Henley 18

[IveGotBowBall]

Who is going to Henley this year? Rumor is Kent is sending the 8 that dominated the NEIRA league all season. Interested to see what SRAA teams make the trek over

[SkinnyErgosFatWorld]

Brunswick
Saint John's
Rumors of Exeter maybe?
Kent maybe? (I think only one PG in their 1v, so they could really contend in the PE)
Montclair's going to Youth Nats, maybe Henley after last year's early dropout?

[fatsculler]

St Paul's UK will be the overwhelming favourites to win the PE...they won the National Schools by clear water and are one of the best schoolboy 8's I've ever seen (up there with Eton of 2010). As I understand it 7 of them are heading to colleges in the USA.

[NEIRAfanboy]

YES:

• Brunswick
  Montclair

MAYBE:

• Dallas Jesuit
  Exeter
  Saint John's

NO:

• Kent

[NEIRAfanboy]

Henley entries have been posted, here's an update on youth crews.

Princess Elizabeth (high school 8s):

• Brunswick
  St. John's High School (MA)

Thames Challenge Cup (Club 8s):

• Montclair (racing as Montclair Mounties Rowing Club)

Prince Albert (college & high school 4s):

• Brunswick
  St. John's High School (MA)

NOTES:
Interesting to see Montclair entered in the Thames rather than PE. Must be an eligibility issue, anyone have details?
St. John's is bringing a young crew, the only member of the V8 from NEIRAs is the coxswain, all others who are going to Henley are from the 2V or 3V.
Only 3 high school entries from the US, very low turnout compared to recent years. And only 31 crews entered in the PE, when was the last time nobody had to go through qualifiers?

[fatsculler]

St Paul’s just reinforced their place as favourites, finishing 2nd in Champ 8’s at Marlow Regatta in a time of 5:36.5...That’s just half a second outside of the JM8 World Best time!

[NEIRAfanboy]

Interesting to see Montclair entered in the Thames rather than PE. Must be an eligibility issue, anyone have details?

As usual, fatsculler has the inside info: "This is predominantly a High school crew that were planning on entering the Princess Elizabeth, however a road traffic accident meant that two of the original crew were unable to row, so two recent graduates were brought into the crew which unfortunately meant they were unable to race in the PE and have switched to the Thames."

[conflagration]

It's unfortunate Kent didn't make the trip but there's a long lead to plan for Henley...I believe they beat Montclair earlier in the season and could have represented the US well. That said, looks like St. Paul's is definitely the crew to beat, up against Eton (again) in the finals. Should be a great race, St. Paul's to win.

[fatsculler]

It's unfortunate Kent didn't make the trip but there's a long lead to plan for Henley...I believe they beat Montclair earlier in the season and could have represented the US well. That said, looks like St. Paul's is definitely the crew to beat, up against Eton (again) in the finals. Should be a great race, St. Paul's to win.

Eton were done and dusted by the quarter mile. St Paul's are, quite simply, the best schoolboy 8 I've ever seen. There were discussion among the rowing media (and some senior coaches) up in the Press Box yesterday that St Paul's may well be technically the best sweep crew at the entire regatta. To beat the PE record by 11 seconds was quite incredible.

[NEIRAfanboy]

@conflagration, would have been nice to see Kent (or the full Montclair boat) in the PE cup to represent the US but neither of those crews would have been close to this St. Paul's crew (I'm not even sure the `09 or `10 Eton crews could have hung with them).

While Kent did have a strong season and went undefeated, they did not race Montclair this year. Those two facing each other would have been a good race to see who the top schoolboy boat in the US was this year. Too bad about the injuries to the Montclair rowers, sorry they weren't able to race in the PE. Kent would have had to make changes to their NEIRA lineup to be eligible to race in the PE which would have slowed them down. You're right it takes a long lead time to plan for Henley, it just wasn't worth the trip for them this year (plus they went twice recently, `15 and `17).

[crewu]

Lots of agreement here. I don't think there is or has been a high school crew anywhere in the world that could have got within a length of this year's St Paul's crew. I would guess last year's winning Scotch crew would have been at best within a 1/4 length of open water. St. Pauls this year were simply incredible. I am going to go watch their races again right now.