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After the final of the Princesses Elizabeth (the junior open eights) the cox of the Shiplake crew displays the ecstasy of winning while the Radley “5” man shows the agony of losing.
16 July 2025
By Tim Koch
Tim Koch concludes his coverage of the 2025 Henley finals day.
A panoramic view of the boat tent area.
Student Finals
Edinburgh University goes afloat for the final of the PA to the stirring sounds of a lone piper. Will ye no come back again?
UL were down at the Barrier and Fawley but were in front by 3/4 length when it mattered at the finish.UL last won the PA in 2021 with Brookes the winners in the three intervening years. Amazingly, this year Brookes lost in the first round by two feet to the University of San Diego.Crimson beats Burgundy. The remarkable Harvard University Lightweight Varsity Eight continued its undefeated run by winning the Temple by 3/4 length over Brookes.A slightly premature celebration by the Harvard bowman.Justified celebrations by a lightweight crew that had beaten the heavyweights of Nereus, Laga, Brookes, Durham and Cambridge.The 150 Pound Crew cools off.The lightweights never seemed to have any doubts about taking on the big boys.Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, had an emphatic win in the Island, beating Newcastle by three lengths.The winning Rutgers crew acknowledge the cheers of their supporters. Picture: Jim Donahue.Jumping for joy. Remarkably, the crew did not have a particularly impressive record coming into Henley and were unselected by the Stewards. Picture: Jim Donahue.Group hug! Picture: Jim Donahue.Rutgers set an event record of 6 min 45 secs. Picture: Jim Donahue.The crew show their gratitude to Cox Prawl.Island girls (as Elton John may have said).A slightly distorted panoramic view of the enclosures taken from the photographer’s stand next to the progress board.
This year, Brookes got to four finals but recorded no wins, an achievement that most clubs would be very pleased with but which by Brookes’ standards is tantamount to failure. This dramatic change in fortunes can only be related to the recent well publicised problems at OBUBC. Reddit has the usual mix of apparently well informed and probably not so well informed comments on the subject, some in the Sporting Miracle camp, others agreeing with the person who called Brookes “a cult.”
This passage feels very different to my prose from exactly a year ago. The dust was only just settling around an Oxford Brookes programme whose influence, power and poise seemed to know no bounds. They took (six trophies) in 2024, reaffirming their status as the country’s premier boat club. Fast forward just 12 months, and the outlook is markedly different. The loss of both men’s and women’s head coaches, Henry Bailhache-Webb and Chris Tebb, plus the departure of long-standing Director of Rowing, Richard Spratley, has left a hole that is nigh-on impossible to fill.
Oxford Brookes pictured last year when they won six trophies.
Junior Finals
Immediately following this year’s regatta, Henley announced a rule change for its four Junior events, which relates to the age limitation of athletes that can compete in a crew. New Rule 1(b) states:
No one shall compete who will have attained his (her) nineteenth birthday by the end of the Regatta.
The reason for the rule change (from aged 18) is to minimise the circumstances where an athlete is able to represent his or her school or club for most of the season, specifically the National Schools Regatta in the UK, but is excluded from competing at Henley Royal Regatta due to age.
Richard Phelps, Chair of Henley Royal Regatta:
We have taken the unusual step of approving a rule change at our June meeting, as opposed to the more normal December AGM, because we were aware that some U.K. competitors were contemplating giving up rowing because they fell foul of our previous rule and would not have been able to compete at our Regatta in 2026. The Stewards were keen to avoid this situation and acknowledge that announcing a rule change in December, i.e., halfway through the U.K. rowing year, was not in line with our commitment to inclusivity. This adjustment reflects our ongoing dedication to supporting the development of young rowers and safeguarding a clear and consistent competitive pathway through the junior ranks.
Marlow pushes off to meet Wycliffe in the final of the Diamond Jubilee.The final was a repeat of last year and Wycliffe beat Marlow again, this time by two lengths in an event record time.Strangely, the very successful Wycliffe rowing programme is to be run down.Shiplake looking sharp on their way to the start of the Prince Philip.Both finalists were well matched with Headington 1/2 length up at the Barrier but with their lead reduced to two feet at the enclosures. In the last 200 metres, it could have been anyone’s race but Headington held on to win by 1/4 length.Headington, the defending champions, managed to hold off Shiplake, the National Schools Champions.Setting a record time takes it out of you.Headington is the three-time winner of this five times run event.
In her report on the Henley finals in Row360, Rachel Quarrell wrote this on the Shiplake programme:
There has been a year of muttering around school boathouses regarding the large number of new recruits lured to Shiplake by their multiple sixth form rowing scholarships (rate-capped 2km erg cutoff 6 minutes 50 for male and 7:50 for female applicants). The hard work with juniors is getting them into the sport and creating strong rowing fundamentals, so for a dedicated coach to see them leave for a rival school just as they are beginning to reach first eight standard is tough. As a result, Shiplake getting to the finals of both the Princess Elizabeth JM8+ and Prince Philip JW8+ has not been particularly popular.
A view of the closing stages of the Fawley from the press box.Since 2014, Windsor Boys, a non-selective 13-18 boys’ comprehensive school, has been a losing Fawley finalist four times and a winning finalist five times. This includes 2022 when the final was between the “A” crew and the “B” crew.
Hinksey in defeat.
As is often the case for the “PE”, this final was one of the most anticipated races of the day. Some expected finalists had not made it to Sunday leaving Shiplake looking for its first PE win ever and Radley for its first in twenty-seven years.Shiplake, the National Schools champions, took an early lead, were 1/2 length up at the Barrier and managed to cling onto their lead despite tremendous efforts by Radley.Shiplake’s time of 6 min 07 secs was only one second slower than that set by the famous St Paul’s crew of 2018, a credit to them and to their opponents.Shiplake supporters greet the happy crew.With a bit of effort, they could swim back to school.Shiplake, looking the part of Young Corinthians.
Easy all or weigh enough, that is my last Henley report for this year!
Hear The Boat Sing 