27th June 1999

Quality makes up for quantity

The Grand Challenge Cup is down to two - Great Britain rowing as Leander-Queen's Tower, and Germany rowing as Hansa Dortmund and Berliner RC. With the re-formed British eight lying second in the World Cup after the first round and the Germans supposedly fighting fit, quality is certainly present to make up for missing numbers.

This is the case with most of the open events at the Royal Regatta this year, caused partly by the demands of the world championships in Canada which also serve as an Olympic qualifying regatta, and partly because the Stewards have made a number of minor alterations to the rules to try and reduce the entry while raising the general standard. Their requirement of higher status for competitors in the small boat events, restricting schools to one entry each in the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup and raising entry fees all round appear to have paid off. There were 428 crews when entries closed against the record 552 last year, with overseas entries down from 118 to 86, spread over 17 countries.

Mike Sweeney, chairman of the management committee, says: 'Despite the pressures of Olympic qualification this year I am delighted at the high quality of the international entry. The 150th regatta will be an exciting event with many fine races in prospect.' His words are borne out by the presence of the 1996 Olympic silver medal pair in the Goblets, David Weightman and Rob Scott, who face not only the new wonder-combination of Stephen Williams and Simon Dennis, but also the likes of Parish and Walker and Gillard and Mulkerrins, as well as the 1998 world lightweight champions Vincent Montabonel and Jean-Christophe Bette of France.

The former world champion and holder Jamie Koven is in the Diamond Sculls, with the quadruple sculling silver medalist Marcel Hacker from Magdeburg and the Aussie Markus Free also challenging Greg Searle. The world silver medalist Katrin Rutschow of Germany is coming to give Sweden's perennial winner Maria Brandin a run for her money in the Princess Royal. Alison Mowbray, sixth in the first round of the World Cup, starts, as do last year's junior medalists Debbie Flood and Frances Houghton.

Last year's finalists return to the Stewards' - Leander's holders Cracknell, Redgrave and Pinsent with Coode as the fourth name on the entry card, and the still unbeaten Danish lightweight four (except by heavyweights in a Henley final), again leading the World Cup at the time of writing. There will also be another GB four which seems to be a haven for people who are popping in and out of the eight, based around Jonny Searle and Jonny Singfield. The coxed fours, the Prince Philip, has only Notts County and Leander in a straight final.

The hotbed of American sculling, Augusta, is well represented by two crews in the Double Sculls and one in the Queen Mother. There is a rare cross-border combination in the Doubles in the form of the Scot Peter Haining, three times world lightweight champion, and the Hungarian Laszlo Szogi. Haining is also in the quads in an Auriol Kensington and Mainz combo. Neptune and UCD of Ireland have formed a composite for the Queen Mother, and the Belgians from Ostend and Liege and Alemagne Hamburg are also entered. The British squad is a Tideway Scullers/Notts County combination.

The Ladies' Plate has seven good entries - University of California Berkeley, the Canadian lightweights Gorge and St Catharine's, Neptune of Ireland, the London lights who are doubling in the Queen Mother, a Cambridge and Queen's Tower combination, the Notts County and Brookes lightweights, and the German senior B crew Dortmund and Munster.

The Thames Cup has 39 entries and the Temple 70. In the Thames is a new name, Holme Pierrepont, previously known as Nottingham BC among the cognoscenti of Notts County. Garda Siochana make a return in eight-oared rowing, and Cambridge 99 celebrate their centenary. Plus a selection of youth-challenged chancers from places like Upper Thames. And London RC, the holders, who apparently cannot find it in themselves to try the Ladies'.

The Temple has a break with tradition in that Goldie are rowing as Cambridge even though they have no Blues on board (within the rules - Blues are banned from this event). The usual suspects are joined by the Norwegian Business School and Harvard's heavyweight freshman. There are also ten school second eights, kicked upstairs or down, depending on which way you look at it, from the Princess Elizabeth.

The PE itself has 40 entries , six from the US, two from Down Under and three from South Africa. Plus Hampton, winners of the National Schools, who just got their entry in before closing time. Phew!

There may be petitioning to increase the numbers for the Fawley from 12 to 16 after an entry of 34 junior quads. Watch out for the West Midlands development squad, and the King's Rochester/Prince Edward Zimbabwe combination. The Visitors' has 29 entries, the Wyfold 53 and the Britannia 49.

Finally, but not least, the women's invitation eights continues for a second year with Britain taking on Poland and last year's winners from the US. But watch out for GB2, a combination of the world champion double scullers, the world silver pair, and others from the smaller boats of the national team.

© Copyright Chris Dodd, 1999.