The Pimms was poured, the banks seethed with people and day four of the most extravagant regatta in the UK provided gasps, thrilling sprints and Friday anguish as the slots for Saturday’s semi-finals were decided for most events.
Not thrilling enough for the Henley geese, several of whom invaded the middle of the course during the Ladies’ Plate quarter-final between University of Washington and Thames. Following the birds onto the course was a red Swan Support official bird control boat, trying to clear them, which got itself caught ahead of the two eights. The boat tried to get out of the way, but was trapped in an area without any exits, and washed down first Washington and then for a substantial period Thames, who were already lagging behind at the time.
The Thames cox Rahul Ramakrishnan, the Brown 3V cox this summer, put his hand up at the finish whereupon umpire Ben Helm red flagged it, heard the Thames viewpoint from Ramakrishnan, and then announced to Washington that he was going to consult with the Chairman. Half an hour later the Washington win was confirmed.
The GB team name Nautilus, used here for the development group which will supply most of the under-23 world champs team for Britain following next weekend’s final trials, had a very good day, winning all eight of their races. This included Nautilus A beating their B crew in the Visitors’, and their Visitors’ C crew clinging on against the odds to defeat Skøll and Vidar (NED).
Sadly Laga, celebrating their 150th anniversary with neat little gold ‘150’ badges on their spoons, were dumped out of the competition by fellow Dutch crews Nereus A and Skøll in the Temple and Princess of Wales student W4x respectively. Meanwhile Nereus members were seen being royally ticked off by a regatta official for playing their latest game of ‘smuggle booze into the boat tents’. With junior rowers around this is very definitely not allowed, and they were warned by an official clutching two confiscated hip-flasks that they would be patted down on entry and, if found smuggling alcohol in again, would be banned. The Nereus A crew in a tightly-matched Temple draw is due to meet University of Washington on Saturday.
A crazy wind swirled round all day, veering from crosshead early on to more tail by late morning, and then back to head again. It was also fitful, dropping in and out so that some races had a virtually flat river, and others bounced around on a tricky mixture of wind and wash meaning that times may not be as important as usual.
As a result some very good crews, including Hartpury in the Diamond Jubilee JW4x against Marlow A, had steering trouble. That had been going on some time before they clipped the Bucks booms a couple of strokes after passing the Progress Boards, but the race had already been decided. To make up for it a few races later the Hartpury JM4x rowed through and broke Marlow in the Fawley Challenge Cup, a brilliant display of determination.
Another crew putting on a show was London’s Ladies’ Plate eight, sprinting hard along the rammed Enclosures. But their rivals Leander were wise to the event and barely lifted it to hold on for their ¾ length win. Leander are coxed by Paralympic champion Erin Kennedy, in what may well be her last coxing gig, since she recently announced her retirement.
The Sir William Borlase’s School crew had steering issues which began before they came out of the shelter of Temple Island. Veering off the start against Windsor Boys’ School, they got alarmingly close to the buoys which mark the course edge before the start of the booms, overcorrected and took a while to draw level and then lead. After that they had a better time and scrapped with Windsor Boys’ the entire way up the course, the margin varying by up to a third of a length but often much less, and Borlase’s captured the win by a mere two feet, the smallest margin of the day.
The hunt is on for the University of Washington’s first proper women’s trophy: their men have taken away silverware before but the women’s only success at Henley Royal was their 2000 victory in the Henley Prize, in its early stages before evolving into the Remenham Challenge Cup. They have a good four in the Town, who meet Hollandia on Saturday, and another chance in the Island where they might have a close contest against Durham in the semi-final.
The Princess Elizabeth JM8+ is running well up to standard, and after Friday’s racing it will be Radley versus St Paul’s and Teddies versus King’s College School. The latter comes after KCS burned through early leaders Hampton, two races after Teddies and Shiplake had been neck and neck for half a mile until Teddies edged ahead and kept their cool to seize a canvas win. A hundred minutes later Shiplake dealt out revenge in a Prince Philip JW8+ race, also against Teddies, which at first looked set to go the same way but settled into a Shiplake lead in the second half.
In the small boats the big names all got cleanly through, including Lauren Henry (GBR W1x) and Olli Zeidler (GER M1x) who both won at the Lucerne world cup last weekend. So did the Czech national W2-, the Italian W2- and the Czech M2x who beat Irish brothers Fintan and Jake McCarthy handily. The Irish men’s quad fresh from the Lucerne B-final switched their bow pair around and won on Friday, as did GBR M2x Matt Haywood and Josh Knight dealt with a Danish double no longer rowing internationally, and will meet Portugal’s M2x, whom they beat at Lucerne, in the semi-final after the latter had a tough test against Leander’s James Cartwright and Jamie Gare.
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