Semifinal day; fantastic! Henley on Saturday is the most festive, and later, the most raucous. The weather will bring out the throngs of revelers no doubt, as attendance has been high since day one. It is possible that the Stewards tents will be bulging at the seam by this afternoon, and the heat could produce a few scantily-clad parties in the Remenham Farms and Fawley Meadows.
It is uncharacteristically warm here, and there are several comments that sound like this:
"That glowing orb in the sky...what is that?"
"I didn't know they had sun in England?"
"Pass the sunscreen, this skin has not seen the sun for a decade"
Racing starts later in the day on the weekend, a little gift from the Stewards to give those drinking at Leander the night before a bit of a lie-in before getting back to the course.
For US crews, it started even later; Union was first to take to stage in the Britannia Semifinal against Taurus "B" boat at 10:50 am. Referred to as " a splendid cliffhanger" by the folks in the Umpire launch, these crews were well matched and had a real boat race. Taurus “B” was ahead by just a deck, or less than 1/3 of a length until about the 3/4 mile. Union coxswain Courtney Coyne decided that it was time to sprint and they were in striking distance, "at that point we were stern tip to two-seat," she explains. "I said that I wanted them to deliver until I was sitting at the cox." With that they raised the rate every 10-20 strokes (they went from a 35-39) and claimed the lead. Coyne was a Trinity women's coxswain here in 2008.
"In the last two races there was enough between our two boats to relax a little, today we were trading seats back and forth," says 2-seat, Josh Novak, "But Courtney gave us good calls and we were able to get more bite from our stroke."
"We started to press about the Upper Thames...if you don't go, your whole trip is over," says Justin Martin.
Union Boat Club will race the Taurus "A" boat in the final tomorrow. Good luck to the Union crew.
Washington 2V squad faced the Leander Club and Molesley Club boat in the Ladies’ Plate Saturday before the lunch break. This is one of those "don't be fooled by the club name of this entry" situations. As if a crew from either Leander or Molesey isn't a formidable enough foe, this crew is actually "GB2," a crew fresh from a fourth place finish in the World Cup last weekend at Eton Dorney, an international elite competition. The Ladies Challenge Plate description (reading directly from the program) is that it is for boats from " a club....school, college or academic institution throughout the world." These GB rowers in the Leander and Molesey Boat are National team athletes in training, enough said - and even deep regatta insiders are questioning the wisdom and fairness of having the crew in the Ladies Plate. Conversely, the University of Washington Varsity had the guts and adventurous spirit to race up in the Grand; way to go Huskies!
The Visitors’ Plate for student fours had a little mishap before the luncheon break, with Harvard and Thames BC clashing in the first 4 or 5 stroke. In the clash, one of Thames' oars was damaged. It was decided to re-row the race at the close of racing today.
More from Henley in a few hours!
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