Following on from the Club events preview yesterday here is the one for the Britannia Challenge Cup which I didn’t have time to complete…..

Britannia Challenge Cup

Holders: NSR Oslo, Norway

Selected crews: Molesey Boat Club “A”, SC DHfK Leipzig Germany, Vesta Rowing Club, Thames Rowing Club “A”, D.S.R Copenhagen Denmark, Sydney Rowing Club Australia.

In the top half of the draw the first Selected crew are Molesey Boat Club “A”. This is a young crew of juniors, including Michael Dalton and Theo Darlow who rowed for GB at the Munich Junior International Regatta. At Marlow Regatta they finished 5th in Championship coxed fours only 6/10ths behind their Britannia Cup rivals from Thames (the top three crews were all University crews racing in the Prince Albert). They also won Tier 2 coxed fours at the Metropolitan Regatta.

The 2nd Selected crew in the top half of the draw are the Germans from SC DhFK Leipzig. This crew, like Molesey, is a young crew and has a couple of athletes that raced at the Munich Junior regatta this season, Paul Hendrik Dohrmann and Richard Aurich (Dohrmann was in the JM4- that finished 2nd to the British boat containing Molesey’s Theo Darlow). Bowman William Strulick is another competitor from the Munich Junior Regatta, although he rowed in the 2017 version.

The 3rd of the Selected crew in the top half of the draw are from Vesta Rowing Club in Putney. Containing remnants of the crew who made the semi-finals of the Wyfold Challenge Cup in 2013, this crew were sixth in Championship Coxed Fours at Marlow Regatta and third in Challenge Coxed Fours at Wallingford Regatta. A powerful unit with plenty of experience.

Moving to the bottom half of the draw, the first Selected crew are Thames Rowing Club “A”. This is Thames’ 2nd ranked boat (not the Wyfold crew as erroneously mentioned earlier). This crew won the Championship 4’s at the Metropolitan Regatta and were the fastest Britannia Challenge Cup crew in Championship coxed 4’s at Marlow. Back in May ¾ of this crew raced in the M4+ at Ghent Regatta in Belgium winning gold (that crew had Tom Foad instead of Mike Trevena)

Thames face Agecroft Rowing Club in the first round which should be a good contest. Agecroft won the ‘B’ final of Championship Coxed Fours at Marlow Regatta and finished sixth at the Metropolitan Regatta in the same event. Agecroft’s top-ranked crew at the regatta they have had a good season and are building on the success of winning the Jackson Trophy at the Head of the River in March.

The next Selected boat in the lower half of the draw are the Danes from D.S.R Copenhagen. Although rowing as a Danish club there’s a distinctly English feel to this crew as it includes Fred Vystavel, who has raced at Henley for Westminster School, Princeton University and Elizabethan Boat Club. Also in the boat is Moritz Schneider who rowed for Sport Imperial in this event, losing in the final to Bayer Leverkusen. Mark Hartsteen in the bow seat rowed for Denmark at the U23 World Championships in 2013 finishing 13th in the BM1X. The 4th member of the crew is Nicolai Bernsen, who will celebrate his 20th birthday on the Saturday of the regatta. He raced for Denmark at the Junior World Championships in 2016. This is a very strong-looking crew and could go all the way to the final.

Sydney Rowing Club are the final selected crew in the draw. Alex Nichol and Jackson Kench were members of the Australian U21 team that won the first leg of the Trans-Tasman Regatta against New Zealand last month. Three of this crew, Kench, Nichol and Clinton Boltman won the U21 M4+ at the Sydney International Regatta in March. Sydney won this event in 2015 and raced in this event last year reaching Friday’s racing before going down to the eventual champions from Oslo.

Tideway Sculler’s School last won this event in 2010 and they have qualified two crews for this year. The Sculler’s “A” crew finished second at Wallingford Regatta in Challenge Coxed Fours and made the B-Final of Championship 4’s at marlow (although they withdrew before that race). Kieran Brown and Murray Wilkojc (a finalist from the Wyfold last year) raced a pair at the Metropolitan Regatta, finishing second in Championship Pairs. The Sculler’s B crew are highly experienced as well with a number of Henley finalists on board like Adam Lodygowski, Nathan O’Reilly and Stuart Heap. They have a tough first round draw against the young Selected Molesey crew but it could be a cracking race.

My picks….this is really too close to call and could go to any one of 4-5 crews. But I’m going to go for a win for the youngsters of Molesey.