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The Thames is one of the main rowing rivers in Europe. Several annual competitions are held along its course, including the Henley Royal Regatta, the The Boat Race and other long-distance events, called Head of the River races (Heads).
As well as the events held on the river itself, there are other, purpose-built rowing facilities along the course of the river, such as Dorney Lake between Slough and Windsor, Berkshire, which was a 2012 Summer Olympic venue and is now an international Cup, standard-distance rowing lake hosting the three main annual entry regattas for Henley: still named Marlow (International), Wallingford and Metropolitan. Other rowing lakes near the Thames are the Redgrave Pinsent Rowing Lake between Reading and Henley used by the Great Britain squad and Royal Albert Dock near North Woolwich, London.
Rowing races on the River Thames have been documented as early as 1725, and Henley-on-Thames was the venue for the 1908 London Olympics rowing races. [1]
The sport and recreational/touring rowing takes place on the Tideway and on the 45 separate lock reaches on the non-tidal section.
The river hosts a televised succession of races on which bets are placed – traditionally named The Boat Race and for some decades a men-only event – it is now the (Oxford and Cambridge) Men's and Women's Boat Race on the cusp of March and April. Further up-river, the Henley Royal Regatta, held over six days (Tuesday to Sunday) ending on the first weekend in July is one of several other rowing events held along approximately the same course on that same stretch of the Thames.
At least 12 head races are held every year on the long, tidal course of the Boat Race, known as the Championship Course – including the Head of the River Race which is the weekend before the Boat Race, attracting hundreds of racing shell eights. Head races are, by definition, long time trials. Twice as many heads are held on long, narrower reaches of the canalised inland river. Many clubs and a few schools and village fair committees as far inland as Oxford host shorter races – regattas – in warmer months.
Event-raced, self-propelled boats on the Thames chiefly comprise (Olympic) racing shells. Most events are for racing shells.
A Thames, or English, punt is a long slender vessel. It sees very few and often intermittent or extremely local races. Its use is almost wholly recreational. Thames skiffs are the mainstay of several regattas and six extant clubs (see below). A large version with a canvas is called a camping skiff, featuring in major modern travelogues and historically in Three Men in a Boat , published in 1889, [2] a humorous account by English writer Jerome K. Jerome of a two-week boating holiday on this river from Kingston upon Thames to Oxford and back to Kingston. [3] [4] Other rowing typically takes place in dragon boats, dongolas, dinghies, inflatable rafts and larger skiffs known as cutters.
Thames rowing regattas are almost all between April and the first week of September. All but the most prestigious are considered short. They are raced side-by-side. They are in categories for competitors and boat types: each consists of heats (mostly knock-out tournaments, that is, without repechages) and final. Many regatta days are split into two or more divisions so that competitors can enter two categories – such as a large and small boat, sweep-oar or sculling. Where category events have a cup it belongs to the regatta and is sometimes engraved with winners' club or composite clubs' name (or engraved on metal set around a plinth or set of plinths). Winners receive a medal – or tankard, called by rowers a "pot". A regatta in racing shell rowing has umpires/stewards who enforce preparedness (race registration, safety and marshalling time/location rules), false start and lane rules using a motor launch and the wearing of club kit.
"General" refers to a mix of skiffing, cutters, dinghies and other rowed craft.[ citation needed ]
Head of the River races (Heads) and other long-distance events dominate the winter months, and are usually processional (time trials): competitors set off at time intervals, and results are on the basis of comparative timing or by bumping (catching up the boat in front). Many of them on the Tideway are raced over The Championship Course, and apart from the Boat Race and Wingfield Sculls, may begin from Mortlake (west) or Putney (east) whichever tide matches the middle of the day or other central racing hours.
Event | Special | Month | Area or Lock Reach | Approx. start point | Direction | Distance |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Eights Week | University of Oxford | 05 | Iffley Lock | Up | ||
Hammersmith Head | 03 | Tideway | Chiswick Bridge | Down | 4425 m | |
Head of the River Fours (the Fours Head) | 11 | Tideway | Championship Course | Either | 6800 m | |
Head of the River Race (the) | 03 | Tideway | Championship Course | Either | 6800 m | |
Reading University Head of the River | 02/03 | Caversham Lock | The Roebuck Hotel, Tilehurst | Down | 4500 m | |
Schools' Head of the River Race | Junior | 03 | Tideway | Championship Course | Either | 6800 m |
Torpids | University of Oxford | 03 | Iffley Lock | Up | ||
Vesta Veterans International VIIIs Head of River | Masters | 03 | Tideway | Championship Course | Either | 6800 m |
(Vesta/the) Scullers Head of River | 09 | Tideway | Championship Course | Either | 6800 m | |
Wingfield Sculls | 10 | Tideway | Putney | With the flood tide | 6800 m | |
Women's Head | Ladies | 03 | Tideway | Championship Course | Either | 6500 m |
Rowing on the river is generally organised through clubs based on the Thames, which include the following.
Superscript key:
Rowing, sometimes called crew in the United States, is the sport of racing boats using oars. It differs from paddling sports in that rowing oars are attached to the boat using oarlocks, while paddles are not connected to the boat. Rowing is divided into two disciplines: sculling and sweep rowing. In sculling, each rower holds two oars—one in each hand, while in sweep rowing each rower holds one oar with both hands. There are several boat classes in which athletes may compete, ranging from single sculls, occupied by one person, to shells with eight rowers and a coxswain, called eights. There are a wide variety of course types and formats of racing, but most elite and championship level racing is conducted on calm water courses 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) long with several lanes marked using buoys.
Henley Royal Regatta is a rowing event held annually on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, England. It was established on 26 March 1839. It differs from the three other regattas rowed over approximately the same course, Henley Women's Regatta, Henley Masters Regatta, and Henley Town and Visitors' Regatta, each of which is an entirely separate event.
Boat racing is a sport in which boats, or other types of watercraft, race on water. Boat racing powered by oars is recorded as having occurred in ancient Egypt, and it is likely that people have engaged in races involving boats and other water-borne craft for as long as such watercraft have existed.
The Head of the River Race (HORR) is an against-the-clock ('processional') rowing race held annually on the River Thames in London, England between eights, other such races being the Schools' Head of the River Race, Women's Head of the River Race and Veterans' Head of the River Race. Its competitors are, with a few experienced junior exceptions, seniors of UK or overseas competitors and it runs with the ebb tide down the 4.25 mile (6.8 km) Championship Course from Mortlake to Putney which hosts the Oxford and Cambridge head-to-head races usually between one and two weeks later.
The Championship Course is a stretch of the River Thames between Mortlake and Putney in London, England. It is a well-established course for rowing races, particularly the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. The course is on the tidal reaches of the river often referred to as the Tideway. Due to the iconic shape of the Championship Course, in orthopaedic surgery, an "S" shaped incision along the crease of the elbow is commonly referred to as "a boat-race incision resembling the River Thames from Putney to Mortlake."
Vesta Rowing Club is a rowing club based on the Tideway of the River Thames in Putney, London, England. It was founded in 1870.
The Henley Boat Races were a series of annual rowing races between various crews representing the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge.
A skiff is any of a variety of essentially unrelated styles of small boats. Traditionally, these are coastal craft or river craft used for leisure, as a utility craft, and for fishing, and have a one-person or small crew. Sailing skiffs have developed into high performance competitive classes. Many of today's skiff classes are based in Australia and New Zealand in the form of 12 ft (3.66 m), 13 ft (3.96 m), 16 ft (4.88 m) and 18 ft (5.49 m) skiffs. The 29er, 49er, SKUD and Musto Skiff are all considered to have developed from the skiff concept, all of which are sailed internationally.
The Thames Rowing Club (TRC) is a rowing club based on the tidal Thames as it flows through the western suburbs of London. The TRC clubhouse stands on Putney Embankment. The club was founded in 1860.
Kingston Rowing Club (KRC) is a rowing club in England founded in 1858 and a member club of British Rowing.
Curlew Rowing Club is a rowing club based on the Tideway of the River Thames at Greenwich, London, England. It was founded in 1866 and has been in Greenwich without interruption for over 130 years, though not always called Curlew.
Skiffing refers to the sporting and leisure activity of rowing a Thames skiff. The skiff is a traditional hand built clinker-built wooden craft of a design which has been seen on the River Thames and other waterways in England and other countries since the 19th century. Sculling is the act of propelling the boat with a pair of oars, as opposed to rowing which requires both hands on a single oar.
Peter Herbert "Jacko" Jackson was an English rower who competed at the 1936 Summer Olympics.
Walbrook Rowing Club, colloquially sometimes named Teddington Rowing Club, is a rowing club, on the River Thames in England on the Middlesex bank 800 metres above Teddington Lock next to Trowlock Island, Teddington. It is the lowest club on the weir-controlled Thames and is the organising club for Teddington Head of the River Race held in November for all classes of racing shells.
Putney Town Rowing Club (PTRC) is a rowing club on the Tideway, the tidal reach of the River Thames in England. Its official British Rowing registered colours are navy and white.
Oxford University Women's Boat Club (OUWBC) is the rowing club for female rowers who are students at the University of Oxford. The club was founded in 1926 and is now based in Wallingford at the Fleming Boat House, along with OUBC, OUWLRC and OULRC.
The Argonaut Club was an English rowing club based on the Tideway of the River Thames that competed in the middle of the 19th century.
The Thames Club was an English rowing club based on the Tideway of the River Thames that competed in the middle of the 19th century.
The St George's Club was an English rowing club based on the Tideway of the River Thames that competed in the middle of the 19th century.
King's College London Boat Club is the rowing club of King's College London based on the Tideway of the River Thames next to Chiswick Bridge, based at Tideway Scullers School boathouse, Dan Mason Drive, Chiswick, London.