IN A weekend were English sporting venues are providing centre stage, Irish interests will be focussed on the relative backwaters of the Thames where five clubs are racing at the Women's Henley Regatta.

A typically soporific town, Henley on Thames has attracted another worldly entry of the sort that leaves the organisers of Saturday's Athlone event wondering what it takes to lure back crews from Dublin, Galway and Shandon.

Competition would probably be a start for a UCDL eight intent ion winning the Open final which last year was denied them by the British heavyweight crew, who are now preparing for Atlanta. The first race of this year's campaign may be the hardest UCDL and Thames have been inseparable lately and at the Ghent B International last month UCDL won by margins of 12 and 16 seconds, however, these are unlikely to be repeated tomorrow.

Thames have drafted in their fast lightweight four directly into the stern of their boat, trading weight advantage for technique. The changes have already seen improvement with a win at Docklands a fortnight ago and a second place to last year's club winners, Imperial College.

By moving Vanessa Lawrenson in for Becky Quinn at stroke, UCDL captain Ooonagh Clarke hopes to add some "do or die" to the boat in response.

"This is the first time Vanessa has been at stroke this year - it's not just her experience we wanted, it's the aggression - no one is going to get past her. Two boat racing is a different ball game to what we have been racing up until now and, when it's just you and the other boat beside you, it's very hard to settle and respond to their burns.

"It's important to get an early lead against a heavyweight crew and we are doing some very good starts in training, we're clearing our puddles at 41 and, because we have done a lot of weights since Ghent, there's that much more horsepower in the boat," said Clarke.

Lawrenson and number five, Debbie Stack, will also race in the open double scull on Sunday, having gone through to the second round on a bye. With their height still only just out of it's wrappers, Trinity women are concentrating on the fours' events with two boats entered, one as dub and the other as college. Sally Moorhead adds extra power to the College four, the faster of the two, and on the semi final form of Trinity's weaker entry last year is a boat which has the potential to go all the way provided they overcome second round opponents and winners at Reading last week, Oxford Brookes.

The Club four of Heather Boyle, Nessa Foley, Jane Millar and Susan Collins have an easier start against an under performing Welsh national boat racing as Llandaff. Galway women are drawn against a strong Marlow four which beat UCDL, albeit without Lawrenson and Stack at Ghent. Amy Lawless and Elaine Mannion, both senior and junior champions in the pairs last year, provide the backbone of a crew with average age of under 20.

Shandon's junior women, who under the tutelage of Michael O'Callaghan have broken into the domestic senior scene, are entered in the schools' fours and eights with an early test against winners of the London Head of the River, Kingston. All the Irish fours have been going well - in training, but as Trinity's - Ruth Doyle points out, without regatta time trials or seedings the standard of competition is difficult to judge.

In the same boat, so to speak, are Neptune who last year finished runners up to Imperial in the club eights and who are now painting themselves as underdogs. Their coach Eunan Dolan only has to look back to a disastrous race at the Metro regatta three weeks ago where they finished third comfortably.

"We have changed the line up because it went no where at Blessington. Our Dutch girl, Lonneke Bolland, is now stroking, we've rigged the boat bow side and it seems to be going better. She puts a bit of length and strength into the stroke which is what I'm, looking for at the moment.

Nevertheless, Dolan is still downbeat enough to tip the Dockland's winners, Thames A and Imperial in the eight, and forecasts a short regatta for the double of Patrica Moran and Katherine Wall. The only light on the horizon is Neptune's new found croquet talent in Anna Louise Muldoon, an event Athlone Regatta committee might yet pick up on.