What a West Yorkshireman (or Woman) can expect at Henley Royal

Hundreds of proud Yorkshire folk will be decamping and travelling half the length of the country to experience a truly southern cultural event.

Henley Royal Regatta starts today with the days highlight being the first ever West Yorkshire derby in the Wyfold Challenge Cup, an event for coxless fours, when Bradford take on Leeds in the first round.

So what is the event all about and what exactly can the Leodian or Bradfordian expect from one of THE sporting events of the social calendar.

One can glimpse at the event through the paintings, literary references and Sunday newspaper supplement fashion section, but to truly experience it you have to see the event for yourself.

If you arrive by car, you’ll come off the M40 through chocolate box stone villages like Princes Risborough and Nettlebed only to confront a traffic jam. The wise will park for free on the Fair Mile Avenue while the rest will queue to park in £20 temporary carparks.

Those that chose the train glide through the Thames Valley through the perfect Edwardian stations of the branch line to the town. A moment’s walk from the station is the David Chipperfield designed museum of the river and rowing.

It’s not just about lumps of fibre glass that once held Olympic winning medallists. You can Visit Bradford’s rowing club to see that. The Museum also houses art, photography, clothing and sculpture inspired by the power of water and those that seek to spend time floating above it.

Artists shown include Chris Gollon, John Piper, Geoffrey Eastop, Elizabeth Frink and E. H. Shepard. Literature is also honoured from Jerome K Jerome to the classic Wind in the Willows.

Moving through the town, you’ll come to the bridge, flanked by two famous pubs both confusingly called the Angel (“The Angel on the Bridge and “The Little Angel”). It’s from here you first get a glipse of the 2,112m course, the longest straight line distance possible on this stretch of river.

As Old Man Thames winds its way down towards London, the man made wooden booms mark the course. The old Brakespeare brewery sits to the left. When I first came to Henley, you could smell the yeasty and bready fumes across the course – but the coppers have since been relocated to Wychford almost an hour north of here.

To the right there are the unmistakable blue and white striped boathouse tents looking like seaside deckchairs and housing the competitor’s craft.

The river is thronged with all manner of craft circulating the two miles to Teddington Lock and back – paddle steamers, canoes, gin palaces, rafts, canal boats and 1930s skiffs with crew attired in Black tie or Hawaiian fancy dress.

This is the last you’ll see of the river for the while, turning down past the historic Leander club, one of the bases of the GB squad. You can’t miss it – adorned in the pastel pink colours that the elite male athlete’s adorn in domestic competition.

Further on you reach the back of Stewards, which is meant to be a private areas for supporters of the regatta and their families. You can’t buy tickets (although the well connected do) and the waiting list is lengthy to join the select few.

Many within the enclosure bring picnics ne’re dreamed of by PG Wodehouse or Enid Blyton, delivered from the owner’s ‘Blower’ Bentley and stored in special lockers. Over the strains of a brass band, one can see the humour of the Henley debutants finding out that ladies must cover their knees and Gentlemen should wear jackets as they dash back to the nearest outfitters.

There are also gentlemen in their seventies still insisting that their school cap and sporting club blazer fits them some years after their school leaving. Fashion lovers will be able to spot the designers, but I sadly cannot.

Walk on and the enclosures are for people in a half way house – thinking they need to pay admission and dressing up for the event, but not realising most of the bank is free to watch from. Cross a little bridge and the course can be seen to your left a few feet away. On your right there are some of the most expensive properties in the country. You’ll also spot little huts marooned in the middle of the river were a single man or woman will frantically pull and number one or number two sign up every time a boat passes them.

Past Upper Thames Rowing Club you’ll find stalls, grass and a big open area full of picnickers and revellers. On a Saturday, the traditional day for royal visits, you’ll barely be able to find the path as you step over legs on rugs. Here you’ll find plenty of people in jeans and a t-shirt enjoying the spectacle for free. Some of them will actually be watching the rowing, unlike the Steward’s enclosure.

A barn converted into a bar on Remenham Farm leads on to the meadows at Fawley which used to contain a fun fayre and the site of the Saturday night fireworks. Nowadays it is awash with corporate entertainment leading to the start and Temple Island.

The Temple itself is a delightful folly, designed by James Wyatt in 1771 as a fishing lodge for Fawley Court, the Christopher Wren mansion on the Henley Reach. The walls are painted in what is thought to be the earliest surviving example of the Etruscan style in Great Britain.

Walk further and you might catch a glimpse of the wildlife normally associated with the Thames as you continue your walk down to Teddington lock.

Around 12:15pm there’ll be the sound of Yorkshire voices cheering for around 7 minutes, forcing the Steward’s members to pause and look up from their Pimms or Luncheon and wonder what big race they are missing. I can tell them, one of the greatest days in the rowing history of Leeds and Bradford has arrived as they hear the whompf of each stroke and the click of the rollocks as Leeds RC and Bradford ARC pass the stands neck and neck.