The club's seeded Wyfold Cup four also progressed, but 2006 school eights finalists King's Chester crashed out in their opening heat.

Grosvenor's eight produced a fantastic comeback to put out Newport Aquatic by a canvas in their Thames Cup opener, pushing through from nearly a length down.

And the crew toughed out another tight result to make the quarter-finals, holding off Tees to set-up a last eight clash with Kingston or Belgian seeds Gent.

They trailed by half a length after a minute's racing to the Americans in their opener and were hanging on at the half-mile mark as Newport nearly got clear water.

But with Ben Dickinson at stroke consistently under-rating the US boat, they began to push back and a move at the mile post saw them come level.

Newport made a last push for victory and got two feet back in front, but when the Dee crew lifted it for the line, the US boat had nothing left and Grosvenor got their bows up to win by just eight feet.

In round two, they had a canvas lead at the quarter-mile mark, which they gradually inched out to a length by halfway.

Tees tried to push back and reduced the deficit to half a length hitting the enclosures, but Grosvenor never let them get any closer, winning by that margin in six minutes 54 seconds.

For Wales cap Iwan Jones at three, it is proving to be a busy regatta, as he also qualified for the Diamond Singles in the time-trial qualifiers, and was set to race Henley's Will Hoodless to set up a quarter-final clash with either Ireland star Sean Jacob or America's Mike Sivigny.

Grosvenor made the semi-final of the Wyfold Cup last year and seeded this time, their four always had too much firepower for Twickenham in their first round.

Victory for Martin Chandler, Paul Taylor, Matt Neames and Tim Betteridge set up a second-round clash with Irish raiders Commercial for the right to race Molesey or Gloucester in the quarter-final.

But King's suffered Henley heartache when they lost out to Oxford school Radley by two lengths in their opening Princess Elizabeth Cup race in a winning time of seven minutes dead.

Meanwhile, Tom James heads for the Alps this week with high hopes of following Olympic legends Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent to Olympic gold medal glory.

The Coedpoeth 24-year-old heads for three weeks' altitude training in Austria after being named in the bow seat of the GB flagship four, while fellow King's product Olivia Whitlam will race the women's pair after securing a slot at the last-chance Olympic qualifying regatta.

"It's brilliant to finally get the official announcement that I'm in the team," said Athens Olympian James, who joins 2004 Olympic champion Steve Williams, and two-time world champions Peter Reed and Andy Hodge on board.

"Now we can go ahead and just focus on getting that boat ready for Beijing and the Olympic final, starting with our high intensity camp up in the Austrian Alps.

"It's pretty hard up in Silvretta surrounded by the mountains and you notice the thinner air when you first get there, feeling quite breathless just walking, let alone rowing. But I've been there a few times now and I'm well prepared with what to expect"

Surrounded by snow-topped peaks and glaciers, Beijing-bound James is rowing in the shadow of giants quite literally, with GB in the Redgrave and Pinsent era going unbeaten in fours in Olympic and world championship regattas from 1997 to 2006, until a shock fourth place last year in Munich, where James landed bronze with Lucy in the GB 8.

"It's inspiring to think you've got that history behind you, giving you that extra push in confidence," added the four-time Cambridge Boat Race Blue, who forced his way on board the four after Spring's trials.

"GB has a fantastic pedigree and tradition in the event, and it's what people always ask you about. But at the end of the day it's up to us, it's our boat."

Whitlam, 22, races the pair with Louisa Reeve. As the last qualifiers for Beijing, there will be no pressure on them to medal, but if they can continue to improve on their training camp in Breisach on the German/French border as they have done since coming together just six weeks ago, they may well spring a surprise.