Each year Henley Royal Regatta is oversubscribed with entries for the majority of the nineteen events, particularly for the Club, Student and Schoolboy events. In 2007 the 467 crews entered needed to be reduced to 307 crews to go into the Draw. This meant that 230 crews were invited to race in the Qualifying Races for just 70 places in the Regatta.

The Stewards gather information from the results of the major Head Races during the winter and then from the major Regattas during the Spring and through to the closing date for entries in June. However, with over 120 Head Races and over 90 Regattas being held in these periods it is not realistic to try to assimilate all of the thousands of results into one data base. Indeed, with all the crew changes (personnel and boat type!) that take place between March and June it would be completely pointless to try to assemble such a data base.

Therefore, not surprisingly, the key results that are considered by the Stewards are those from the major Regattas held during April, May and the first two weeks of June. If you wish your crew to be excused the Qualifying Races then they should enter and perform well at a number of the major regional regattas e.g. Nottingham City, Wallingford, B.U.S.A., Durham City, National Schools, Metropolitan, Henley Women’s, Marlow etc. If you consider your crew to be a serious contender in the Club events then they should be of Senior 1 standard. Any crews which are not competitive at this level should expect to be required to race in the Qualifiers.

If a crew has a good result against some good opponents at a local regatta or in a private match then this information should be included in a letter submitted with the Henley Entry Form.

Finally, bearing in mind the dangerous river conditions encountered just two weeks after the 2007 Regatta, and following a review of our contingency planning, if it ever came to pass that the Qualifying Races had to be cancelled the Committee would review the available regatta results and relevant information and would then simply choose the 32 crews to race in the Thames Challenge Cup, the 32 crews to race in the Temple Challenge Cup etc.

The lesson is simple – enter major Regattas and get good results! Crews that are assembled late in the day and that have not raced can expect to be asked to qualify.

Mike Sweeney
Chairman of the Committee of Management
March 2008