IT is a genteel affair where clean-cut crews slice through the calm waters to polite applause from well-groomed Pims-sipping spectators on the river bank.

But this year the Henley Woman's Regatta will welcome a squad of women used to much hardier conditions, who are looking to make waves for their university after an absence of a decade and a half.

For the first time since 2004, the ladies of Dundee University Boat Club will take on the best the sport has to offer at the Regatta, one of the UK’s top elite rowing competitions.

The ambitious team - who may well have set a Guinness World Record for rowing in March - consists of second-year students Fiona Lapp (Mathematics), Katie Canniford (Adult Nursing), Isabella Ashcroft (Forensic Anthropology), third-year student Hannah Campbell (Mechanical Engineering) and fourth-year student Eleanor Brinkhoff (Physiological Sciences).

“If you mentioned Dundee 12 months ago, other rowing teams would probably just shrug their shoulders, but now we are beginning to be taken seriously,” said Eleanor Brinkhoff, who will miss her Graduation from the University this week in order to be in with a chance of bringing back gold.

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“We are still very much the underdogs in the world of rowing. The boat we usually race in is more than 30 years old and our training grounds at Inchrya are about 20 miles away from campus.

"Unlike the teams we will race against this week, we don’t have a pontoon. We have to wade out into the freezing Tay to climb into our boats to even begin practice so you could say we have something to prove.”

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Training on the icy Tay is no joke

Excited at the prospect of representing Dundee at Henley, Ms Campbell added, “This year has been the most successful year for our boat club. We’ve attended ten competitions and taken away 18 wins.

"It’s great to be able to go to competitions and hold our heads high and feel like we have the right to be here, and finish on the podium too.”

The team will take to the warmer waters of the Thames this week, competing in the Development 4+ event, with the Henley Women’s Regatta taking place between Friday 21st June 2019 and Sunday 23rd June 2019.

The Regatta was first held in 1988 as a response to the absence of women's events at Henley Royal Regatta.

Although Henley Royal now offers three women's events, Women's Henley has continued to build and expand.

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Getting there is a testament to the determination of the Dundee team, who combined rowing with their full-time studies.

Training sees them up at dawn to slip into the icy waters of the Tay to crack into 1.5 kilometre stretches, powering through the finish line in six minutes.

Most of the rowers picked up the sport at university, with little experience of it as a competitive event.

They have had to make do with the most basic of facilities and learn their skills the hard way.

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Ms Brinkhoff explained: "When Uni was on there was a lot of morning sessions which meant getting up at 5.30am and 6am in the morning and getting out on the water.

"There's just a boat house with no running water or electricity, and the boats are old and not in good shape.

"We were getting out there in January and February and it's pretty chilly. We're all doing degrees as well, so it's pretty intense. So we'd be doing a session then getting off to classes."

She added: "One of the team is a nurse so sometimes she'd come in to training straight from her placement."

Each day the team make their way down to a bleak training area to set out on a stretch of water between Dundee and Perth.

The landing site - a stretch of mud -  has earned the nickname 'The Swamp', for pretty much obvious reasons.  

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Ms Brinkhoff said: "It was just a funny thing we said about it, and it's stuck. It's pretty muddy down there and you have to practically wade out knee-deep to get into the boat sometimes.

"There's no pontoon at the bat house so you can be in up to your waist before you can get into the boat, which we have to sort of climb through to get inside.

"I don't think most rowers have to do things like that before they take to the water."

Despite - or maybe because of - the hardy nature of their training, the team has been a runaway success, finding itself out in front at a series of competitions.

This year they have won races in Glasgow and Aberdeen, and last year took individual and team relay medals at the Scottish Indoor Championships in Motherwell.

And another milestone in 2019 saw the team finish eighth out of 40 teams at the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Regatta, Europe's largest student regatta, at the National Water Sports Centre in Nottingham.

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The Boat Club also had a crack at setting the record for ‘Distance rowed by 12 females on a single indoor machine within the period of 24 hours’ , an attempt still waiting confirmation from Guinness.

Ms Brinkhoff put the team's growing success and continued improvement down to its strong spirit, which helps them pull together in the face of the most inclement conditions.

She said: "I suppose we've all got a bit of a screw loose. But we all enjoy it. There's a very good atmosphere in the club.

"We don't have proper coaching and it's a case of those with more experience giving advice to the 'newbies'. but it seems to be  working.

"We had a successful year and when we saw Henley coming round we though 'let's go for it'."

She added: "Rowing is one of those sports which is pretty painful. It's cold, you get blisters and it's like sprinting for eight minutes instead of ten seconds.

"Henley is a big occasion and it's the biggest we've ever done. But it's good to be able to compete at this level."