eight, third Varsity Eight and Varsity four. Both of the eights finished sixth in their petite finals at the IRAs. Their match-up with the Syracuse heavyweights could be one of the highlights of the first round of racing.

Surprisingly not selected are the 2015 winners from A.S.R Nereus in the Netherlands. This crew finished 2nd at the ARB Regatta (beating the Selected Proteus-Eretes) four of the crew won the HG 4+ A-Final at the prestigious Varsity Regatta in April. They have another mouth-watering first round contest against their rivals from Proteus. I’ve a feeling the guys from Nereus will making the Stewards regret their decision to select the Proteus instead of them.

Temple University of the USA are competing at the regatta for the first time since 1994 and are coming off the back of an excellent season which saw them claim the Dad Vail title and qualify for the IRA Championships. The only drawback for Temple is that they will have to be without their strongest rower, U23 World Champion Seb Devereux, who is not eligible for this event. There’s will be a tough battle as they face another all-American 1st round race against the Selected crew from Yale.

The Irish from Trinity College Dublin will also be looking to do well in the bottom half of the draw. This crew finished fifth in Championship Eights at Marlow Regatta. They won their annual Boat Race against Queen’s University, Belfast and were awarded ‘Team of the Year’ by Trinity Sport – they also won at the Trinity Regatta, defeating defending national champions Commercial RC in the process. They face the University of London “B” crew on Wednesday and then a potential match up with the winner of the Syracuse/Cornell race.

The final crew that deserves a mention are Shiplake College. This is their J16 crew and the youngest male crew in the entire regatta. They’ve had an outstanding season, winning at the National Schools Regatta and to qualify for the Temple is the icing on the cake and will stand them in good stead for when they move to the Princess Elizabeth event next year.

My picks…this should work out to be an Oxford Brookes v either Yale or Washington in the final (although Nereus may have something to say about that). It should be a cracking final and I’m going for Brookes to retain their title.

The Prince Albert Challenge Cup

Holders: Newcastle University

Selected crews: University of London, Durham University “A”, Grand Valley State University USA, Columbia University “A”, A.S.R Nereus Netherlands, Goldie Boat Club

The University of London are the first Selected crew in the top half of the draw. This is UL’s second-ranked crew (with their top crew racing in the Visitors Challenge Cup) the boat is coxed by three-times Cambridge Blue Ian Middleton. This crew finished second in Championship Coxed Fours at Marlow Regatta. They raced the eight at the Metropolitan Regatta, finishing third in Challenge Eights.

The 2nd Selected crew are Durham University “A” crew. Stroked by former Henley winner and two-times junior international Oscar Lindsay, this crew were second in Championship Coxed Fours at the Metropolitan Regatta but won the event at Marlow Regatta. They also took silver in the Champ 4- at the BUCS Regatta. After a lean few years, this Durham crew look like one of the home favourites approaching the Regatta, having all their main domestic rivals at Marlow Regatta.

The final Selected crew in the top half of the draw are Grand Valley State University from Michigan. They have brought crews to race at both Henley Women’s and Henley Royal. Only one of their men’s fours qualified for the main draw. This is half of their Varsity 8 which finished 13th at the Dad Vail Regatta in May and 8th at the ACRA Championships. They face a very tough 1st round draw against Imperial College who will perhaps be a bit disappointed not to be Selected. Imperial were winners of Championship Coxed Fours at BUCS Regatta and Metropolitan Regatta. This is their top-ranked crew, with cox Wilf Le Brocq a former junior international and Casper Woods a junior world champion and National Schools’ gold medallist with St Paul’s School. With a considerable amount of international experience, this crew should be considered as one of the favourites.

In the lower half of the draw the first Selected boat are the Lightweights from Columbia University USA. Making their fourth appearance at Henley Royal Regatta in the past six seasons, this crew are one half of the Lightweight Varsity Eight who won the IRA National Championships and Eastern Sprints. One of the strongest lightweight programs in the USA, the eight Varsity athletes are also joined by several of the undefeated Second Varsity Eight. Columbia face 2016 winners Edinburgh University in the first round. They were 3rd in the B-Final of Championship 4+ at Marlow and 4th in Championship 4+ at the BUCS Regatta.

ASR Nereus of the Netherlands will be one of the favourites among the overseas crews. They finished 1st in the HG4+ at the ARB Regatta and 3rd at the Varsity Championships. Nereus have yet to reach the final of the Prince Albert and they face a tough first round race against the Irish from N.U.I Galway.

The final Selected crew in the lower half of the draw are Goldie Boat Club. This is half of the successful Goldie eight that won the reserve Boat Race in March. They finished 3rd in championship 4+ at Marlow behind Durham and UL. They face Oxford Brookes in round 1 which will be a test. A number of the Brookes crew finished 3rd at the BUCS Regatta and have been part of the various strong Brookes boats during the summer.

There are two other overseas crews racing in this event, the Dutch from D.S.R Laga and the Americans from the University of California, Irvine.

D.S.R Laga include Roelant Feldbrugge, who made the semi-finals of the Fawley Challenge Cup with Hilversumse Roeivereniging Cornelis Tromp in 2013, this crew finished third in men’s heavyweight coxless fours at the ARB Regatta and second in the same category at the ZRB Regatta. D.S.R. Laga won the Temple Challenge Cup in 2013 but haven’t made the finals since.

University of California, Irvine were silver medallists in the Varsity Four at the WIRA Championships in April, the University of California, Irvine are sending a crew to Henley Royal Regatta for the first time in nearly 40 years.

My picks….I’m going for a Durham win

Finally a few comments on the Junior events. Time is against me meaning I haven’t been able to do a detailed preview of these events. However, the great guys and girls at Junior Rowing News have done some exhaustive previews so I recommend checking them out.

But, here are my (brief) thoughts on the Junior events

The Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup

Holders: Scotch College Australia

Selected Crews: Brunswick School USA, Shiplake College, Radley College, Latymer Upper School, St Paul’s School, Shrewsbury School, Bedford School, Eton College, St Joseph’s Nudgee College Australia, St Edwards School

There is, really, only one school in this. St Paul’s are one of the finest schoolboy crew I’ve ever seen – certainly up there with the Eton crew of 2009-10 and the legendary Hampton crew of 1986. Bobby Thatcher has produced an outstanding unit that no other school in the UK can get close to. They won the National School’s Regatta by a massive 15 seconds. They also won Champ 4- and were runners-up in Champ 4+. They have wins at the Head of The Charles, the Pairs Head, Sculler’s Head, fours Head and School’s Head. At Marlow Regatta they finished 2 seconds behind the Leander Ladies Plate crew in a time of 5:36.5 – just 0.6 seconds off the World Best time for a JM8! During the warm up to Henley they’ve raced (and beaten) Thames, Oslo and Montclair from the Thames Cup and also Brown University from the Temple.

The Fawley Challenge Cup

Holders: The Windsor Boys School

Selected Crews: The Windsor Boys School, Westminster School, Sydney Rowing Club Australia, Gloucester Rowing Club, Warrington Rowing Club, Leander Club, Henley Rowing Club “A”, Maidenhead Rowing Club.

This event has provided some fantastic racing over the years, and last year’s final was one of the bet. Windsor Boys are back to defend their title. They had a slightly disappointing race at the National Schools finishing 5th but stepped on significantly at Marlow Regatta, winning Junior Quads and then, 2 hours later, racing in championship quads had a great battle with arch rivals Maidenhead, finishing just over a second behind.

Maidenhead are the form crew so far this year. Their trophy cabinet has already had quite a boost this year: National Schools Regatta 2018 – Gold in Champs 4x, Junior Sculling Head (Oarsport) 2018 – Gold in J18 4x, Schools Head of the River 2018 – Gold in Champs 4x. Victor Kleshnev, Edoardo Marshall and Elliott Kemp were selected to represent GB at Munich International Junior Regatta and all medalled there. Harrison Rowe raced at all GB Senior and U23 trials this season in U23 Lwt 1x, he was invited to the last selection in April and was 16th overall there. All four scullers represented GB last summer and medalled – Victor at Junior World Championships, Harrison, Edoardo and Elliott at Coupe de la Jeaunesse.

Sydney Rowing Club could well be the dark horses of the event. They last won the Fawley in 2011 and will be strong contenders this year. This crew have been rowing together and competing as a development group at SRC since 2017 when Harry Crouch was selected in the Australian JM4x and Tom Galloway teamed with Ash Nicholls to win gold in the NSW Sprint Championship. Galloway rowed at Shore School, Crouch and Potter at Newington and Nicholls at Kings. Following on from 2017 they attended the club s 2018 Jindabyne camp in January and represented SRC in various combinations including a quad that won the B Grade 4x at the Ed Trickett Grade Championships. Tom Galloway also won a silver medal at the same regatta representing SRC in the Men’s A Grade 4-

Leander Club will be another crew to watch in this event. They’ve never won this event as a single club and last won it as a composite back in 2002. They were 4th at the National Schools and runners-up to Windsor in the Junior Quads at Marlow.

My money is on Maidenhead to take their first ever win in this event.

The Diamond Jubilee Challenge Cup

Holders: Gloucester

Selected crews: Latymer Upper “A”, Henley Rowing Club “A”, Y Quad Cities Rowing Association USA, Sydney Rowing Club Australia, Marlow Rowing Club, Headington School.

No overseas crew has ever won this event, but the Americans from Y Quad Cities Rowing Association could well be the first. They won the US Youth National Championships by 11 seconds and are, perhaps, the strongest US quad to ever enter the Diamond Jubilee.

Henley Rowing Club are the dominant force in British women’s youth rowing at the moment. Winners in 8’s and quads at the National School’s Regatta and JW4X at Henley Women’s Regatta it will take something special to deny Henley their own “Triple” on home water.

Sydney could be another storng entry. Half of this crew raced at Henley Women’s Regatta in 2017 losing in the semi-final. They went on to win silver in the JW4X at the Holland Beker. In 2018 they won silver in the U19 W4X at the National Regatta. The crew won a Gold medal rowing in W B grade 4x at the Edward Trickett Regatta Grade championships in 2018.

My picks…Henley and Y Quad are slated to meet each other in the 2nd round which should be a cracking race. I think the winner of that encounter will go on to win the whole event, and I think that will be Henley.