The Draw: A First-Timers First Impression

Henley-on-Thames, England — I’ve had the privilege of covering a kaleidoscope of sporting events — the NFL playoffs, major league baseball, the PGA Tour, the Final Four, and all kinds of engagements in between.  Riveting stuff, all of them, and I’d thought it would take a lot for sports to surprise me.  Inspiring awe is one thing, literally having no idea what to expect is entirely different.

Then I went to The Draw for the 2011 Henley Royal Regatta on Saturday.

This event, a public declaration of how the brackets are built at the Regatta, was advertised as such: Crews gather in the local Town Hall and the regatta’s flock of stewards sit as the chairman names crew after crew after crew until every bracket is full from the Ladies’ Challenge Plate to the Princess Grace Challenge Cup.

Seemed pretty straight forward.

When I arrived at Henley’s Town Hall, there were no discernible signs pointing to The Draw.  Thus, I obviously walked in the wrong direction — down the stairs into the Henley Visitors Center.  After a couple minutes thumbing through postcards, I began to hear it.  Thud, thud, thud.  It had the distinct sound of oarsmen walking up steps en masse and, coincidentally, I peered up to find exactly that.

By the time I reached the second floor, the main hall was nearly full.  As chatter filled the air, bigwigs wearing some variety of the same ensemble — blue blazer, white pants, white shirt, tie — walked in one after another.  With only a few exceptions, the stage filled up with a team of old, stately men shaking hands.  The stewards were being very stewardly.  

Then ... thwap!  thwap!  thawp!

A smack of a gavel in the hands of Steward chairman Mike Sweeney sailed through the air and left silence in its wake.  Every chair was filled in the courtly room.  Crews and coaches packed 10-deep in the back of the room like a line at a local pub during “last call” on the Friday of the Royal Regatta.

“Good afternoon,” said the noble Sweeney with the distinguished timbre of English aristocracy.  “Welcome to the 2011 Draw.”

With that, we were underway.  There was no introduction for Sweeney or from Sweeney.  He jumped right in.  After all, for a regatta dating back to 1839, there’s no need to indoctrinate the uninitiated ... they’ll figure it out.   Sweeney began reading off a series of rules pertaining to how the brackets are built.  For instance, elite crews worthy of an easier path to the weekend’s semifinals and finals, are placed equidistant on the bracket, as to avoid one another.  Once those formalities were complete, Sweeney introduced the first race.

“And now The Draw for the Ladies Challenge Plate,” he said.

A small man to Sweeney right dropped a few pieces of paper into the bowl atop a mammoth trophy on the stage — the Grand Challenge Cup.  The chairman dipped his hand in and picked out the first crew, Leander Club “A,” and immediately Leander’s name filled a slot on a large projection screen to the right of the stage.  He picked out the next piece of paper.

“Harvard University, U.S.A.,” said Sweeney, before turning the paper around to show the crowd — as he did with every slip he pulled until all of Henley’s 18 races were filled.  

When Sweeney selected a piece of paper reading “Leander Club B,” chatter and chuckles followed.  The entire room looked to the projection screen and saw that Leander’s two boats would face each other in the first round. Being a newcomer to The Draw, it felt like missing an inside joke at a party you just arrived to.

After the Ladies Challenge Plate was completed, the stewards moved onto the next race — The Temple Challenge Cup.  Much of the room slid forward.  Many of the race’s 32 entries were represented at The Draw.  A variety of reactions followed many of the selections.  Some oarsmen groaned realizing a crew they wanted to avoid had landed dangerously close to them.  Some teammates nodded their head in agreement, liking the view of their road head.  Some simply laughed upon hearing their fate.

The moment the Temple Cup’s bracket was complete, though, chunks of the crowd got up and moved toward the exit.  

“Quietly and quickly,” bellowed Sweeney with a few accompanying gavel cracks.

As the crews from the Temple Cup departed, their seats were snagged by the next group of eager rowers.  It went on like this for a bulk of the afternoon.  Some would go, more would come.

The Draw felt like NCAA basketball’s Selection Sunday ... if Selection Sunday were held at your local community center and all the team’s knew they were “in.”  It’s appeal comes with its simplicity.  Pick the teams, fill a bracket.  You get what you get.  Win or go home.  

Don’t like it?  Well, sorry, now go race.

And that’s how they draw it up at Henley.  Literally.

~ Brendan F. Quinn

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