Thames RC ‘A’ vs De Hoop: A HRR rivalry with three wins in three years for the Tideway club

Three years, three races, one result – we dig into this enduring, international battle between the booms

Koninklijke Amsterdamsche Roei-en Zeilvereeniging ‘De Hoop’ of the Netherlands and Thames RC have gone up against each other in Thames Challenge Cup semi-finals and finals for the last three years. Each year Thames has had the edge.

“The story itself has some nice nuances to it,” said Thames RC Club Captain Tom Foad. Tom had been coached by De Hoop’s coach Jeroen van der Kall when he was at Thames RC between 2019 and 2022. “Our Head Coach, Sander Smulders also used to coach at De Hoop, so there’s a connection between the two clubs.”

The clubs have created what Tom calls a “friendly rivalry”.

“I think what’s really cool over the last three years is that before 2022, De Hoop were relatively unknown here. What’s been really cool over the last few years is we’ve seen their progression. Each year they keep coming back. This year, they were actually probably one of the favourites.”

2023 Thames Challenge Cup Final

In 2023, under sunny skies, Thames RC ‘A’ lined up against De Hoop for the first time, in the final of the Thames Cup.

Patrick Tawns was stroke of the boat. “We’d come off the back of losing to Molesey BC in 2022 by ⅔ of a length. We all got phone calls from Jamie Brown that summer – we didn’t have a paid coach, he said; ‘I’ll take control, as a volunteer.’ He asked us what we wanted from that season – we told him we wanted to win the Thames Cup.”

“I think that’s a very rare thing, being able to enjoy a Henley final.”

The Dutch crew had taken out Thames’ B crew on the Friday by ¾ of a length and Leander Club by the same distance on the Saturday. Thames RC ‘A’ had faced Sydney RC, Australia in their semi final – a brilliant race by all accounts, with a result of 1 ¼ lengths win for the Tideway Club.

Joe Bright was in six seat of the Thames boat. “We raced Sydney before – we had never raced these guys. We assumed they would be quick out the start and we were down at the end of the Island, but we knew the middle three minutes of our race were really quick – they couldn’t hold onto us after that.”

“I left my breakfast outside the boat tents before the Sydney race,” Patrick recalls. “But we executed the perfect race. We expected it to be closer – winning by clear water was quite nice.”

Patrick watched as his competition boated for the final. “I thought the way they carried their boat out was quite impressive.”

After the Island, it was smooth sailing for Thames RC.  “By the time we hit Remenham it sunk in that we were two minutes out from winning Henley. We just tried to commit it all to memory – because you want to remember this moment for the rest of your life.”

Patrick agreed; “I think that’s a very rare thing, being able to enjoy a Henley final.”

“We stopped thinking about the rowing, stopped concentrating on it. Watching it back,” Joe laughs, “it’s probably one of our weaker races! but going into the Enclosures, we started to tighten up again to show everyone what we could do. Our cox’s voice started to break. I started thinking – what do I do when I cross the line?!”

3 ¾ lengths was the final verdict, with Thames cruising across the line in style.

2024 Thames Challenge Cup Final

“Unfortunately, we didn’t have as easy a time of it in 2024.” said Andy Thomas, seven seat in the boat the following year.

Domestically, Thames RC had tough competition leading into the Regatta from London RC. They’d lost to them at Wallingford, Metropolitan and Marlow Regatta – and met them in the semi-final. “It was a tough race – credit to those guys. Then we had to switch on for the final.”

“I remember quite vividly through the final, just thinking, man, I wish these guys would go away!” De Hoop stuck to Thames RC the entire way down the course, passing an extremely damp line of spectators on a biblically rainy Sunday.

Andy had been coached by Jeroen van der Kall. “We knew each other’s programmes fairly well, a similar style of racing. I didn’t have a moment during the race where I thought, okay, we have this.”

Andy was alongside his competition for most of the race. “They are very impressive guys, a classy outfit. They stepped on from the year before. Full credit to them for pushing us all the way.”

2025 Thames Challenge Cup Semi Final

Rainy weather greeted spectators on the Saturday of Henley Royal Regatta 2025. Cafe Regatta was filled to the brim with white and red-trimmed Thames RC blazers, eyes glued to the screens, tense seated rowers asking their taller, standing club mates to duck to clear the view path.

De Hoop were “the pick of the regatta” for Grace Prendegast commentating – Piotr Golawski backed the ‘revolution’ led by Ben Lewis, but mentioned that the Dutch believed they were the stronger crew.

It was close from the start. Thames RC had pulled a length ahead by the time the boats passed Remenham Club, at the ¾ mile mark, the overlap was minimal. They soon broke clean.

“They haven’t responded.” Grace said as Thames entered the enclosures and grew their lead once more. The banks roared for the home crew – and took their place in the final at a distance of 1 ¼ lengths.

The future

Thames RC will face London RC in the final tomorrow, out for redemption after losing to Thames RC in last year’s semi final. “We know that both these crews on their day are just phenomenal crews. Our crew will stay calm amongst the pressure, to try to deliver that kind of race-winning performance. It might go absolutely down to the wire.”

And what’s next for De Hoop? “I think they’ll actually keep getting stronger and stronger as they keep going back to Henley, keep getting involved in like these really close races and producing good performances.” Said Tom.

“And for us, ultimately that’s good. It really keeps us on our toes, because we’ve got this up and coming club, which is gonna kind of keep challenging us year on year. And that’s just a testament to the Regatta itself just to have these really high quality crews that come from not just the Netherlands, but all across the world.”

“We hope they keep coming.” Tom smiled. “We hope we stay ahead of them.