Blazers tell the tale at Henley Regatta

By Harriet Morris

HENLEY-ON-THAMES, England (Reuters) - The clouds may have been grey over Henley Royal Regatta, but the peacock colours of rowing blazers brought plenty of blinding brilliance to the banks of the River Thames on Friday.

The glittering jewel in the crown of the British summer social calendar for rowers around the world is a festival of striped blazers in every colour from conservative cream to lurid pink, along with hats and ties in wild states of disarray.

Blazers maketh the man.

Blazers in different colours mark out which club or country you might row or have rowed for. The decorative style of blazers also tell their own tales about the wearer's rowing success.

The number of stripes on the blazers of rowers from Oxford University's Oriel College, for example, indicate whether you rowed in the top crew or are a member of the rowing club's committee.

Many oarsmen also follow the less-than-savoury tradition of preserving the grime and stains accumulated during a rowing career as badges of honour.

"My blazer only gets sponged down occasionally," said 33-year-old Gabriel Wright, an Oriel College alumnus.

Frans Overkleeft from the Vidar club in the Netherlands said his club owned its blazers, which were passed on from generation to generation. The more tattered and stained the blazer, the more venerable it was.