Certain Summer Signs

HTBS's Tim Koch and friends enjoying last year's Henley Royal Regatta. Photo: Hélène Rémond.

The sun is shining over Connecticut today, or at least over the corner of the state where I live. However, this will not last for that long, as the rest of the week is going to be grey and rainy, so the weather fellows on TV have promised. So no real spring yet, and summer seems very far away. Nevertheless, HTBS’s Tim Koch has some summer signs to report from London, though. Tim writes,

We have had some lovely sunny days in London in the past week but, for me, the first real sign of summer is the arrival of the 2011 Henley Royal Regatta Stewards’ Enclosure Badge and the HRR Annual Report. Like many things at the Royal, there is a hierarchy of badges. The Rabbit’s Guide to Henley lists them in her own special way:

1. COMMITTEE LAWN
2. STEWARDS ENCLOSURE
3. REMENHAM CLUB
4. LEANDER CLUB
5. PRESS ENCLOSURE
6. COMPETITORS'/ BOAT TENT AREA
7. UPPER THAMES
8. REGATTA ENCLOSURE
9. PHYLLIS COURT
10. REMENHAM FARM / BARN BAR
11. HOSPITALITY ENCLOSURES

The 56 Stewards for 2010 are listed on the front of the report (including the late Hart Perry) and the twelve names marked with a cross or asterisk are members of the Committee of Management who undertake the planning and detailed organisation (double click on the pictures to read). They are listed in order of their appointment and are mostly accomplished rowers and scullers but they also include some long serving and successful administrators of the sport. It is their accumulated knowledge and experience that makes Henley a competitor’s regatta rather than a social event first and a rowing event second. Unfashionably, the Stewards are a self-electing body running a self financing regatta. As no sponsorship is required or sought, we are unlikely to see the ‘Ronald McDonald Royal Regatta’ at any time in the near future.

People who complain about things like too much corporate entertaining fail to understand the fact that the Stewards cannot control what happens on land they do not own. The good thing about this is that, if you do not like the Enclosure rules on dress or mobile telephones, there are several thousand metres of riverbank where the popular ‘teenage skateboarder’ look can be worn and loud and pointless phone conversations conducted.

As well as the 56 Stewards there are over 7,000 Members of the Stewards’ Enclosure. They have no voting rights or control over how the regatta is run but the Committee will give careful consideration to any suggestions that an individual member may make. Henley operates on the politically incorrect idea that some people know more about some things than others. The Committee does like to be ‘cussed’ at times but its way of doing things has produced a rather good event since 1839.