Time now for some of the most popular events at the regatta….the club events.

The Thames Challenge Cup

Holders: Thames Rowing Club

Selected Crews: Cork Boat Club Ireland, Leander Club, N.S.R Oslo Norway, Thames R.C “A”

Thames Rowing Club come into Henley as winners of 2 of the last 3 Thames Cups (Their win in 2015 was their first since the war). Last year saw an All-Thames final and this year’s crew has three returners from that race, Ben Thomas and Ian Hurley from the winning “A” crew and Sam Thornton from the losing “B” crew.. Thames have established themselves as favourites with strong results at the Metropolitan Regatta where they finished 2nd in the A-Final at the Metropolitan Regatta (losing to their training partners from St Paul’s School). They had a bit of a disappointing Time Trial at Marlow which relegated them to the B-Final of Championship 8’s which they duly won in a time of 5:38 (which would’ve placed them 4th in the A-Final (just ahead of the Leander Club Thames Cup crew).

The other selected crew in Thames’ side of the draw are the Irish from Cork Boat Club. They won the B-Final of Challenge 8’s at the Metropolitan Regatta. Four of the crew won the Intermediate 4+ at Cork City Regatta last week.

The lower half of the draw sees the selected crews as Leander Club and the Norwegians from NSR Oslo. The Norwegians from NSR Oslo are, perhaps the biggest challengers to Thames. They won the Britannia Challenge Cup in 2017 and were beaten finalists in the Thames Cup in 2016. They have three of the 2016 crew returning, Hallvard Bjorkelund, Markus Holmemo and Patrick Een Sture. The crew includes the Norwegian M4- that raced at the 2nd World Cup in 2013 (Lars Myhrer, Sven Nicolaysen, Bjorkelund & Holmemo). Sture also has senior international honours to his name having raced in the LM1X at the 1st and 2nd World Cups in 2016. This crew raced at Ratzeburg regatta finishing 8th behind three Oxford Brookes 8’s and crews from Poland, Germany and China.

Leander Club finished 5th in Challenge 8’s at the Metropolitan Regatta 8 seconds behind Thames, and at Marlow Regatta they finished 4th in championship 8’s. This is the Pink Palace’s development crew and contains a number of young athletes making the transition from Junior to Senior. Both Joe Wolfin and Jonno Cameron have winner’s medals from the Fawley Challenge Cup.

This event also includes a couple of crews from the USA, the pick of which are the Montclair Mounties from New Jersey. This is predominantly a High school crew that were planning on entering the Princess Elizabeth, however a road traffic accident meant that two of the original crew were unable to row, so two recent graduates were brought into the crew which unfortunately meant they were unable to race in the PE and have switched to the Thames. They have established themselves as one of the fastest junior crews in the USA, winners of the prestigious Stotesbury Cup. They face Upper Thames in the first round and will be looking to progress.

The 2nd US crew are from Potomac Boat Club. This is a mixed crew of students and masters rowers (with an age range from 22 to 40) and will be racing at Henley Masters as well as Henley Royal.

Molesey last won this event in 2016 and will be hoping to do well this year, they face Kingston in the first round and will be confident of progressing to a potential meeting with the Selected Norwegians in round 2. So far this season the men in black have a 5th place in the B Final of Challenge 8’s at the Met and 6th in Championship 8’s at Marlow (posting a time of 5:47).

Agecroft have qualified two crews for the main draw, their A Crew were winners of the Club 8’s at Marlow and 7th in the C Final of Challenge 8’s at the Metropolitan. They face Vesta in the 1st round

London Rowing Club last won a club event at Henley in 2011 (The Wyfold) and it’s been 12 years since they last made the final of the Thames Cup. This year’s crew finished 5th in the ‘B’ final of Championship Eights at Marlow Regatta. They were also fifth in the final of club eights at Wallingford Regatta.

The final crew to mention are Royal Chester Rowing Club, 3rd in the final of Championship Eights at Marlow Regatta and 4th in Challenge Eights at the Metropolitan Regatta, Royal Chester consistently enter a strong Thames Cup crew although they’ve yet to make it to the weekend’s racing.

My picks…the draw should provide a comfortable route for Thames to the final, but a potential final between Oslo and Leander could be good. I’m predicting a Thames v Leander final with Thames retaining their title

The Wyfold Challenge Cup

Holders: Sport Imperial Boat Club

Selected crews: Aviron Grenoblois France, Swan River Rowing Club Australia, Upper Yarra Australia, Wairau Rowing Club New Zealand, Dresdner Ruder-Club 1902 Germany, Mercantile Rowing Club Australia, Potomac Boat Club USA, RTHC Bayer Leverkusen Germany

Somewhat surprisingly the Stewards haven’t selected a single home crew in this event and the likes of Molesey and Thames could feel somewhat aggrieved not to get the nod from the Stewards.

But, in the top half of the draw the first Selected crew are the French from Aviron Grenoblois. This crew includes former U23 international Jean Noury who rowed in the U23 BM8 that finished 6th at the 2015 U23 World Championships. He’s joined by Loic Lezarme, Antoine Lagouge and B Belinghan. They were all members of the Grenobles M8 that won silver at the French Championships.

The 2nd selected crew in the top half of the draw are Swan River Rowing Club of Australia. This crew will be of particular interest to former Cambridge coach and Head of Rowing at King’s School Ely, Mark Beer, who takes up the post of chief coach at Swan River in the autumn. They are a young crew, all still 18, but have already racked up a number of medals between them at state and national level. At the recent Sydney International Regatta Tim Sanders and Riley King were members of the U21 M4+ that won bronze.

The 2nd Aussie selected crew are also in the top half of the draw, Upper Yarra Rowing Club from Melbourne. This is the club name for Melbourne University Boat Club. They have been in this country for a couple of weeks and raced at Marlow Regatta where they finished 5th in the B-Final of Championship 4-. They also raced at the Sydney International Regatta in March finishing 5th in the final of the open M4-.

The final selected crew in the top half of the draw at the New Zealanders of Wairau Rowing Club. These could well be one of the strongest crews in the top half of the draw. Three of the crew, Troy O’Reilly, Tufi Sele and Joe Trappitt won a bronze medal in the Senior M8 at the New Zealand National championships earlier this year. The 4th member of the crew, Josh Earl won multiple medals at the New Zealand University championships, including gold in the championship M2- with senior international Dirkus Conradie.

The lower half of the draw has Dresdener Ruder-Club as a selected crew. Not much information on this crew at the time of writing. The crew is J Florian, R Bischof, B Burgdorf and M Boese.

The next selected crew in the lower half of the draw is the 3rd Australian boat, Mercantile Rowing Club from Melbourne. Benjamin Canham and Angus Maloney raced in the U23 M4- at the Sydney International finishing 4th and also in the u23 M8 winning silver. Jack Kelly from Banks Rowing Club raced in the open M2X at Sydney and the 4th member of the crew, Mitch Hooper won bronze in the U21 M2X. A number of the crew also raced at the Victoria State Championships winning gold in the M8.

Potomac Boat Club of the USA are the 3rd Selected crew in the lower half of the draw, and as with their Thames Cup 8 they are a mix of students and masters rowers. Their Wyfold crew includes former Harvard Lightweight and London Rowing Club oarsman Craig Herron.

The final selected crew in the draw is the 2nd German crew of RTHC Bayer Leverkusen. Regular visitors to the Regatta and winners of the Britannia Challenge Cup in 2016, RTHC Bayer Leverkusen always bring powerful, well-drilled crews to Henley Royal Regatta. Leon Lenzen and Adrian Ernst won gold in the lightweight men’s four at the recent German Championships whilst Julius Chrsit and Robin Goeritz won a silver in the men’s four.

Outside of the selected crews the strongest of the home crews is likely to be between Molesey Boat Club and Thames Rowing Club. Molesey, with former junior international Oli Knight on-board, who has made three HRR finals with Walton and St Edward’s School, this crew raced at Ratzeburg regatta where it won a bronze and silver medal on the Saturday and Sunday.

Thames Rowing Club will be strong contenders in this event. The club’s second-ranked crew, who finished fourth in Championship Coxless Fours at Marlow Regatta but crucially ahead of all other Wyfold competition.

A club which has qualified for Henley for the first time are Rex Boat Club, this is the alumni club for Kings School Chester, all the crew still live in and around Chester and have continued their rowing as part of the Kings Chester network. It’s great to see new clubs in the main draw at Henley.

Another club I’m particularly proud to see make the main draw are Ardingly Rowing Club from West Sussex. A club that were foolish enough to make me an honorary member….what is it Groucho Marx said about not wanting to be a part of any club that would have him as a member ;)…But, Ardingly have qualified, and qualified well. They were runners-up in the tier 2 M4- at Marlow Regatta behind the Eton Vikings Visitors crew.

Bewdley Rowing Club could do quite well, A crew that contains several athletes who won the Temple Challenge Cup for Oxford Brookes in 2014. They were fifth in Championship Coxless Fours at the Metropolitan Regatta and sixth in Challenge Coxless Fours at Wallingford Regatta. They face Exeter Rowing Club in the first round and then meet the winners between Mercantile and Strathclyde.

Lea Rowing Club last won at this event in 1995 and they have a strong crew this season. A very strong club crew, who finished sixth in Championship Coxless Fours at Marlow Regatta. They were third in the same category at the Metropolitan Regatta. The club’s top ranked crew and arguably the strongest they’ve had at the Regatta for several years.

Tideway Sculler’s School have been losing finalists in 3 of the last 4 years (controversially being disqualified in the final against Upper Thames in 2015). They’ve got a new crew, with several athletes formerly of London RC, and finished fifth in the final of Championship Coxless Fours at Marlow Regatta.

My picks….despite not being selected I think this could go the way of Thames Rowing Club

The Britannia Challenge Cup to follow shortly…….