With June now well upon us, the summer is well and truly here, and Reading Town, one of the first major river regattas, is ready to provide a wonderful weekend in the sun with crews barrelling down the 1500 metre course. For many, it is another step on the road to Henley Royal Regatta as we are just three weeks away from the most outstanding river regatta of all, on a stretch less than ten miles downriver.
Eights
In the top event, there has been four crews banded to compete for the Reading Grand Challenge Cup. Primarily made up by school programmes, this is the first outing in the eight for Shiplake College Boat Club since they won their first-ever championship eights title at the National Schools’ Regatta. The crew split into two fours for Saturday at the Metropolitan Regatta, finishing in the A and B finals, but will be heavily favoured this weekend back together in the eight.
Also lining up is Hampton School Boat Club, coming off the back of their best performance at the National Schools’ Regatta since 2014. They will want to carry their strong form all the way to Henley Royal Regatta. Their B-final showing at the Metropolitan Regatta shows they can carry that speed beyond the harsh conditions of Nottingham, as the men in yellow look to build towards The Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup.
After a 13th-place finish at the National Schools’ Regatta, Reading Blue Coat School is the last of the three school crews in the category. This weekend, they will be looking for signs of improvement after a National Schools’ campaign below the standard of their opponents. Will their home water be enough to close the gap?
The only adult crew in the top band, Lea Rowing Club, makes the trip west to support their Thames Challenge Cup campaign. Two disappointing showings in the eight at the Metropolitan Regatta leave room for improvement, with their 82nd at the Head of the River Race not inspiring confidence either if they wish to return to the form that saw them reach the final of The Wyfold Challenge Cup in 2021.
In the band two event, there is a wider range of entries as hosts Reading Rowing Club go up against Haberdashers Monmouth School Boat Club as well as the universities of Bath and Birmingham. At BUCS Regatta, Bath did better in the eight, finishing eighth in the intermediate category, but Birmingham skipped the event, posting strong results in smaller boats.
The other events open great conversations, too, as a lesser-seen Windsor Boys’ School eight will line up in the band two School/Junior event. Oriel College, Oxford, will compete in Sunday’s event over the shorter distance after their blue boat additions could not save their headship in the eights week bumps.
Coxed Fours
In the smaller boat class, there is a very varied entry. Radley College will compete here with limited Henley ambitions, but is alone in that regard. The University of Birmingham may be weighing up an entry into the Prince Albert Challenge Cup after their fifth place in the intermediate four at BUCS Regatta, while the University of Southampton may be making a similar calculation, as they race both an eight and a four this weekend. Despite these entries, the favourites will likely come from downriver as Upper Thames Rowing Club enter a potential Britannia Challenge Cup combination for a test on a similar stretch.
Coxless Fours
In the coxless fours, only two clubs have been seeded into the band one event, as the Stanmore Challenge Bowl will be a one-off race between crews from Norwich School and Lea Rowing Club. The former finished 15th in the eights at the National Schools’ Regatta while the latter finished 23rd on Saturday at the Metropolitan Regatta, potentially creating an interesting and valuable racing experience as both crews look towards diverging goals for the rest of the season.
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