The Prince Albert Challenge Cup

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The Prince Albert Challenge Cup is an event at Henley Royal Regatta. It is contested by Men's Student Crews in Coxed Fours. It has been held since 2004.

[edit] History

The Britannia Challenge Cup was originally presented in 1969 as an event for four-oars with coxswain (Coxed Fours). The event was open to both club and student crews, and contested by an entry of 32 crews, racing over 5 days.

In 2004 the Henley Stewards decided to change the format of the coxed fours competitions. The Prince Philip Challenge Cup, which had been contested by a small entry (usually between 2-4) of international crews was removed from the racing program. This was in line with the continued removal of coxed fours racing from international regattas meaning that the Prince Philip had lost some of its value.

In its place it was decided that the Britannia Challenge Cup should be split into two competitions. One for clubs, and one for student crews. The Britannia Challenge Cup remained as the club competition, while a new competition the 'Men's Student Coxed Fours' was created in the same mold as the Britannia, but with entry restricted to clubs of University, College or School level. No composite crews are allowed to enter. The entry for each competition was set at 16 for each event.

This change has been widely viewed as a success. There are now coxed fours events for both clubs and universities at the regatta, and both events have been well contested since the change. In all three years both competitions have been oversubscribed, and qualifying races have been held for the events. The Prince Albert has also attracted international competitors from the USA and Holland.

[edit] The Prince Albert Trophy

Given the success of the event the stewards agreed to accept a permanent trophy to be awarded to the winners of the event from 2006 onwards. The trophy was designed and created by Hector Miller and was presented by Imperial College London - the first winners of the event. It is named after Prince Albert who became the first Royal Patron of the Regatta in 1851 and was also closely associated with the origins of Imperial College. The Cup was accepted by the Regatta in the presence of H.M. The Queen at Buckingham Palace in June 2006. As with other competitions at the Royal Regatta the names of the winning crew are inscribed on the trophy.

[edit] Winners

Year	Winners	Beaten Finalists	Winning Crew
2006	Imperial College Boat Club bt	University of London Boat Club	B.Smith, O.Moore, W.Laughton, O.Tietz, cox: A.Williams
2005	Durham University Boat Club bt	National University of Ireland, Galway	P.Evans, P.Thomas, J.Foster, N.Jones, cox: T.Hill
2004	Imperial College Boat Club bt	Isis Boat Club	S.Hislop, G.Whittaker, H.Mackenzie, E.Johnson, cox: S.Pierce