Oxford Brookes University 'A' vs Leander Club - Ladies' Plate _ Henley 2025 Finals

We are off in the final of the ladies' plate. Oxford Brookes University versus Leander Club. The university versus the club. Who is going to win today? Off they go. Both crews straight on the first stroke, really long strokes, just rolling into a big high cadence rhythm. Both crews off steep cleanly as well. Brookes quite close to the boys down there, but dead straight line. Different parts of the river here, slight advantage to the Brookes crew off the start, but neck and neck, nothing in it. And it's so quick, this big fast boat down the end of the island. Yeah, for the first minute or so, the Coxes won't be looking at the other crew. They'll just be going through their routine, getting themselves to as fast as possible and then transitioning into their race pace. And then they'll have a look and see what the opposition's doing. Cannot affect another crew in a rowing boat, but you certainly can mentally. And these crews are staying in their boat, doing their thing. And looking down, this lovely horizontal shot. You can see the bow man up there, Jamie Curpus is racing 11 times, international rower, well-known to Henley. And he will bring that experience closely. But at the moment, Leander looked like they've slipped a couple of seats. Yeah, did they? It looks like George really destroyed the Leander crew. Quite upright style, but really generating good acceleration, setting his crew up to a great rhythm. But these guys have got so much experience, nobody thinks the race is over yet. It's only a half a length, not even half a length. Half a length. Fast course though today. I think you come down here and you'll see that the wind is kind of variable, but a little bit of tailwind at points, which means you want to get out there fast. You want to get out there ahead. You want to start crushing the dreams of your opposition. And the moment at the barrier, 600 meters down, Leander have the edge. Yeah, we'll see the barrier markers as it goes up to see the margin. It looks like they've got a slight ahead, maybe a third of a length or something. Both crews rowing really long, good blade work. Yep, just as a third of a length at this point. Now it's really important to settle into this, or settle is probably the wrong word, get into a really hard, aggressive rhythm that you can sustain and try to eke out an inch of stroke. You've just gone off the start. Your heart rate is pretty much near maximum. You're breathing up, your legs are screaming, and now you've got to really get in sync with your crew. Transition, move, power on. Wow, that looks like a good move there from Leander. We heard the coxwains there moving. Cox in the Leander seat. Hermione Hill is telling her crew, you are doing it, let's move away. But Brooks, and everyone's going to say this about Oxford Brooks, they're a very strong club, huge history, they're never beaten, are they? So they've drifted over to the middle again. That's happened a couple of times this race, it's coming into the middle of the course. There must be something going on with the water under there. The crews are getting caught out by it, getting blown into the middle. And the rain now, they just started off with this nice, flat calm, and now the rain. Brooks still over the side a bit. Brooks have really drifted over there. You'd be surprised they don't get a warning to move over. You don't even want to get too close to those pedals, do you, Adrian? We talked before, dirty water. You want clean water. And I think Brooks might be feeling that a little bit now, sitting behind this Leander crew. Yeah, they're coming back again, looks a little bit. It's quite interesting, because it happened in the race with Heddington as well. They ended up coming across and having to steer quite a bit on that station. But like we saw at the beginning, it was flat calm, wasn't it? It was clear, and now the rain's coming down. Leander holding that, they've edged out to half a length. Now they're stuck there a little bit. They really should try and do something now to move out. Maybe they are, actually. Maybe they are moving now. Well, a little look across there from that shortstop for Domiko Arnorich. His brother is sitting alongside him, this Truroxi, the Croatians. It's quite a sibling. It's the third Croatian brothers, brothers and sisters. I was about to say, it's quite a thing to do from Croatia, to stick with your siblings, and they're doing it now. Maybe they'll have a little bit of power either end of that boat. And they're sticking with it. They've not broken away. There's no clear water between these two boats. But Leander seem to be, they seem to be just moving each stroke away. It's not like a massive push. They've just got some sort of freedom. There you go. And on the way they recover, on the way forward, the boat's doing really good work for them. They're not getting in the way of the hull. And I think that's what's giving them the speed to start to slip away from Boxer Brooks. Well, Hermione Hill, a little look around there, just to make sure her crew are doing what she called for, moving. Brooks are not letting them move, though. Can they stay in contention through this third quarter of the race before we start powering up towards the finish line? What is Jamie Gerber shouting at his crew right now? Well, Brooks really have stopped the move now. Now coming down with a cheer down the enclosure, they're really gonna have to put their foot down and make sure they start changing the momentum of the race, because there's not much far to go now. Do not write Brooks off. They look like they are just taking it up a gear, a little bit more pressure on Leander. Have they got a response? Leander crew just to look a little bit smoother, but I think at this point, that doesn't matter. It's just about grunt and toughness. The eight's a long way to row down, but they've got to go for it now. Yeah, it's a fast day today. Brooks, you can see, look at that, look at the movement. They've taken it up, up, up, and they are powering on to the finish line. But I think Leander have absorbed that, looking strong, looking long. You see the back of the bow man there, Jack Pryor, screaming his crew to the progress boards. It looks like they've soaked up all the pressure down there and kept their composure. Really impressive rowing from the Leander crew. Three quarters of the length at the moment. What a response. When you've got Oxford Brooks throwing the kitchen sink at you, you've got to have that kind of response. And they've moved, they've moved away. Again, Jack has a little look. Where are we? How many more strokes have we got to go? The cheers are coming out, and it's a win as the arms look into the air. The rigours are smacked. The ladies' challenge plate is staying right here at Henley-on-Thames for Leander Club over Oxford Brooks.