Elizabethan B.C. & Cambridge R.C. v U.B.C. & Uni. of West' Ontario - Visitors' | Henley 2025 Day 4

That's so that these guys can occupy it. It's the visitors Elizabethan and the 99s from Cambridge and UBC and UW Ontario from Canada. Canadians blasted away, the geese have been cleared and the Canadians have taken their place. Yeah excited to see this Canadian crew. They raced at Marlowe Regatta, a really good showing making the A-final of Championship Coxless Fours and they wouldn't have brought this crew together if they didn't think they had a good chance of taking the Visitors Challenge Cup and so far putting in a pretty good performance here against this Elizabethan Cambridge 99 rowing club crew. Yeah I think the geese could have been an omen for the Canadians. They're already stretching out. There's a tiny bit of overlap there if we read it right from this angle but the Canadians really motoring. I love the way they've got nice clean rowing. It's a bit bouncy out there and you can see the way that their hands kind of strike down, carry their handle a bit lower over the knees to get clean and clear and on the left of the picture we've already got the Elizabethan and the Cambridge 99 sort of starting to struggle. I think they've lost that connection so that's an early advantage for the Canadians. Yeah strokes and steered by Liam Smith. Raced internationally at the under 19, under 23 and senior level South Africa and Canada so a richly experienced athlete not just on the world stage but here at Henley. It's his fourth campaign on the regatta waters and he will have a good sense of where this race is poised at the moment. Exactly a lot of experience which does help. Now we're calling them the Elizabethans in the Cambridge 99 club. Actually at Henley what we tend to do is a composite crew with more than two clubs. We'll call out the names of a couple of the clubs not all of them so just to kind of check who we've got in this boat. We've got an Elizabethan. What does that mean? That's the old Westminster. The Westminster alumni school sitting in pink in the stroke seat. That's 19 year old James Young just out of that program so lovely to see these school programs having alumni club programs. Behind him Gabriel George also 19. He's representing Cambridge 99 rowing clubs known as the nines up in Cambridge not to be confused with Cambridge University of course and then we've got Charles Cartier and Benjamin Mead at two and bow respectively and those two are representing Leander. So we've got nice colourful outfits in that boat but that's not enough and as we said earlier there's just a bit of clear water now at the barrier from the Canadians over the Elizabethan and Cambridge 99 crew. One thing I've been super impressed by all weekend actually Matt is how well crews have steered the course. I think I've only seen one crew all week we've had a bit of an encounter with the booms and the visitors challenge cup renowned for some curious interpretations of the straight line in the past. Both of these crews shot out like an arrow no problem staying nicely apart giving the umpire very little to do and this Canadian crew at the moment they seem to have pretty good control on this race. So if you're watching this in your aroha maybe you haven't competed at this level before maybe you have and you don't steer a coxless boat you leave it to other people you might not appreciate just how stressful it can be on this course with the wooden boons. It's not like boys where you can clip a buoy and you might tip your blade but here it can be carnage and game over. We saw that last year at Henley in the final of the grand of all races the daddy of the races here at Henley where we had a crew hit the booms and the race was over. Sometimes can be caused by steering sometimes it can be caused by a bit of a swirl of the wind but not troubling either of these two crews Tom as you called it straight as a lie nice course separated safely not encroaching too much in the Canadians over the um over the route to the finish line for the composite crew from the Yeah this University of British Columbia, University of Western Ontario Canadian crew now just probably thinking about what they can do to conserve a little bit of energy in the latter stages of this contest they've got well maybe 800 or so meters left to row they're in pretty good control of proceedings they've got a couple of lengths of clear water so now with two more races potentially to reach Sunday's final they've got lots of work to do over the weekend and I think they're in a position now where they can just start to wind down slightly so University of British Columbia and University of Western Ontario in the persons of Mike and mind is smart in the bow seat 23 years old raced in the grand and the under 23 world champs with the Canadian under 23 eight plenty of pedigree there Sam Stewart 25 in the two seat looking at him now in that cap and glasses uh he is also an under 23 raced um in Henley regatta in the Thames Cup uh Aidan Hembrough at three 22 years old huge pedigree I haven't got time to list all the things he's done in the past uh he's also got a family of rowers around him his parents were rowers his siblings are rowers and in the stroke seat Liam Smith 24 years old he's raced internationally at junior under 23 and senior levels for South Africa and for Canada so perhaps no surprise Tom with that kind of well that kind of set of records between them that's a really impressive crew as you said right at the start but let's have a little look at the trailing crew here the Elizabethan pink which is the Westminster school alumni Cambridge 99s and Leander making up this composite and the flag goes up warning the Canadians just to keep across the course I think they're too far ahead Tom to impede the composite crew here but they just need to be keep it safe that's you wouldn't want to throw things away by being on the wrong station no when you're in this sort of position nothing silly is probably the operative words that will be going through the Canadians heads as I said Liam Smith stroking and steering this boat he's been down this course several times already and he's returned you can see there to his station back towards the booms and I think this one is just going to proceed through the enclosures they can lap up the applause of the punters and the spectators on the bank this gives you a picture just saying Tom this picture gives you a sense of what it's like to race at Henley you can see how they're pushing on this crew looking from behind at them you can see Henley church you can also see how they're having to correct the steering a little bit as a power through the fatigue maybe the power on one side of the other dissipates and then moving up here are the Canadians more controlled more comfortable more confident thoughts turning number one nothing silly as you said Tom number two semi-final Saturday that's what stands ahead of them they've got about 20 strokes or so to go maybe fewer at this relatively low rating and what they're doing now is just pushing on nice to have a final push hard to stop yourself doing that as you're going through the enclosures at Henley just to push on have a few final strokes of power what lovely rowing from the Canadian coxless four official but suitably aggressive it's been a real masterclass on how to row the coxless four like you say Matt all eyes and all thoughts will now turn to Saturday's racing in this most intriguing for visitors challenge cups well if you want to know why crews from around the world want to race at Henley this shows you what a great place to race we've seen some amazing racing this afternoon and that was the visitors challenge cup that dates from 1847 the Canadians are visiting us here wanting to put their name on that cup with all those of all those years they take the victory over Elizabethan and Cambridge 99.