The Henley Briefing – Day 1
The Henley Briefing is provided by Maths teacher, OSE Honorary Secretary and former Master in Charge of Rowing, John Wiggins:
The 2019 Henley Royal Regatta is upon us with an exciting few days to come.
The School 1st VIII has been lying in wait all season and only emerged after the National Schools’ Regatta (NSR), combining the School 1st IV, two Lower Sixth who have been ploughing patiently up and down all year and the top two J16 boys. The combination burst into action at Reading Amateur Regatta with a win in the School Junior eights beating four schools, including Abingdon, in the final. This pitched them highly up the schools’ ranking, which was solidified at Marlow Regatta where they finished only a short distance behind NSR finalists, Shrewsbury and Eton. The consequence was again revealed in a wise choice of Selected crews by the Henley Stewards for the Princess Elizabeth Cup draw which again included Teddies. They face qualifiers, King’s Canterbury on Wednesday at 11.05am with the winner likely to meet KCS Wimbledon on the Thursday – a crew St Edward’s beat at Reading to establish them already as King killers. To speculate beyond that would be ambitious but if selections are to be a guide, a meeting with St Paul’s on Friday would be as tough as they come!
The 2nd (all J16) VIII rowed really well in the Qualifying race for the Temple Challenge Cup and finished in the middle of the pack of non-qualifiers, but beat a good number of university crews and other school 2nd eights. They will be back keener than ever in 2020.
The draw is to be found here and the racing timetable for Wednesday here. If you are unable to get to the Regatta, all races are being streamed live via this link.
OSE Watch
We have a bumper collection of OSE to follow in addition to the School VIII. Safely through the qualifying race last Friday:
In the Thames Cup Will Morgan for Kingston RC, and Hamish Floyd (still) doing battle for Upper Thames B join Rupert Singfield who pre-qualifed with Tyne RC along with Bea Crossley (nee Searle) coxing the Upper Thames A eight.
In the Temple Challenge Cup Max Thompson is in the box seat with Brookes A while Dave Wilcox and Sam Shuker (who will cox) race for Newcastle University while Ben Sthamer rows for the UL B eight.
The Wyfolds sees Alex Simmonds with City of Oxford now joined by Charlie Gosling who qualified in the Marlow A four.
The Prince Albert (for student fours) is appropriately contested by none other than Oscar (von Hannover) Nick with Campbell Nelson driving the St Andrews crew along.
After a long haul from injury and surgery Stewart Innes had to take the qualifying route into the Diamond Sculls but did so in style. Following his win last year with Molesey BC in the Wyfolds, Oli Knight races with them again but in the prestigious Ladies Plate where we shall also see current SESBC coach, Mike Glover rowing again for the mighty and selected Oxford Brookes.
Teddies English teacher and Rowing coach, Katie Greves has again been lured back into a boat to row with a Headington School Alumni crew, qualifying for the Remenham Cup.
We are always grateful for the coaching – and I am sure that all of the coaches of our OSE are grateful to Teddies for the excellent standards imparted by the school’s coaches, and especially Jonny Singfield who can take the credit for most of these fine fellows. But let’s give a shout for those OSE who are themselves coaching. In the final year of what has been a remarkable stint at Thames RC, Ben Lewis has several crews looking to retain trophies, if not add to the tally, while Adam Donaldson has the privilege of coaching the UK Armed Forces crew in the centenary King’s Cup event. Hamish Roots, when not taking wonderful photographs (search lightoverwater) will be coaching crews from Nottingham RC.
Please alert me to any others that have not yet been spotted.
Finally, we wish our OSE Henley Stewards (Pat Delafield, Lynton Richmond and Peter Thomas) all the best as they run the most prestigious regatta in the world.