Historic Henley Royal Regatta for Thames
The club picked up the inaugural Bridge Challenge Plate for intermediate women’s eights, retained the Britannia Challenge Cup for an unprecedented fourth successive year, and club member Tristan Wenger won the Visitors’ Challenge Cup as part of a GB development composite.
The winning crews were among 126 athletes in 23 crews representing the club at HRR this year.
Bridge Challenge Plate
In its first year, the Bridge Challenge Plate showcased quality women’s rowing from the first race onwards. Thames’ top eight was joined by a crew formed of recently retired athletes, who lost to a GB under-23 boat including Thames’ Niamh Comerford on Thursday.
The Bridge eight - Zahir Ala, Darla Matthews, Jane Hardie, Lydia Cronin, Chloe Brew, Abby Pape, Helena Barton, Grace Johnson and Emilia Crocker - came up against three strong opponents on their way to collecting the gorgeous new trophy designed for the event. On Friday, they raced Molesey BC & Newcastle University, with the composite hanging on throughout the course and Thames winning by 1/3 length.
Saturday was a repeat of the Henley Women’s Regatta championship eights final, against a Leander & University of London composite. As at HWR the composite had a superb start, but a decisive mid-race push by Thames saw them row through and away for a place in the final.
On Sunday, Thames lined up against Oxford Brookes University A. They produced a technically superb row, moving out early on and never relinquishing the lead. The result was victory for Thames by 1 3/4 lengths in a record time of 6:56.
Britannia Challenge Cup
Throughout the summer, the eight rowers and two coxes in the Britannia Cup group had been battling for a seat in Britannia ‘A’, coming out with a series of close results at Wallingford, camp and Met. By HRR, both were in excellent shape and hopeful for success.
Britannia ‘B’ began with a comprehensive victory over Tideway Scullers School, but came up against eventual runners-up London RC on Thursday. They pushed London every inch but lost by just a length.
Britannia ‘A’ looked classy from Wednesday, defeating Cambridge ‘99 on Wednesday to set up a repeat of the 2024 final against Royal Chester RC on Thursday. The Royals fought from start to finish, but Thames were able to hold them off through the enclosures and claim a one-length victory. In the semi-finals, there was no doubting Thames’ class against Molesey and they took a solid four-length win.
On Sunday, in almost the last race of the day, it was time for a classic showdown between Thames and our old friends and rivals London. While the Thames crew of Rahul Ramakrishnan, Calum Young, Luke Putter, Richard Hume and James Woodford had a superb start, setting off to a decent lead early on, London moved back in the middle of the race, sparking nervous moments for supporters on the bank. But the Thames crew stayed in control and their push into the enclosures was decisive, taking them to a one-length win and making Thames the first club to win four Britannia Challenge Cups in a row.
Visitors’ Challenge Cup
The Visitors’, as often can be the case, was an unpredictable event in 2025. While Oxford University had shown themselves the form crew of the season, chased hard by Thames ‘A’, when it came to HRR a couple of GB development composites proved to be the stiffest competition.
Luckily, one of them - entered as Leander & Tideway Scullers, but featuring Thames’ Tristan Wenger in the bow seat - was the fastest overall. The composite first raced our own Thames ‘B’ on Thursday, posting the fastest Barrier and Fawley times of the day, before defeating Oxford on Friday and a strong Canadian boat on Saturday. That put them up against Oxford Brookes University in the final, where they got out to a rapid start and cruised to a win in a new record time of 6:21.
Thames ‘A’ had a bye to Thursday, where they met a composite from Molesey BC & Holstebro Roklub, Denmark. In one of the closest races of the event, the composite managed to hold off a brave effort from the Thames crew.
Thames Challenge Cup
The Stewards allowed three entries for Thames in the Thames Challenge Cup this year, and Thames ‘C’ duly qualified - before being handed a first round against Thames ‘B’. The race was a good one, the ‘C’ crew heading their teammates out of the blocks before ‘B’ came through to win.
Thames ‘B’ then impressed with a Wednesday win against Tideway Scullers School, setting up another Thames vs Thames in the Thames race on Friday against Thames ‘A’. The ‘A’ crew defeated City of Bristol’s ‘B’ and ‘A’ crews in the first two rounds, and went on to beat Thames ‘B’ to book a semi-final showdown against Dutch club De Hoop, meeting them for a third year running. They delivered a superb row to end Dutch hopes of the Thames Cup - read more about our friendly rivalry with De Hoop here on British Rowing.
As many had predicted, this meant there would be a final against London RC. Our Embankment neighbours had been the form crew of the summer, having beaten Thames by 6.8 seconds at Marlow Regatta, equalling the Barrier record and setting a Fawley record earlier in HRR, so it was clear it would be a tough race. But Thames held their heads high and raced their hearts out, pushing London to a 3/4 length win in a time that equalled the 30-year-old event record.
Wargrave Challenge Cup
For a third year in a row, Thames qualified four eights into the Wargrave Challenge Cup for women’s club eights, with the ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ crews all selected. Racing started on Tuesday for Thames ‘D’, with a tough draw seeing them up against Henley Women’s Regatta finalists London ‘B’. In much the fastest race of the day, London won.
The other three crews all won their first races on Wednesday comfortably, earning a day off until Friday. There, Thames ‘B’ pushed Leander Club all the way to the finish line, losing by 1 3/4 lengths, while Thames ‘C’ came up against Molesey ‘A’ and produced a technically strong row against strong opponents. Thames ‘A’ cruised to the semi-finals with victory over Australia’s Mercantile RC.
That set up a Thames ‘A’ vs Molesey ‘A’ race on Saturday. The experienced Molesey crew had a great start, but Thames moved back in the middle of the race and the final margin was just half a length in Molesey’s favour. They went on to win the event.
Wyfold Challenge Cup
Our two technically excellent Wyfold crews both reached the semi-finals at HRR this year, a remarkable achievement.
Wyfold ‘A’ earned comfortable wins in the first three rounds, including a first-day ‘easily’ verdict. The draw pitched them against London RC in the semi-final, just a fortnight after the two crews had had a tight race at Marlow Regatta. This time around London had the slightly better start and despite a tremendous mid-race push from Thames, they were able to hang on for a half-length victory.
Wyfold ‘B’ started HRR off for Thames with an early race on Tuesday against the UK Armed Forces ‘B’ crew, before beating Commercial RC of Ireland - tipped by some as a favourite - on Wednesday and then Molesey on Thursday. In the semi-finals, Sydney RC of Australia proved a little too strong, ending a great campaign by Thames ‘B’.
Town Challenge Cup
Thames ‘A’ pre-qualified for the Town Challenge Cup on the back of a very good season, including strong performances at the Met and HWR. In a particularly stacked year for this event, they came up against the current GB four - including three Olympic medallists - in the first round.
Thames also entered a ‘B’ crew in this event, consisting of athletes from four different university programmes. They narrowly missed out on the one qualifying spot, finishing as the joint-fastest non-qualifiers alongside HWR champions Molesey.
Ladies Challenge Plate
Thames had representation in two Plate crews this year. The Thames crew, largely students in their first HRR campaign, met eventual winners Leander Club in round 1, but acquitted themselves with confidence. Meanwhile Mack Carr and Isaac Thurnham represented Thames in the GB under-23 composite of Thames & Leander, rowing through Harvard University in the first round before losing to Oxford Brookes University ‘A’ by just 2/3 length in the semi-finals. Dartmouth College, stroked by Thames alumnus Billy Bender, also made the semi-finals, where they were beaten by Leander.
Stonor Challenge Cup
Thames’ Freya Keto again raced the Stonor Challenge Cup in a GB composite, this year with Twickenham RC’s Vwairé Obukohwo. Having received selection and a bye to the second day, Freya and Vwairé met HRR Steward, former Princess Royal winner and Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion Emma Twigg in their first race. They never let Twigg and her partner Grace Sypher into the race, crossing 3 1/2 lengths up.
The semi-final was a tough race against the fiery Greek lightweight duo of Evangelia Anastasiadou and Zoi Fitsiou - Fitsiou having won bronze in Paris last year. In a fast and close contest, the Greeks proved a little faster and won by 1 1/2 lengths; they went on to take the trophy in a nailbiting one-foot verdict on Sunday.
Silver Goblets & Nickalls Challenge Cup
Two Goblets crews had Thames interest this year. Sam Thornton and Jake Brown, racing as Thames RC & Nemesis BC, and Charlie Gosling together with his Upper Thames partner Ed Davis, both came through qualifiers.
Sam and Jake found themselves drawn against Dutch brothers Ralf and Rik Rienks in the first round; the Rienks’ took victory on Sunday after a series of impressive rows, and were a bit too strong for the Thames men.
Charlie and Ed met the hugely experienced Spanish pair of Jaime Canalejo and Javier Garcia - two-time Olympians and world and European medallists - on Thursday. They also rowed a good race, but the Spanish were the ones to progress.
Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the Thames success this year, including all committee members, House staff, boatman Jack Clark, and the coaching team of Sander Smulders, Jack Stoddart, Tom Mapp, Jamie Brown, Charlie Clark, Lowenna Coad, Eliza Daniels, Euan Dickerson, Jonathon Davies, Sean Durkin, Jo Harris, Natalie Kernan, Nick Pusinelli, Pat Tawns, Hannah Taylor, Andy Thomas and James Waller.