Henley Royal Regatta 2025 – Qualifiers for Intermediate Events Preview

For many, racing at the Qualifying event for Henley Royal Regatta is the pinnacle of their rowing career. The Draw for the Regatta takes place the following day (Saturday 28th June at midday) and many crews will need to navigate the perils of Friday’s timetrial on the Henley course to secure a berth in the Regatta proper. Here, we’re going to take a look at who we think will qualify in the intermediate events.

The Visitors’ Challenge Cup

Entries: 15 (To be reduced to 12 by Qualifying races)

Subject to withdrawals, the fastest 3 crews will qualify (60%)

For the Visitors’, five crews will be battling it out for three spots, so pretty good odds for these boats. At the front of the pack will likely be Oxford ‘B’. Two Isis athletes, Tom Rigney and Paolo Cicuta, are in the bow pair. Stroking is Tom Sharrock, a two-time Blue, and behind him at three is James Doran, the powerhouse three-time Blue who, despite never having won a Boat Race, has won Henley Royal Regatta in The Ladies’ Challenge Plate and The Grand Challenge Cup in 2023 and 2024 respectively, in some incredibly impressive Oxford Brookes eights. They have yet to race together, having had to scratch from Marlow Regatta last weekend, but they will be an excellent unit.

Another to watch is the Tideway Scullers’ School and Ever Green Boat Club, USA entry. This crew is made up of three Dartmouth athletes, all of whom were in the programme’s 2V, and Victor El Kholti from Northeastern, who has been coaching this year while he finishes his degree. A Frenchman, El Kholti was a staple of Northeastern’s 1V as a student. The Dartmouth athletes – Nicholas Hepburn, Tom Thomas and Nirav Tomasi – were all in the 2V that finished fourth in the IRA B-final this year, but were part of a robust year for Dartmouth overall that saw the 1V capture a bronze at the IRAs. As is often the case with composite crews coming from the US, I would imagine that these guys have not spent much time in this lineup, but their strength and experience should carry them through the qualifier.

Thames ‘B’ will round out the qualifying pack, I think. This is an experienced lineup featuring two ex-Cambridge athletes: Ben Wood, who won the Lightweight Boat Race back in 2022, and Reef Boericke, who was part of the Goldie crews from 2021, ’22 and ’23, winning in ’21 and ’23. They’re joined by Hamish Bowie, who was part of The Wyfold Challenge Cup ‘B’ entry from Thames last year, and Orlando Watson. Most recently, these guys raced at Marlow, finishing fifth in the C-final – probably not where they would have hoped to be, but I think the result demonstrates sufficient speed to qualify.

The last two entries – Thames ‘C’ and Pembroke College, Oxford and Balliol College, Oxford – won’t have the pace to hang with these other crews. While Thames is a fantastically deep squad, this ‘C’ entry has been well off-the-pace of the ‘B’ boat; the Oxford colleges, while high-performing in the internal college circuit at Oxford, are not at the level of competition to make headway in an intermediate category (Pembroke, for example, were 169th at the Head of the River Race). That said, there’s always room for upsets and dramatics, particularly in the coxless categories, so it is all to play for.

Here are the 3 crews that I believe find themselves most likely to qualify in alphabetical order:

1. Oxford University ‘B’
2. Thames Rowing Club ‘B’
3. Tideway Scullers’ School and Ever Green Boat Club, U.S.A.

The Prince of Wales Challenge Cup

Entries: 23 (To be reduced to 16 by Qualifying races)

Subject to withdrawals, the fastest 6 crews will qualify (46.15%)

Reading University have a further three crews involved in qualifying, and it should be a good contest between them to see which can qualify. On paper the “C” boat, Charlie Ingham, Sam Cuthbertson, Frederyk Giemza-Pipe and Ethan Walters, look the stronger. They won intermediate quads at BUCS Regatta, but the Reading “D” boat (Alfie Wynter, James Burridge, William Buckingham and Henry Welch) finished ahead of their “C” crew at Marlow (making the A-final as a Tier 2 crew whereas Reading “C” were sixth in the B-final). Reading’s “E” crew may have a tougher time qualifying; their most recent result was second in the C-Final at Marlow Regatta. However, racing qualifiers will be a good experience for the young crew ahead of future Henley Royal Regatta campaigns.

The Stewards have asked two overseas crews to race qualifiers. The first are the Dutch from Eindhovense Studenten Roeivereniging Thêta and Koninklijke Studenten Roeivereeniging Njord, Netherlands. This is a recently formed crew featuring Bastiaan Van Gerwen, Frits Van den Boogaard, Marijn Van Haaster and Jelle Teekens, but they have already shown good pace, with Teekens and Van Gerwen winning the men’s double at the Northwave Regatta.

The second overseas crew required to qualify are Ruder-Club Favorite Hammonia Hamburg and Schweinfurter Ruder-Club Franken von 1882 e.V., Germany. This is a young development boat from the Ratzeburg / Hamburg sculling centre, which raced to a fifth place at the Ratzeburg Regatta this season.

Bath University should also qualify on Friday; they were third at BUCS and made the A-final at Marlow Regatta.

I think the final qualifier will be the crew from Tideway Scullers and Girton College Cambridge. This boat includes Yale lightweights Finlay Murray and Ry Natterson, Inigo Shorrock from the Dartmouth University lightweight programme, and lightweight Cambridge Blue James Richards.

Here are the 6 crews that I believe find themselves most likely to qualify in alphabetical order:

1. Bath University
2. Eindhovense Studenten Roeivereniging Thêta and Koninklijke Studenten Roeivereeniging Njord, Netherlands
3. Reading University ‘C’
4. Reading University ‘D’
5. Ruder-Club Favorite Hammonia Hamburg and Schweinfurter Ruder-Club Franken von 1882 e.V., Germany
6. Tideway Scullers’ School and Girton College, Cambridge