25 October 2024

By Tim Koch

Tim Koch flags an historic event.

The 184th sculling race for the pair of silver sculls presented in 1830 by Henry C. Wingfield “to be held by the best” will take place on Sunday, 27 October. The event carries the historic titles of “The British Amateur Sculling Championship and The Championship of the Thames.” The day will also see the 18th Women’s Wingfield Sculls, a revival of the Women’s Amateur Rowing Championship, first raced in 1927 and reactivated under the Wingfield banner in 2007.

Two innovations this year are that the course will be Mortlake to Putney, not the other way as has been the custom, and that the races will be held on a Sunday, not on a week day. Both of these changes are, presumably, to encourage more spectators to view and support the historic event.

The bar at London Rowing Club will be open to welcome previous champions as well as any other spectators throughout the racing and for the prize giving afterwards.

Even though Henry Colsell Wingfield stipulated that his eponymous sculling race be held “for ever”, he would surely still be pleasantly surprised that, 194 years on, the event continues to take place annually.