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The flag of the Watermen’s Company flies from the bow of the MV Elizabethan carrying members of the Company watching the 2025 Doggett’s Coat and Badge Race.
13 September 2025
By Tim Koch
Tim Koch follows a fine race.
As reported yesterday, the 2025 Doggett’s Coat and Badge, the 311th, was won by Coran Cherry in a contest that I described as “one of the best fought Doggett’s races that I have seen in a long time”.
The course, 7400 metres of unsettled and unsuitable water between London Bridge and Cadogan Pier, Chelsea, containing washes, bends and currents, plus the potential to hit any of fourteen bridges and numerous other unyielding objects.Upstream of London Bridge, umpire Bobby Prentice raises the white flag to start the race. Left to right is Jack Finelli (in blue), Coran Cherry (in black) and Charlie Milward (in white). The green bridge in the background is Cannon Street Rail Bridge (250 metres into the course).The race order (Cherry first followed by Finelli then Milward) was quickly established and did not change. However, this does not mean that it was a dull race. Finelli constantly challenged Cherry and Milward made up the distance as the race progressed. Here the race is pictured as it approaches Southwark Bridge (400 metres).Left to right, Milward, Cherry, Finelli. The four bridges in view here are the Millennium Foot Bridge (700 metres), Blackfriars Rail Bridge (1050 metres), Blackfriars Road Bridge (1150 metres) and Waterloo Bridge (2000 metres). Cherry later told me that it was at Blackfriars that he felt confident that he could win.In the 850 metres between Blackfriars Road Bridge (1150 metres) and Waterloo Bridge (2000 metres), the competitors can choose to hug the south shore and go inside the moored barges at Coin Street, cutting the corner and taking flatter but slower water, or stay in the middle of the river and go outside of the moorings, taking a longer route but with faster though potentially rougher water. Cherry (left here) and Milward (out of the picture) went inside, Finelli (right here) stayed in the middle.Jack Finelli’s decision to take the less common course in the centre at Coin Street was a logical one for someone trying to move from second place to first. It was a gamble that ultimately did not pay off, but it was still one worth taking.While the boys were negotiating Coin Street, the umpire’s launch suddenly stopped (it was later discovered that a plastic bag had wrapped around the propeller). Very quickly, Umpire Prentice, Assistant Umpire Ken Dwan and commentators Martin Cross and Camilla Hadland Horrocks were transferred into the press boat – which then became the umpire’s launch. Picture: Jenifer Andersen. The new umpire’s launch caught up with the boys after they passed Waterloo Bridge (2000 metres) but before the Golden Jubilee Bridges and Hungerford Bridge (2350 metres, pictured). The race order was the same and no incidents had occurred while the umpire was indisposed. Approaching Westminster Bridge (2950 metres) and the Houses of Parliament, Cherry continued to pull away but Finelli and Milward were not giving up. Note the name on the tourist boat on the right, the MV Thomas Doggett.The water between Westminster Bridge and Lambeth Bridge (3650 metres, pictured) was rough but all the competitors handled the conditions well.Lambeth Bridge – the approximate half-way point.Conditions improved between Lambeth and Vauxhall Bridges.Vauxhall Bridge (4500 metres).Umpire Prentice keeps an eye on things on the long stretch between Vauxhall Bridge and the former Battersea Power Station.At the former Battersea Power Station (5900 metres).Heading towards the last two bridges on the course, Grosvenor Rail and Chelsea (6300 metres), it is still Cherry leading followed by Finelli then Milward.Just before the Grosvenor Rail Bridge, Umpire Prentice made the always hard decision to pass the last placed competitor, Charlie Milward. Here, Cherry has gone through the bridges, Finelli has yet to do so.After the Grosvenor Rail and Chelsea Bridges, Umpire Prentice also passed Jack Finelli (pictured), Coran Cherry’s lead now being unassailable.As he approached the finish at Cadogan Pier (7400 metres), just downstream of the Albert Bridge, the race was Cherry’s to lose – he just had to stay upright.In the dying minutes of the race there was a terrific squall.Driving rain accompanies Cherry’s final strokes.Cherry victorious on his fourth and final attempt in a time of 27m 01s.Finelli finished in 28m 14 s, Milward in 28m 30s.On Cadogan Pier, Milward is helped in by 2021 winner, James Berry.James Berry with Coran Cherry, the newest member of a very exclusive club, the Doggett’s Men.Finelli, Cherry and Milward – winners all.Coran with some of his family including his aunt on his right and his father on his left. His mother was originally from Grenada.
After the race, Sean Collins, Doggett’s winner in 1990, told me:
They all went off really hard, particularly Jack (Finelli) and Coran (Cherry), they were rating high, it was always a case of who’s going to break first, who’s going to drop that rating first? At one point, I thought that neither of them were but finally it started to slow down and the boat speed started to kick in and it turned out that Coran had slightly more boat speed than Jack and he started to ease away – but that probably came with his experience of having done three previous races.
The boys pictured just before their race.
I hope that Finelli and Milward will forgive me if I say that I was very pleased by Cherry’s win.
Firstly, this is because he obviously worked so hard for it over the last year (“Up at 5am every morning” he told me), his performance and fitness in 2025 were very different to that in his other three Doggett’s races. It is always good to see labour bring its reward – particularly when that reward is gained at the last chance.
Secondly, with Cherry’s late entry into last year’s race, 2024, he would have been very aware that he did not have time to get properly fit for such an arduous long distance event and I suspect that he took part more to make it a two-man race rather than with any hope of winning. If this was so, his victory this year was a just reward for such altruism.
Turning to Finelli and Milward, I am going to confidently predict that both are future Doggett’s winners.
I know nothing about Finelli’s training programme, but I speculate that he relies too much on the fact that, as an amateur boxer, he is very strong and very fit. He also seems very competitive and was almost certainly the physically strongest man in the race (he has lifted a lot of weights since his last Doggett’s in 2019). However, gym fit or boxing ring fit is not the same as boat fit, I would suggest that he spends a lot more time on the water. Also, he needs to implement some good advice on steering and race strategy – although this could apply to any Doggett’s competitor. We do not yet know who will enter in 2026, but it could well be Finelli’s year.
Regarding Milward, as someone new to sculling, he put in a very impressive first performance and will only get better. On Wednesday, he rowed his own race and slowly came back on the other two. In July he spoke to Fergus Mainland of Junior Rowing News:
When I was an apprentice many years ago, I said to my master, who was my cousin, that I’d promise to row the race if I finished my freedom…I’m fulfilling a promise, and the more I’ve trained, the more I’ve fallen in love with the sport. This is my first attempt. It’s all very new and I’m quite raw, but we’ll see how we go on the day… It would mean a lot to be a part of history and to say that I’ve done it and participated in it. If I don’t win, then you’ll see me next year!
I think that Milward would benefit from entering head races and possibly regattas to get some competitive experience. He should be buoyed by the fact that I can think of several people who have started their Doggett’s journey from much less promising beginnings and, after a lot of hard work, have gone onto wear the coveted Coat and Badge.
Hear The Boat Sing 