The wind stayed fair and stronger for the Thursday competitors at Henley this week, strengthening and largely tail, and prompting several new records. A flurry of great racing late in the day kept the spectators stapled to their deckchairs in the fierce evening sun, and produced one of the best races of day three along with the first ever use of ‘six inches’ as a Henley Royal verdict.
This was Hinksey Sculling School against Claire’s Court School in the Fawley JM4x quads. Though the two were level to Temple Island, after that Hinksey moved confidently into a lead which by the halfway point of the course they had extended to over a length. But Claire’s Court weren’t finished, and pushed back to overlap with their rivals approaching and into the Enclosures. At National Schools the Oxonians had rampaged past the crew from Maidenhead to beat them by half a second, but at the Royal Regatta Claire’s Court turned the tables, spiralling the rate to 38 in their finish sprint and surging past Hinksey on the very last stroke. This year HRR debuts two new margins of ‘a bow ball’ and ‘six inches’ (‘one foot’ already being used many times over recent years), and this was the first time it has been used by the finish judges.
An arguably even better contest was the one between De Hoop (NED) and Thames A in the Britannia men’s club coxed fours. Thames A have bossed this event for the last four years without a break, but will not be in the final this year, after De Hoop rowed through them. Thames dashed off hard and grabbed a third of a length, but were then reeled in like fish hooked by a patient angler.
The Londoners managed to slice a second off their 2018 crew’s winning Barrier mark, and another second off the same crew’s Fawley time, but were overtaken shortly afterwards. They had to chase De Hoop home, their continual pressure helping the Dutchmen to carve a fantastic four seconds off the 2018 finish record. Since the record times page in the programme is not updated daily, we will have to wait until 2027, by which time the Britannia may have been suspended as an active event, to find out if the Stewards will print an asterisk for “loser leading” as well as the symbol for ‘in a heat’.
Lots of races were tense until at least the Mile, with honourable mentions for Skøll (NED) rowing through Crabtree in the new Princess of Wales elite W4x event, Hartpury doing the same to Aramo Whanganui (NZL) in the Fawley and Laga (NED) holding on ahead of Wesleyan (USA) in the Temple student M8+ shortly after lunch. Laga actually led all the way, but never by more than half a length, and Wesleyan shoved in a tempestuous last-ditch sprint from the progress boards to close the gap down to a canvas at the line.
In the Island student W8+ a belter between Yale A and Cambridge B went to the Brits, the Yale woes compounded by having led the entire way until the last half-minute. Cambridge B underrated the Americans throughout, including at the end, but just had more length and power. It has been a tricky regatta for Yale, whose Temple Cup crew also exited on Thursday, after their Prince Albert M4+ were withdrawn post-qualification after they realised they were boating an athlete ineligible due to having won a non-junior event previously at the regatta.
Thames, Molesey and Leander consecutively lowered the record for the Danesfield club W4x, a new event this year, by six, one and then seven seconds in turn. The Pink Palace’s Fawley junior men’s quad won by a comfortably low-rating one length against Tiffin School. Bow of the Leander boat, Alex Didaskoulou, has dual Greek-British nationality and went to Greek trials earlier in the summer. He won them, but turned down the option of racing in the Greek JM4x at the under-19 world championships in favour of staying with his Leander crew.
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The sculling events began on Thursday and the most exhausting race to watch was that between James Lawn of Vesta and Ben Parsonage of Clydesdale, late in the afternoon. Parsonage ended exhausted on the raft several minutes after his friends had put the boat away, demolished by his successful effort to stay ahead of Lawn in a gruelling race which ended in a narrow clear-water verdict. He now meets German national team member Tom Graenitz, who is unlikely to stay in the scull with world and Olympic champion Olli Zeidler hogging the limelight, but is a formidable opponent for the Scotsman. Zeidler himself took an uneventful ‘easily’ verdict against a student sculler from Aegir (NED).
Most clubs celebrating anniversaries do a sedate row-past to the polite applause of the lunchtime or teatime crowds. Peterhouse Cambridge, commemorating the 70th anniversary of their college winning the Ladies’ Plate in 1956, went one better by gathering nine Petreans past and present to join forces in a Ladies’ entry for 2026. Although bolstered by Olympians Tom Ford, Tom George and Ollie Wynne-Griffith as well as former CUBC President Luca Ferraro, the Peterhouse eight found their first-round draw of Oxford Brookes too much of a hurdle and the race was decided in favour of Brookes soon after the quarter-mile.
However, the finest story of the events starting on Thursday went to two Nottingham rowers. Cameron Black and David Smith, the fastest non-qualifiers in the Double Sculls, were having a quiet pint in the pub after racing on Wednesday evening when they got an unexpected phone call. “Would you like to race in the Doubles tomorrow?” — since Freddie Foxwell and Jack Cadwallader of Edinburgh and Nautilus had withdrawn. The answer was yes, though the Nottingham oarsmen may have regretted it when facing a Leander double who swept past them to an ‘easily’ verdict.
