Metropolitan Regatta 2025 – Saturday’s View from the Bank

With eyes on several separate bodies of water across the course of the final weekend in May, JRN were truly global in the pursuit of best-in-class rowing coverage. Whilst some of our team headed out to Philadelphia to cover the IRA National Championship, we had a group covering the European Rowing Championships in Plovdiv and another lens fixed on the Metropolitan Regatta back in the UK.

Serving as one of the key multi-lane regattas in the lead-up to Henley Women’s and Royal Regattas, the Saturday threw up several compelling narratives as the charge towards red boxes begins.

Open Championship Eights

Cards once kept tightly to the chest are starting to unfold. Rob Baker’s Cambridge – fresh from a Boat Race victory over Oxford – have unleashed the full force of their squad on the domestic circuit, winning this category for the second year on the spin. This crew is strengthened by the inclusion of Olympic gold medallist, Tom Ford, and contains a further seven athletes from the winning crew in April. They were four seconds clear of Leander Club, whose ‘A’ entry is likely to represent their tile at The Ladies Challenge Plate. That crew contains plenty of quality, including British U23 Miles Devereux, Head of the River winner Levin Graf and senior international Jack Prior.

After a disappointing end to their 2024 campaign, London’s assault on The Thames Challenge Cup appears to be gathering momentum. They were third at the Metropolitan Regatta, clear of any other club-eligible crews and four seconds ahead of closest rivals, Thames Rowing Club.

Much has been made of the struggles that the Oxford Brookes programme has endured over the past six months, and the departure of Henry Bailhache-Webb and Richard Spratley will not make life any easier. Credit to this group, though, who continue to turn out competitive outfits, the fastest of which finished fourth overall here. They also placed their ‘C’ crew in the A-final and stacked a further four eights in the B-final. We have become so accustomed to the incredibly high standards set by this group that the prospect of them not winning races by clear water now presents as a bad outcome; context is essential when qualifying their results, and Brookes continue to out-flank every other boat club in the country from a depth perspective.

Elsewhere, what looks a Thames Challenge Cup entry from Leander placed fifth, 0.4 seconds clear of Thames themselves, whilst the Light Blue day was solidified with a seventh-place finish for their Goldie crew. On the junior side, St Paul’s School began their rehabilitation program following a bruising National Schools’ Regatta by finishing as the fastest junior crew, six seconds up on Latymer and seven up on Hampton School.

Women’s Championship Eights

Can anyone stop Thames Rowing Club’s march towards yet more Henley Royal Regatta silverware? This year, they have the chance to win not just The Wargrave Challenge Cup – which would be a fourth victory on the spin – but also the inaugural Bridge Challenge Plate. They finished first and second at the Metropolitan Regatta in this category and will only be spurred on by the fact that they have two of the fastest eights in the country.

Molesey are quietly building some momentum on the women’s side and placed third here, with more changes to line-ups to come on Sunday. With no crews yet set ahead of the Henley series, the focus will be on finding more speed in the hope of building deep runs into both The Wargrave Challenge Cup and Bridge Challenge Plate.

Mirroring their men’s result, Oxford Brookes were fourth in a crew that is not eligible for The Island Challenge Cup, with Cambridge’s winning Blue Boat placing two seconds back in fifth. At least four, if not all, of these boats will be pitching into the debut pool for The Bridge Challenge Plate, leaving us with a mouthwatering domestic tussle.

If we look at results that could be applied to The Island Challenge Cup, the University of London had a good day out, placing seventh in the A-final, just under two seconds off Durham University, whose Island entry is already shaping up quite nicely. BUCS Regatta winners, Newcastle University, won the B-final ahead of Brookes’ prospective Island entry. Headington finished up as the fastest junior programme of the day, placing seventh in the B-final.

Open Championship / Junior Quads

What is probably Leander Club’s Prince of Wales entry won this category, cementing their status as the country’s premier club sculling entity. Oliver Costley – who has won that event at Henley Royal Regatta four times – will anchor this crew in what is shaping up to be yet another successful campaign.

Ireland’s contingent is always strong at the Metropolitan Regatta, and the University of Galway placed second in this race, ahead of a pretty tasty quad from Marlow Rowing Club. If Galway opt to race at Henley Royal Regatta – a choice many Irish clubs face when weighing up the relative merits of the latter or their own domestic championships, which usually take place a week later – they’ll certainly be in amongst the top contenders.

So fast are this year’s Windsor Boys School crew that they were the only junior crew to make the A-final and wound up fourth, clear of Reading University’s ‘A’ quad, which won the championship quad title at BUCS Regatta four weeks ago. Much has already been written about the Windsor Boys’ School, but their push to win a third Fawley Challenge Cup in four years now seems to be nearing certainty as opposed to speculation.

Women’s Championship Quads

Reading University underlined their dominance in female sculling, winning the race by some seven seconds. This is a vintage year for Chris Bartley’s women, whose roster contains talent like Ellie Cooke, Zara Povey and Finnola Stratton. Leander have some ground to make up in the race for the championship title at Henley Women’s Regatta, although one should never write off a crew featuring talents like Katie Mole.

Behind, Wycliffe College exacted revenge on the Tideway Scullers School for their defeat at the National Schools’ Regatta last weekend, beating their close rivals by over three seconds to finish fourth and fifth respectively. Sir William Perkins and Headington also found themselves in the A-final but were some way back, with the former nearly eight seconds back on Tideway Scullers in sixth overall.

Other Narratives

Shiplake College finished in a one-two in the open championship pairs to prove their depth and competence as we hurtle headlong towards the season’s defining contests, whilst Josh Knight’s stock rose further with a victory in the open championship single sculls.

There was a pretty compelling winning combination on show in the women’s championship coxless four, as Leander and the University of London teamed up to take the title. The crew contained rising talents like Abigail Topp and the evergreen Georgie Robinson-Ranger.

Grace Healy, a vice-captain at Dublin University Ladies Boat Club, stole the women’s championship single title from under the nose of a host of talented scullers, including Catherine Gardner of Hartpury College and Molly Curry of Queen’s University Belfast. Healy was named Rowing Irelan’s ‘Up and Coming Rower of the Year in 2024 and is continuing to make good on her obvious potential.

The University of London continued their good day out by winning the open championship coxed fours by nearly two seconds over a combination from Oxford Brookes. Close behind were good outfits from Edinburgh, Bristol and what might well be matched crews from Thames Rowing Club in fifth and sixth. The Prince Albert Challenge Cup looks to be finely balanced in 2025.

In the coxless equivalent, Oxford University put out a rapid crew containing four of their defeated Blue Boat from April, stroked by Italian Olympian Nicholas Kohl. Thames put two boats into second and third, the latter of which was stroked by Olympic gold medallist James Rudkin.

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