Right, time is marching on so I better get on with previewing the Club events. Now that the draw has been made I can focus on those crews that the Stewards have deemed worthy of Selection (and a few of the others who could give the selected crews a shock!)

27 Green Lake “B” USA. From Seattle Green Lake have two boats entered and both have been selected. At the top of the draw are the “B” crew. This crew raced at Marlow Regatta and finished 3rd in Intermediate 3 8’s losing to Exeter and Vesta (both of whom had to go through qualifying). They may struggle against their first round opponents from The Lea who raced in Intermediate 1 8’s at Marlow, they recorded identical times (6:24) in their respective finals in races 1 hour apart….should be close!
42 Rudern, Tennis und Hockey Club Bayer Leverkusen, Germany. The Germans are always a threat in this event with Frankfurt winning last year. The Bayer Leverkusen crew includes a pair of junior world champions in the stern, stroke man Felix Krane won the JM8 in 2009 and 7-man Fabian Weiler won gold in the JM4X in 2008. They face Eatsbourne on Wednesday a crew celebrating the clubs 150th anniversary. They’ve put together quite a talented bunch of guys, not sure how many of them have actually rowed in any coastal regattas…. A slightly different line-up finished 2nd in the C-Final on the Sunday of the Metropolitan Regatta. They could give the Germans a good run to Fawley

36 Mercantile Rowing Club, Australia. Selected and one of the favourites to win the event. The club raced this event last year and made the semi-finals losing by just 6ft to the eventual winners from Frankfurt. Just the cox, Annabelle Orr and 5 man Angus Widdicombe return but they have a host of state and national championship medals in the crew, and will probably be the pick of the top half of the draw. They face City of Bristol who came through the qualifiers and will most probably be outgunned by the Melbournites.