After a wet and rain-delayed final, the boat tent is empty at Henley site in Oxfordshire, only to fill again when the Veteran's regatta rolls into town, and the rowing begins again.
To follow-up on a few tidbits from the Henley, now that many teams back in their boathouses and either training or having a well-deserved holiday, in no particular order:
In the Queen Mother Challenge Cup (Open 4X), the winning boat was the Estonia National team for that event, going to Beijing. Most of these scullers have been in numerous World Cups and World Championships. Their competitors from California Rowing Club were not as seasoned overall and were back 2 and 1/4 length. Two of the scullers in this boat were Wes Pirmarini and Eliot Hovey, who maximized their time at Henley by entering a couple events. They won the Double Sculls Cup earlier in the day over Thomas and Peter Graves of Bantam Rowing Club by 1 and 1/4 lengths.
Caroline Ryan, who won the Princess Royal Challenge Cup, is a Henley legacy. Her father Willie Ryan won in 1975 (Thames Cup) and 1977 (Prince Phillip Cup). She and Irish rowing competitor Sean Jacob (Diamond Sculls) have been cut for the Irish International system, they both won their single sculling events at Henley.
Stewards' enclosure guff: an elderly Steward was informing a guest of proper behavior, who replied with "sod off," and it went south from there. Asked another elderly Steward who was observing after is was over: "Weren't you frightened of that man, he was rather large?" Replied his colleague: "No, I keep myself landside and near a fence." (Thus making it possible to grip the fence and shove toward the water!)
Rumor, unconfirmed: There were a group of yobs traveling around the night of the fireworks (Saturday) roughing up folks in suits. (These lads were not in suits!). It got ugly, and one innocent victim was stabbed in his leg. Confirmed: a few who were beaten badly for being in the wrong place/wrong time. Random acts.
Thank you Riverside Boat Club for checking in. For those of you who are fans of this young LW quad, they will be attending the Canadian Henley in St. Catharines in August. Good luck.
Thanks again to the Coleman family, who hosted have row2k for many years. Great vegetarian food and even better company.