After Wimbledon, we continued on with British summer traditions and went to Henley Royal Regatta. The town of Henley-on-Thames is about 30 miles outside of London, and is charming.

Being a rower, I obviously knew of a prestigious regatta called “Henley”, but I didn’t really know. I was confused when all of my Thames Rowing Club teammates were talking about various “Henleys” and asking whether or not I had a “badge”.

Here is what I’ve learned: there are three weeks of back-to-back racing at Henley-on-Thames over the summer. First up is Henley Women’s. This regatta was started in 1988, in response to the fact that until the 1990s women were not permitted to race at Henley. Nuts. Next comes Royal Henley, then Henley Masters Regatta.

Royal Henley

According to the Regatta, “Henley Royal Regatta is undoubtedly the best-known regatta in the world. It is a highlight of both the summer sporting calendar and the social season.” Can’t say I disagree; it was definitely the best regatta I’ve ever been to.

Started in 1839, Henley Royal Regatta is a five-day event of head-to-head racing. It is the best course I’ve ever rowed on, and besides Opening Day in Seattle, probably the best venue for spectators, who can line up along the entire course and view racing up close.

Royal Henley is basically just a huge Pimm’s-fueled, five-day long party — people bring their corporate clients out on the weekdays to wine and dine them, racing stops for lunch and afternoon tea each day, they drink Pimm’s (British sangria) non-stop, people camp out, and they set up “night clubs” along the course. The train to and from London is a spectacle in itself, shuttling people dressed to impress to the course. Fantastic people watching all around.

The Regatta is put on by the Stewards, who have a fancy members and guests only “enclosure” at the finish line. There is apparently at 10+ year waiting list to get into Stewards. Inside the enclosure are bars, a restaurant, and grandstands for watching races. There is a strict dress code. For men, “lounge suit, blazer and flannels, or evening dress, and a tie”.  For ladies, dresses below the knee, hats encouraged (but don’t actually wear a hat, otherwise they know you aren’t really in the know. Only non-rowers wear hats). Stewards will refuse you entry if you are not dressed appropriately! I didn’t make it into Stewards this time around, so will have to come back and try again.

The next most exclusive “enclosure” is Remenham Club’s enclosure – where we spent our Saturday. The Club is composed of “founding clubs” of rowing in London – including Thames Rowing Club (est. 1860), which is how I got in. Similar dress code, but not as strict.

If you have access to an enclosure you wear a “badge”, which is just the perfect visual of British social classes.

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There are other enclosures which you can pay to get into without membership (so who even cares about those badges?), and a “towpath” that spectators sit along to watch the racing. Along the entire course are enclosures, food and retail vendors, and picnicking.

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Henley Masters Regatta

The following weekend was my time to shine on the water. I got out-shined unfortunately. I raced in a four which didn’t final. But our eight won, and I practiced with them leading up to the race, so I’m counting it as a win.

Just getting to row on the course, and spending time with my Thames teammates was awesome. Plus, I had two fans come watch – Dan and his mom Pat – which was very special.

Masters Henley was a lot more low key than Royal, and just a really fun race on a great course.

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We’ve had a lot going on these last few weeks! First up, we braved the Wimbledon Queue – aka, a very long line you can wait in to get day-of tickets to Wimbledon.

If you like sports of any kind, GO TO WIMBLEDON. It might be the best sporting event I’ve ever been to. You get to watch amazing tennis very close up, watch matches all day long, buy re-sale tickets to the Show Courts for £10 after 3:00p.m., and the ball boys and girls are hilarious. I would love to sit in on their training sessions. I cannot figure out what instruction they are given to make them flail their bodies around, at what I’m sure they think is the speed of light, to collet errant tennis balls.

Little known fact to me, before I went – Wimbledon is very close to central London. It is seven miles from our flat. It took us about 25 minutes in an Uber. The Tube probably would have taken 45 minutes.

So, how do you get tickets and what is this mysterious “queue”?

If you want to sit on one of the three main courts – the Show Courts – with a reserved seat, then you either enter a lottery in the fall, or pay an unreasonable amount of money. Or you can queue, but from what I gather you’d have to camp out overnight. Do not count on Ticketmaster – they say tickets become available day-of, but we checked daily and never saw any.

Or, you can queue starting the morning of and pay £25 for a grounds pass; what we did. It took us awhile to get our heads wrapped around what “queuing” actually is. There are lots of websites that explain it and offer advice, but we found this blogger to be the most helpful.

The grounds pass lets you wander around the grounds and pop in and out of matches on the 16 other courts. Only downside is you don’t get a reserved seat anywhere, so it can be a little annoying to watch a particular match if everyone else with a grounds pass also wants to watch that match.

We went on the Friday of the first week, which ended up being a good time to go. There were still a lot of matches being played, so we saw some really good tennis on courts 3-18. We got in the Queue at approximately 6:03 a.m., and were numbers 4031 and 4032.

The Queue is in a massive field outside the tennis grounds. You get there, find the person with the yellow flag, go get in line behind them, and get handed your queue card and guard it with your life. Then you lay down on the blanket you brought and take a nap, drink some coffee, eat a bacon bap (a breakfast sandwich consisting of bread and bacon…I don’t get it), and chat with your neighbors in the Queue. The Queue starts moving about 9:30, when they let people into an area closer to the actual entrance to Wimbledon. The grounds open at 10:30. We got in at about 10:36, so did pretty well.

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The Queue wasn’t’ bad, it just made for a long day, at the end of which I was ready to have a tantrum because I was too hot and the beer line too long. Regardless, we watched a great women’s singles match on Court 3, a mixed-doubles match from the front row of Court 12, and spent the rest of the day watching the Show Courts from Murray Hill.

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Closing thought – according to a website I read, strawberries and cream has been served at Wimbledon since 1877. Everyone gets extremely excited about it. There are articles written about strawberries and cream at Wimbledon every year. This year, vegan strawberries and cream were the news. I don’t get the obsession . . . it’s literally whole strawberries (not macerated) with liquid cream . . . wouldn’t it be better with a little sugar and whipped cream? The answer is, obviously it would be. Hopefully no British people read this, because I don’t need hate mail.

Next up, Royal Henley and Masters Henley . . . .

Well, I really hate the stairs here. They make me climb up five flights! I have tiny legs! Sometimes I get carried. Sometimes.

Other than that, I have been trying to make friends with the cats. They do not like me. I do not really like them. Progress is slow. There is a pug named Elsa who lives three doors down. She’s good.

I like going to pubs and riding on the Tube. One time at the pub, I tricked a small human into feeding me all her crisps.

I have a pink chair at home which I have decorated with pug hair.

– Alice

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