Prince Albert Challenge Cup

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Prince Albert Challenge Cup
Newcastle University celebrate winning the event in 2008
VenueHenley Royal Regatta, River Thames
LocationHenley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire
Dates2004 – present

The Prince Albert Challenge Cup is an event at Henley Royal Regatta. It is contested by Men's Student Crews in Coxed fours. It has been held since 2004.[1]

Creation in 2004[edit]

The Britannia Challenge Cup was originally presented in 1969 as an event for four-oars with coxswain (Coxed Fours) open to club and student crews, and was contested for its first 35 years by an entry of 32 crews, racing over 5 days - with many times its entry number entering qualification and pre-qualifying races.

The Britannia Challenge Cup was split between club and student crews in 2004, having created additional competition time by removing the Prince Philip Challenge Cup, which had been contested by a small entry (usually between 2–4) of international elite oarsmen but was removed from the racing programme in line with the continued removal of coxed fours racing from international regattas meaning that it had lost value.

The Britannia Challenge Cup remained as the club coxed fours' competition, while the Prince Albert Challenge Cup for men's student coxed fours created in a similar mould, but with entry restricted to:

  • Universities
  • Colleges
  • Schools

No composite crews are allowed to enter. The entry for each competition was set at 16 for both cups. There are now coxed fours events for both clubs and universities at the regatta, and both events have been heavily contested since the change meaning qualifying races have been held for the events. The Prince Albert has attracted international competitors from the US, the Netherlands and Ireland.

The Prince Albert Trophy[edit]

Newcastle University win again in 2014

Given the success of the fledgling Students Coxed Fours event the stewards agreed to accept and to fund a permanent trophy to be awarded to the winners of the event, two years after its start. The trophy was designed and created by Hector Miller and was presented by Imperial College London - the 2004 winners. It is named after Prince Albert who became the first Royal Patron of the Regatta in 1851 and was also closely associated with the origins of Imperial College. The Cup was accepted by the Regatta in the presence of H.M. The Queen at Buckingham Palace in June 2006. As with other competitions at the Royal Regatta the names of the winning crew are inscribed on the trophy.

Winners[edit]

Year Winners Beaten finalists Members of winning crew
2004 Imperial College Boat Club Isis Boat Club Simon Hislop, George Whittaker, Hugh Mackenzie, Ed Johnson, Seb Pierce (c)
2005 Durham University Boat Club National University of Ireland, Galway P. Evans, Patrick Thomas, J. Foster, N. Jones, T. Hill (c)
2006 Imperial College Boat Club University of London Boat Club Simon Hislop, Jonty McNuff, Ed Johnson, Ole Tietz, Alison Williams (c)
2007 University of London Boat Club Goldie Boat Club Nathaniel Reilly-O'Donnell, Cameron Nichol, Robert Irving, Matt Neame, M. Eldridge (c)
2008 Newcastle University Boat Club University of the West of England Boat Club Nathan O'Reilly, Murray Wilcojc, Mason Durant, Fred Gill, Carolyn Johnson (c)
2009 Oxford Brookes University Boat Club Yale University Karl Hudspith, Chris Abraham, Matthew Tarrant, Scott Durant, Hannah Clews (c)
2010 University College Dublin University of Bristol Tom Doyle, Finbar Manning, Colm Pierce, Dave Neale, cox: Jennie Lynch (c)
2011 Harvard University Oxford Brookes University Boat Club J.P Hogan, Ben French, Justin Mundt, Peter Scholle, David Fuller (c)
2012 University of London Boat Club Newcastle University Boat Club Jamie Cook, Paul Bennett, Ollie Cook, Rory Buffachi, Max Gander (c)
2013 Imperial College Boat Club Isis Boat Club Jonny Rankin, Henry Goodier, Ben Spencer-Jones, Tim Richards, Ellie Smith (c)
2014 Newcastle University Boat Club Harvard University Jasper Holst, Tom Ford, James Rudkin, Sam Arnot, Calum McRoberts (c)
2015 University of Washington Yale University Jake Zier, Ed Nainby-Luxmoore, Sean Raffetto, Philip Walczak, Lisa Caldwell (c)
2016 Edinburgh University Boat Club Newcastle University Boat Club Rufus Scholefield, Calum Irvine, Kieran Tierney, James Temple, Rosie Margolis (c)
2017 Newcastle University Boat Club Imperial College Boat Club James Robson, Will New, Alex Haynes, William Stewart, Alex Turner (c)
2018 Imperial College Boat Club Goldie Boat Club David Simmonds, Oliver Hines, Casper Woods, Alex Ball, Wilf Le Brocq (c)
2019 Harvard University Durham University Boat Club Lucas Clarke, Sam Monkley, Ethan Seder, Pieter Quinton, Ed Bracey (c)
2020 No competition due to COVID-19 pandemic[2]
2021 University of London Boat Club[3] Newcastle University Boat Club Isaac Workman, Henry Marles, Tom Worthington, Tom Cross, Jasper Couper (c)
2022 Oxford Brookes University Boat Club[4] University of California BC, Berkeley, USA Jack Prior, Louis Nares, Blaise Ivers-Dreux, Marco Tognazzi, Amie Jones (c)
2023 Oxford Brookes University Boat Club[5] University of Washington BC, USA Marine Arnerich, Jack Cooper, Dominiko Arnerich, Evan Falstrup, Bakang Zondi (c)

Records[edit]

Crew Barrier Fawley Finish Year
Imperial College London 1:55 3:15 6:46 2018

References[edit]

  1. ^ "results". Henley Royal Regatta.
  2. ^ "2020 REGATTA CANCELLATION - STATEMENT ON CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19)". Henley Royal Regatta.
  3. ^ "Results 2021". Henley Royal Regatta. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
  4. ^ "Results 2022". Henley Royal Regatta. Retrieved 10 July 2022.
  5. ^ "Leander, Oxford Brookes and Thames dominate at Henley Royal Regatta". British Rowing. Retrieved 4 July 2023.