Time now to look at the Intermediate events. There’s been a fair amount of discussion on social media about whether the Intermediate events should be done away with, and force the fast crews up to the Open events. But I don’t agree. For me the Intermediate events offer some of the most interesting crews and interesting racing. An opportunity for former international and up and coming U23’s to form crews for Henley and race, if they were pushed up to the Stewards or The Grand then they probably wouldn’t want to face current National Squad crews. Anyway….onto the preview.

The Ladies Challenge Plate (Men’s Intermediate 8’s)

Holders: Oxford Brookes University

Entries: 10 (2018:5)

Oxford Brookes University (crew 34) are back to attempt a hat-trick of wins in this event. They have established themselves as the top club crew in the country, and possibly the best club crew in Europe. They’ve not been beaten by domestic opposition since 2016 and earlier this season they raced at the Wedau Regatta in Duisburg, Germany. There they finished 2nd to the Deutschlandachter – the World Champion German M8 – by 1.5 seconds. Coach Henry Baillache-Webb has put together an outstanding squad system, probably the only one in Europe that could match the top collegiate programs in the USA.

But, Brookes will have their work cut out to win their 3rdLadies Plate title. The GB coaches are using Henley to blood their U23 men’s 8 ahead of the World Championships in Sarasota at the end of July. The crew they’ve put together (racing as Newcastle University and Cambridge University crew 33) includes several athletes studying in the USA (Arthur Doyle at Harvard, Dave Bewicke-Copley at Princeton, Harvey Kay at Washington and Lennie Jenkins and Vlad Saigau from Yale). Also in the crew are Oxford and Cambridge Blues Felix Drinkall and Callum Sullivan. Half of the crew were in the U23 BM8 last year that won silver. On paper this is an outstanding looking crew. It remains to be seen if they can match the top Brookes boat who have been rowing together all season.

But, this event is just about these two boats, there are another 8 crews racing. Chasing Oxford Brookes all season have been Leander Club (crew 31). This crew will be very familiar with Oxford Brookes, not only because they’ve been racing them all season, but because four of the crew (Richard Hawkins, Ed Grisedale, James Stanhope and cox Rory Copus) are Oxford Brookes graduates (Grisedale and Stanhope have both won this event with Brookes). As well as the Brookes graduates, the Leander crew includes three athletes with senior representative honours, Charlie Waite-Roberts finished 4thin the LM4X in 2016, Callum McBrierty and Cam Buchan both rowed in the GB M8 that finished 7thin 2017. This crew also raced at Duisburg, finishing 4th(behind the Brookes Ladies Plate and Temple Challenge Cup crews). At Marlow Regatta Leander were again beaten by the top Brookes boat, but, they were much closer than in previous races, just 1.46 seconds behind.

As mentioned earlier, Frankfurt are celebrating their 150thanniversary this year and have a number of crews racing at Henley. Crew 29, Frankfurter Rudergesellschaft Germania 1869 e.V., Germany. This is a crew made up of a number of former Senior and U23 internationals including Valentin Schatzlein who finished 4thin the LM4X in 2008, and also two members of the Frankfurt crew that won the Thames Cup in 2014 (Moritz Bock and Lukas Duhnkrack).

The Dutch have also entered an U23 crew (Hollandia Roeiclub, Holland,crew 30). Five of this crew already have U23 representative honours, including Finn Florijn, Gert Jan Van Doorn, Joris Moerman and Bjorn Kwee who were in the 2018 U23 BM8 that finished 6that the World Championships. They also raced at the Wedau Regatta in Duisburg where they finished 5thin the B-Final.

France have also entered a crew with significant international experience at U23 level, racing as Aviron Grenoblois and Aviron Meulan Les Mureaux Hardicourt, France. This crew includes Nicolas Gilbert and Louis Droissart who finished 6thin the BM4+ at the U23 World Championships in 2017, Maxence Tollet from the 7thplace BM2- in 2015 and Ivan Bove who finished 5thin the BLM4x last year.

Molesey Boat Club have never won the Ladies Plate, although they were part of a composite crew that won in 2013. They have a very strong crew for this year’s campaign which includes former lightweight World Champion Joel Cassells in the 2 seat. In early June they travelled to Germany to race at the Ratzeburg Regatta winning the Open M8 ahead of the German U23 crew.

One of the delights of this event, is it often sees some unusual composite crews put together, one such crew is East India Club and Gentse-Roei-En-Sportvereniging. This is a very European crew with athletes from Germany, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK. Stroking the crew is U23 World Champion from the Netherlands, Max Ponsen. He has four German and one Danish U23 international behind him.

Also racing are Thames Rowing Club and London Rowing Club, and Oxford Brookes B crew

My picks….the draw would suggest a final between the Great Britain U23’s (Cambridge/Newcastle) and the Dutch U23’s (Hollandia Roeiclub). But the race of the event could well be the possible semi-final between Oxford Brookes A and the GB U23’s. That one will be too close to call….whoever wins that will win the event. If I had to pick one, I’d go for Brookes, mainly because they’ve been racing together for a long time.

The Visitors Challenge Cup (Men’s Intermediate 4-)

Holders: Leander Club

Entries: 22 (2018: 16)

To be reduced to 16 entries by qualifying races

This event promises to be one of the most competitive at the Regatta. A large number of British athletes who are studying at US Universities are racing in this event for their UK clubs. The Stewards have pre-Qualified 12 crews, with the remaining 11 fighting for 4 places.

The first of the pre-Qualified crews are from the Netherlands, Amsterdamsche Studenten Roeivereeniging Nereus and Delftsche Studenten. Their crew is Haye Dijkstra, Bo Wullings, Louis Stolper and Mick Makker. This quartet raced at the Poznan World Cup a few weeks ago finishing 16th. Earlier in the season they won gold at the Bosbaan Regatta and finished 2ndat the RaceRoei Regatta. Wullings also raced for the Netherlands at the World Championships in 2017, finishing 13thin the M2-

Cambridge University and Leander Club are the likely Great Britain U23 BM4-. The crew is David Ambler, Tom Digby, Charlie Elwes and Freddie Davidson. Ambler was a member of the Harvard Varsity 8 that finished 3rdat the IRA Championships. He raced in the BM4- at last year’s U23 World Championships, winning the silver medal. Elwes was also in the U23 BM4- last season, he’s also been a regular member of the Yale varsity crew that went unbeaten this season, including retaining their IRA title. Digby, the Yale Captain for the 2019-20 season, is a two-time U23 silver medallist, he won silver in the BM4- in 2017 (with Elwes) and then silver in the BM8 in 2018. Davidson is the only non-US educated athlete in the crew. He’s a Cambridge Blue and will be the CUBC President for the 2020 Boat Race campaign. He was also in the BM* that won silver last year.

The next crew to go straight through to the man draw are Cercle De L’Aviron De Lyon and Aviron Grenoblois, France. The crew is Gabriel Alardet, M Masse, Damien Gallet & Jean Noury. Gallet and Noury are both former members of the French U23 team.

There is a 2ndDutch crew that has pre-qualified, Koninklijke Studenten Roeivereeniging Njord, The Netherlands. They are Jelle Algie, Ben Tepstra, Ewoud De Haan and Gerard van der Velden. This season they raced at both the Bosbaan Regatta and the RaceRoei Regatta. At the Bosbaan they finished 2ndand at the RaceRoei they were 5th(beaten both times by the Nereus/Deftsche composite.

Oxford Brookes University. This crew is steered by Olympic silver Medallist, Pete Chambers (who recently announced his retirement from international rowing). Chambers is joined by Cameron Spurling, Barnaby Fox, and Chris Tebb. They were all members of the Brookes 3rd8 that finished 5that the Wedau Regatta (in a race where Brookes had 3 8’s in the top 5. As a M4- they raced at Marlow Regatta winning the gold by 4 seconds ahead of the Visitors entry from the University of British Columbia (see below).

Ruder-Club Favorite Hammonia Hamburg and Ruderverein Münster,Germany look to be a German U23 crew, Nils Vorberg, Ollie Kruse, Sebastian Ritter and Alex Vollmer. Vorberg raced in the U23 BM2- last season finishing 6th, Vollmer raced in the same boat class the year before, and Kruse is a World Junior champion from 2017.

A 2ndGerman crew have also pre-qualified, Ruderclub Germania Düsseldorf Von 1904 and Crefelder Ruderclub 1883 E.V.This is another predominantly U23 crew, with Jacob Schulte-Bockholt and Jakob Gebel from the 2018 BM8 that finished 4thand Anton Schulz from the U23 BM8 that finished 5thin 2017. The stroke of the crew is listed as M Korge, which is most probably Max Korge, who raced in the M4- at the Rio Olympics finishing 12th. At Ratzeburg Regatta they won M4- beating the composite from Favorite Hammonia Hamburg & Münster, by 4 seconds.

Syracuse University, USA have come to Henley with half of the Varsity 8 that finished 9that the IRA Championships, Matt Barni, Forrest Sears, Laurence Joss and Kyle Leimeister. Joss is a former member of the Tideway Scullers School, and represented Great Britain at the European Junior Championships.

Thames Rowing Club and Leander Club are another All-US educated crew. Jens Clausen and Joe Wolfin are both studying at Princeton. Clausen was in the 2ndVarsity crew that won Eastern Sprints, and Wolfin was in the 3rdVarsity crew that placed 4that the IRA’s. Joining themare two of the Brown University Varsity 8, Tom Phelps and Rufus Biggs. These guys are no strangers to Henley and both have winner’s medals.

University College Dublin, Ireland, have a crew full of U23 medallists, Shane O’Connell, Andrew Goff, Shane Mulvaney & David O’Malley. The stern pair of Mulvaney and O’Malley are the reigning U23 BLM2- World Champions, Goff won silver in the BLM4X last year and O’Connell won bronze in the same boat class the year before. They are the 2018 Irish campions in the Senior 4- and the 2019 Irish University Champions.

University of British Columbia, Canada raced at Marlow Regatta less than 48 hours after arriving in the UK, they finished a strong 2ndto Oxford Brookes in the Cham 4-. Their crew is Clark Schultz, Ryan Beach, Brendan Wall and Karl Zimmerman. Schultz and Wall finished 12thin the U23 BM4- last year and Zimmerman was a member of the Canadian U23 team in 2016.

The final pre-qualified crew are the Kiwis from Waikato Rowing Club and Tauranga Rowing Club, New Zealand. They could well be the dark horses of the event and have some of the most experienced oarsmen. Martyn O’Leary, Charles Rogerson & Axel Dickinson are all recent senior internationals. The final member of the crew is Newcastle University graduate Will New. O’Leary was a member of the New Zealand senior M8 at last year’s World Championships whilst Rogerson rowed in the M2- at the Lucerne World Cup in 2018 and Dickinson in the pair at the 3rdWorld Cup in 2016.

Leander Club are the defending champions in this event, but this year’s crew face a tough battle to retain their title. Alex Langstone Bolt, Ryan Todhunter, Elliot Kemp and Jack Godsen-Kaye. All but Todhunter are all students at the University of California, Berkeley. Langstone Bolt was a member of the outstanding St Paul’s School 1st8 that won the Princess Elizabeth last year and both he and Kemp rowed in the 3rdVarsity at the IRA’s finishing 5th. Gosden-Kaye (who has just completed his Senior year) won silver in the 2V at the 2018 IRA Championships and rowed in the 1stVarsity boat at this year’s IRA’s finishing 4th. Ryan Todhunter is a fulltime oarsman at Leander.

Oxford University are fielding a crew of four Blues from this year’s losing Boat Race crew, Charlie Pearson, Ben Landis, Tobias Schroder and Augustin Wambersie.

Isis Boat Club and Oxford Universityare steered by Charlie Buchanan who rowed in the 7 seat of this year’s Oxford Blue Boat. He’s joined by three members of this year’s Isis crew, Nick Elkington, Luke Robinson and Joshua Bowesman-Jones. As a M4- they won the Tier2 event at Marlow Regatta.

Thames Boat Club are all experienced Henley campaigners. Three of the crew, Ian Hurley, Sam Thornton and Luke Wertheim won the Thames Cup last year. Stroking the crew is former New Zealand international, Nick Pusinelli. He won this event with Thames back in 2016.

My picks….The Kiwis look very good, I think they will pip the young GB U23 boat (assuming the draw allows).

The Prince of Wales Challenge Cup (Men’s Intermediate 4X)

Holders: Algemene Amsterdamsche Studenten Roeivereniging Skøll, Netherlands

Entries: 29 (2018: 33)

To be reduced to 16 entries by qualifying races

The Dutch from Algemene Amsterdamsche Studenten Roeivereniging Skøll are back to defend the title they won in 2018, this time in a composite with Algemene Utrechtse. Thye have two of the victorious crew from last year, Job Huigsloot and Leonard Van Lieorp. This year they are joined by Daan Klomp and Guido de Ruijter. They raced at the Bosbaan Regatta at the beginning of June, winning the Open M4X.

The 2ndPre-Qualified crew are Community Rowing Association, USA. Hailing from Boston, this crew includes Michael Coella who race for the USA in the M2- at the 2017 and 2018 World Championships. Joining him is Alexander Dillon, Head Coach at Boston College (who race in the Princess Elizabeth) and former Northeastern University rower Trevor Appier.

The third Pre-Qualified crew are the Great Britain U23 quad, racing as Edinburgh University and Nottingham Rowing Club. This crew is George Bourne, Matt Haywood, Josh Armstrong and Sam Meijer. All but Bourne were members of the GB U23 BM4X last year that won gold at the World Championships. Bourne was selected to race for Great Britain at the European 23 Championships in the M1X last year, where he finished 5th. This season the quartet raced at Marlow Regatta, winning the Champ 4X event.

Leander Club have won this event for 8 of the last 10 years and they will be strong contenders again this year. Their crew is Victor Kleshnev, James Cartwright, Seb Devereux and Sam McKeown. Kleshnev was a Henley finalist in the Fawley last year and a two-time world junior silver medallist. Cartwright was a crew-mate of Kleshnev’s in the JM4X that won world silver last year. Seb Devereux is an experienced Henley campaigner having raced in the Fawley and even faced Mahe Drysdale in the Diamonds in 2015. In 2107 he partnered Sam Meijer to gold in the U23 BM2X. This crew finished 2ndto the Edingburgh/Nottingham composite at Marlow Regatta.

Reading University have two crews in the main draw, their A Crew is Sean O’Mahony, Luke Reiser, Rory Harris & George Lawton. All four of these athletes raced last year (in either the A or B crews. At The BUCS Regatta they finished 4thand then at Marlow they took 3rd.

There are three German crews in this event, the first is Ruder-Club Potsdam and Ruderverein Münster.This crew is Tim Liebrich, Kas Ole Lass, Merlin Schmid and Joscha Feder. Lass represented Germany at the 2018 Junior World Championships, winning gold in the JM2X. Liebrich finished 7thin the BM4X at the European U23 Championships and Schmid is also a Junior World Championship medallist. Feder and Schmid raced in Ratzeburg in June finishing 3rdin the M2X.

The 2ndGerman crew are a lightweight quad from Rudergesellschaft “Hansa” Hamburg. They are stroked by senior lightweight international, Konstantin Steinhübel, he raced in the LM2X at the 2018 World Championships and is a former European bronze medallist. Joining Steinhübel are Paul-Nelson Becker, Tilman Dreyer and Jacob Müller.

The third German boat is from Rudern Tennis Und Hockey Club Bayer Leverkusen. They reached the semi-final last year and have one of the crew returning, Michael Weppelmann. He’s joined by two Lightweight World Champions, Patrick Stoecker and Cedric Kulbach.

The final pre-qualified crew are Schuylkill Navy High Performance Centre of the USA. Christopher Shirley, Eliot Putnam, William Burstein and Charles Anderson. They are all members of Penn Athletic Club and competed in doubles at the 2ndUS Speed Order Trials in May. Anderson placed 4thwith Burstein and Shirley finishing 2ndand 3rdin the B Final and Putnam 2ndin the C Final. Anderson and Burstein have a Henley Winners medal, although it’s of the Canadian variety.

Of the crews that came through qualifying, the University of London Boat Club and Edinburgh University Boat Club have shown the best form this season. Jonas Weller, Oliver Varley, Matthew Curtis and Dale Flockhart finished 4thin Champ 4X at Marlow Regatta. Weller won silver for Germany in the BLM4X at the U23 World Championships in 2016, Oliver Varley and Matthew Curtis were in the GB boat that beat Weller to the gold. Flockart also has U23 representative honours to his credit, having raced in the U23 BLM4X last season.

The crew from Gloucester Rowing Club, Tom Jenkinson, James Mackman, Alex Astbury and Ben Harris. They finished 6that Marlow.

One place behind Gloucester were the crew from The Windsor Boys School and the Windsorian Boat Club. Steered by former World Championship bronze medallist, Adam Freeman-Pask, he’s joined by Julian Van Gelderen who competed for Great Britain at the European Junior Rowing Championships in May, Bryn Ellery who won silver at the Junior World Championships last year, and Andy Joel who finished 4thin the BM4X at the 2017 U23 World Championships. This crew raced at Marlow Regatta, winning Tier 2 M4X.

Also racing are crews from Agecroft Rowing Club (5thin Tier 2 Quads at Marlow),Newcastle University and Itchen Imperial Rowing Club (11thin Marlow), Nottingham University (2ndin Lightweight Champ 4X at BUCS and 2ndin Tier 2 4X at Marlow) and Reading University B who came 9thin Marlow.

My picks…Edinburgh University and Nottingham Rowing Club (the Great Britain U23 crew) look to be the strongest crew in the field.