The racing was vintage, the banks were packed, and Henley Saturday 2025 was a true British summer’s day, blustery wind and drizzle competing with firecracker racing on the water. Nearly half the 52 races involved fully-fledged international rowers, and many of the contests ended with the crews overlapping.
One of these was the semi-final of the Grand which saw the British European men’s champion eight solidly beaten by a rejigged Australian line-up stroked by Alex Hill and with his World Cup four mixed into a fricassee with other team members. The verdict was only two-thirds of a length, but that concealed a race in which the Aussies were always in charge. The Brits mounted a full-on charge just before Upper Thames which halved a gap of nearly a length, but it wasn’t long before this push expired and Australia moved back out to their original distance then managed a more effective sprint along the Enclosures.
Rowing Australia head coach Chris O’Brien was clearly delighted at the success of his plan. Whilst the fresh version of his eight may have been created as a fun way to end their European trip and worry the British at the same time, he wasn’t ruling out the idea that it could become a real option when he finalises selection at the end of this month back in Australia.
Something similar could happen in the British team, since the Princeton pairing of Marcus Chute and Theo Bell, both GB under-23s and engine room of the Tiger varsity crew which claimed the Ladies’ Plate last year, has turned out to be a bonus crew. Forced to qualify in the Goblets, this duo back in Britain for under-23 trials have impressed in all three races. Granted, their slow start means they keep coming from behind, but it would not be impossible for them to end up in contention for the GB M2- slot if they can beat the other hopefuls in training. If they do go to the age-group worlds they will be strong contenders.
Lauren Henry pulled out a repeat of her 17.5-second Lucerne margin over Lithuania’s Olympic bronze medallist Viktorija Senkute with a hammer-dropping move after the Barrier which turned a close race into no contest. Henry’s opposition on Sunday, Dane Frida Nielsen, who beat Aussie Laura Gourley, will be a tougher nut to crack, but the times and distances Henry has put down this year already make her the firm favourite.
London beat Leander to whisk into the final of the Thames club men’s eights against the club with the same name. This turns out to be only the fourth time in the Thames Challenge Cup’s 157-year-old history that perennial rowing rivals London and Thames have met in the final of the event, Thames RC having beaten the last Dutchmen in the draw, De Hoop, a few races earlier. London won two Thames finals against Thames in the 1880s, and Thames were the victors in the 1934 edition. They will also face one another in the Britannia club coxed fours final,
London now have finalists in all three men’s club events, their top Wyfold four having sat ahead of Thames A in the Saturday semi-final. Both crews were obstinate, Thames point-blank refusing to be dropped but London refusing to let them dig into from the one-length lead they had established. This lasted until the Enclosures when, roared on by the massive crowd, Thames charged back but ran out of river, London composedly staying ahead by half a length.
Controversy reared its head in the Temple Challenge Cup when Nereus, having lost to the Harvard lightweights by two-thirds of a length, asked umpire Matt Pinsent, who now chairs the HRR Umpire’s Panel, to come over as they floated after the line. The complaint was a new one, that halfway along the course, just before Fawley, they had heard a [deleted-expletive] call aimed at them, coming from the US crew. Listening back on the livestream video, the Harvard cox’s voice can clearly be heard despite the overlay of the TV commentary team voiceover, but apart from a couple of “you’ve got this” calls, the rest was indecipherable, though one member of the fourth estate was sure they could hear the expletive.
No information has yet been received about what happened, though the normal procedure would be to give Harvard a false start for Sunday’s final, when they face Brookes A in a dejâ vu moment repeating their 2024 semi-final. Harvard will be hoping that last year’s result, a clear-water win to Brookes, won’t be repeated. But if it is, that’s only a fair revenge for the two consecutive Temple Cup losses Brookes suffered to Harvard freshmen in 2002 and 2003 before their recent winning era began.
There was another appeal to the umpire late in the afternoon when Oxford Brookes’ Visitors’ four beat the Molesey and Holstebro composite after being warned several times for steering in the early stages of the race. The composite is made up of two bow-sider under-23 GB hopefuls who found a quality strokesider each from their US college crews — a Dane from Cal and a German from Washington — and suggested that Brookes had affected the outcome of the race. A similar appeal was made by Tideway Scullers’ JW4x in their race against Wycliffe A in the Diamond Jubilee a few races later, but both were turned down as having had insufficient impact.
The final of the Stonor women’s doubles will be an all-overseas affair, after New Zealand’s Katherine Glen and Lucy Glover were outclassed by Dutch Olympians Roos de Jong and Benthe Boonstra. The Kiwis were already behind when they became tangled up in the booms briefly, but although they restarted, the race was effectively over. The other semi was won by fellow internationals Greece over the British W2x: the Greeks haven’t yet directly raced the Dutch this season so the final will be an interesting marker of speed.
Similarly the Hambleden women’s pairs final will be decided between the Croatian Jurkovic twins and two former US team-mates, Croatia’s brothers Sinkovic with twins Loncaric Stewards four beat the GB national four to meet Canada in the final, and the Princess Grace final will be between the Netherlands and Germany after they beat the USA and Britain respectively. There are double-ups in the Town and Remenham (Briton Heidi Long) and the Double Sculls and Diamonds (Finlay Hamill).
The second of those is quite a tale. Hamill, a former lightweight who started rowing openweight a couple of years ago, rowed current European star Simon van Dorp (NED) almost to a standstill on Friday. He then did the same to Olympic champion and defending Diamonds champion Olli Zeidler (GER) on Saturday: a remarkable feat. Hamill was led out by Zeidler who looked in full control, only to start buckling under the pressure when Hamill started to carve his way through. Hamill was rating an insane 41 through the Enclosures, scrabbling along, but the tactic worked and wore down Zeidler to the point where he clearly had nothing he could do to check the onslaught. The other Diamonds winner was Melvin Twellaar, disposing neatly of the other Kiwi, Logan Ullrich. Normally it would be a no-brainer to back Twellaar, but the way Hamill is hunting down the big guns, it’s not impossible he could beat the Dutchman, van Dorp’s team-mate, in just the same way.
Last and far from least, the first one-foot verdict of the regatta was recorded after Newcastle’s women rowed down Oxford Brookes in an astounding finish, having paced them the whole way up the course. With the Bridge elite women’s eights also delivering superb contests, and the Prince Philip doing full justice to the junior women, the era of women’s eights has fully arrived.
