Difficult choices

At this time of year thoughts always turn to how best to serve those boys not in The VIII with regard to Henley entries.  With only one crew allowed in the Princess Elizabeth (the school event for eights in which The VIII always compete) the options for other crews are either to try to qualify in the Temple Challenge Cup (the eights event for universities) or the Fawley Challenge Cup (the event for school quads).  This year the decisions have been particularly difficult.  To qualify for the Temple you really have to have a 2nd VIII or Colts crew which is a little way clear of the field.  Back in 2008 our Colts A fulfilled this criterion.  In the last three years the 2nd VIII have done so.  No other school has consistently qualified crews for the event.  However, if we did nothing differently this year, the gut feeling of the coaches was that we would be putting our chances at 50/50 for the 2nd VIII, worse for Colts A.  We could have had just one boat rowing at the regatta.  As a result we have done something a little different this year and we have done some extensive testing over the last couple of days to back up our decisions and choices.  This testing has also confirmed that there aren't any boys in these crews who have come on and deserve to challenge for a seat in The VIII for Henley, so we can be sure that we have explored all avenues.  The boys from the 2nd VIII in Champ 4x at NSR will race in the same crew in the Fawley.  Having come 7th at NSR they will hopefully prequalify, but if not they should certainly get through the qualifiers.  One or two boys have shown that they are on a par with boys in this crew, but not faster.  A mix of 2nd and 3rd VIII boys will form a B quad in the Fawley (last seat still to be confirmed) and should have a decent chance of qualifying, having only been a few seconds behind the A quad at NSR.  The Temple eight will be a mix of boys from the 2nd VIII (3 oarsmen and cox) and Colts A (five oarsmen).  This should form a crew which is faster than Colts A, and hopefully one which is faster than the 2nd VIII too (it has some strong sweep oarsmen from the 2nd VIII in it).  If the rowing gods smile upon us we could end up with four crews at the regatta, but one can never take anything for granted.  How the Stewards will run the qualifying races if the weather keeps on like this is, for example, something of a problem...

Parents of boys in crews for the regatta will get an e-mail about tickets for the Stewards' Enclosure shortly.