Issue 100 - Centenary July 1997

The right stuff - Henley do's and don'ts

Henley Royal Regatta will always hold a special place in every rower's dreams. Winning, and the walk up those steps, is what it's all about. Not everyone can win and generally it is the fastest crew in each event that does. Henley, however, is a peculiar regatta and it is worth paying attention to some of its peculiarities if you want to get it right. Here are some of the many do's and don'ts.

• Do avoid Henley traditions, particularly traipsing around the enclosures, having ice cold showers, drinking the night before and racing anyone who's up for it in practice.
• Do what the winners do - train early in the morning on good water, turn up the day before the race, have a warm shower and disappear soon after.
• Don't get the Buckinghamshire station unless it's a big cross head wind (rare). You know what they say about statistics.
• Do steer straight and don't hit anything. Once ahead it is possible to wash the other crew down a bit, particularly if the umpire is from your club or university.
• Do be American.
• Don't do chin-ups on the blade racks (Americans excepted).
• Do spend more time on your tactics. You only get one chance at Henley and side-by-side racing has an intensity to it that a regular race plan may fail to recognise.
• Don't be taken by surprise.
• Do make sure your equipment works.
• Don't be late for the start.
• Don't be a member of Notts County or Oxford Brookes.
• Do remember the Berks station is the one with all the berks on it. The Bucks' is the other one.
• Don't worry about not having any supporters. The modest ripple of clapping means that the race is over anyway, and the raucous boozed-up cheering, although probably for Cambridge, is totally unintelligible from the water and might as well be for you.
• Don't expect good water to race on. Saturday and Sunday afternoons are especially bad, the gaps in the booms making life a little harder again for the crew on Buck's.
• Do remember that the race is on the water and not in the weighing room.
• Don't panic if something goes wrong on the start. You can never be sure just how bad your opposition is.
• Do behave yourself. The stewards stand firmly behind gentlemanly behaviour and Rule 10.
• Do stay focussed. Your next race is the be-all-and-end-all of your regatta.
• Don't believe everything you read in the papers and try not to get irritated by those tacky articles on Pimms, silly blazers and no-one watching the racing.
• Be totally non-conformist and don't have a haircut before the regatta.

© Copyright Sean Bowden, 1997.