11 July 2023
By William O’Chee
While rowing as a sport had its first flourishing in Oxford and Cambridge, it was the creation of strong clubs on the metropolitan Thames opened the sport to populus of London.
Leander was the first major rowing club on the Thames, but it was the creation of what could nowadays be considered the four principal metropolitan clubs – London Rowing Club., Molesey Boat Club, Kingston Rowing Club and Thames Rowing Club – in the middle of the nineteenth century, which secured the sport’s enduring success.
Thames is the youngest of these clubs by just a few years, being established in 1860. Their first trophy at Henley Royal Regatta was the Wyfolds, which was secured in 1870. This was followed by a further 21 Henley trophies by 1890.
Another golden era followed with the arrival of Steve Fairbairn at the club in the 1920s, but the club’s fortunes declined after the Second World War.
In 1973, the club made a critical decision in voting to admit women as members. This gave them an early advantage in recruiting female rowers, while also significantly contributing to the development of women in the sport.
2023 marked the golden jubilee of that decision and was used as a rallying point for both the club’s men and women in their campaign this season.
Their Championship Women’s eight at Henley Women’s Regatta shone with talent in a talented field, and I was impressed with what I saw from the towpath. I was not wrong. They knocked out both crews from the University of Pennsylvania, and their own ‘B’ crew before finally being defeated in the final by Oxford Brookes University ‘A’. Meanwhile, their ‘D’ crew won the Copas Cup for aspirational eights.
I got the opportunity to speak to Women’s Head Coach, Tom Mapp, during the regatta. Thames took 57 women in eleven crews to Henley Women’s Regatta, with ten of those crews progressing past the time trials. Mapp clearly has a massive squad.
“Women’s rowing on the Embankment is growing massively, but probably our senior squad is double the local clubs. It’s quite big,” he tells me.
Part of Mapp’s challenge in such a big squad is managing the people and their other commitments whilst maintaining the relentless demands of a performance programme.
“It is a very performance club, but it is not about being there and performing the best, it’s about being the best person you are,” he says.
There are some people with high pressure jobs in the city, and others from a variety of different professions. It is a tribute to Mapp’s people management abilities that he gets the best from his squad.
“You don’t know what somebody’s had in that day, what’s gone on, or what work they’ve had that week, but you just encourage them to do the best where they are. So, it’s quite honest when you’re in training. If someone stops on an ergo, you don’t know why. You just ask if they are okay and try to push them to do better in the moment,” Mapp explains.
He concedes, however, that ultimately there must be performance.
“There is obviously a performance element in rowing. Rowing is a super competitive sport. It is brutal. We try to just encourage it – build more than knock other people down. We love to always be adding everything we can do,” he says.
A little under two weeks later, at Henley Royal Regatta, their men’s crews also come out to compete as well.
There were Thames crews in action throughout the week, with most clearing the first round.
In the Wyfolds, Thames ‘B’ went out on Wednesday, but Thames ‘A’ had a fairytale progression through the heats, beating Crabtree, Grosvenor, Royal Chester in successive rounds, before beating Upper Thames in the semi-finals to book their Sunday appearance.
For the Thames Challenge Cup, Thames Rowing Club had two eights accepted, both of which accounted for their opponents in the first round. In the second round both crews progressed again, with Thames ‘A’ defeating Agecroft R.C. ‘A’, and Thames ‘B’ defeating Upper Thames. Thames ‘B’ went down to K.A.R.Z.V. De Hoop, Netherlands, in their quarter-final match, but Thames ‘A’ beat Münchener R.C., Germany, to make it to the semi-finals. Standing in their way was the much favoured crew from Sydney Rowing Club. However, reputations stand for little at Henley, and the Thames Rowing Club boys defeated the Australians to make it to the final.
Another two entries were made in the Britannia Challenge Cup for coxed fours. Thames ‘B’ made it through the first round, only to be defeated by Molesey on the second day of competition. Thames ‘A’, however, fared much better. They beat Marlow on the first day, and then Royal Chester on the second. This led to a semi-final in which they achieved a satisfying victory over embankment rivals, London Rowing Club, to book a ticket to race on Sunday.
The women surprised even themselves by managing to qualify four eights out of the 32 boats in the Wargrave Challenge Cup. Even better, all four crews progressed to the second round. Here Sir Steve Redgrave’s mysterious hand of God pitted the Thames crews against each other. Thames ‘A’ beat the ‘D’ crew, while Thames ‘B’ defeated Thames ‘C’. In the semi-finals, Thames ‘A’ won out against their compatriots in Thames ‘B’.
Finals Day saw a slew of Thames Rowing Club crews vying to bring home the silver.
The club’s Wyfolds entry was the first crew to race on the Sunday, but they had to content themselves with a final though no win, going down to London Rowing Club by one and a half lengths.
Success came, however, in the Thames Challenge Cup, where Thames on the Berkshire station, were pitted against K.A.R.Z.V. De Hoop, Netherlands, and produced a barnstorming win, with a margin of three and three-quarter lengths.
It says something for the strength of the club that there were only three entries in the Stewards’ and two of them were from Thames. This resulted in Thames ‘A’ being obliged to race Thames ‘B’ the day before, a race which resulted in a final for the ‘A’ crew. However, they were foiled in the quest to claim this most prestigious of fours titles when they lost on Sunday to Oxford Brookes University.
After the luncheon interval, it was the turn of the women to shine. In the Wargrave, they showed the strength of their squad with a two-length victory over Leander. The win saw them retain the Wargrave Challenge Cup, which they had won the year before, and round out a golden anniversary for the club’s women, and a fitting reward for the role they have played in nurturing women’s rowing.
This was followed immediately after by the final of the Britannia Challenge Cup between Thames ‘A’ and Molesey Boat Club. This was as emphatic a win as the men achieved in the Thames Challenge Cup, with a margin, again, of three and three-quarter lengths.
On hand to savour the sweet and collective taste of victory was the club’s President, Pauline Rayner. She learned to row as a teenager and represented Great Britain at European level. After joining Thames Rowing Club in 1983, she went on to be their first female Captain, their first female Chair, and their first female President. Now, at the grand old age of 83, she made a regal sight in her wheelchair, escorted by the a throng of Thames members.
With Thames Rowing Club three crews collecting trophies that afternoon, and plentiful bubbly provided by the event’s sponsors, the celebrations were long and well deserved.
