Yale University, whose alumni include every American president since 1989, offered scholarships to the pair after they had recorded an historic victory at Henley Regatta earlier this summer.

The pair must now decide whether or not to take up the offer which would also be dependent on passing an academic test. Neill (18) has just accepted a place at Reading University next summer, while Fox (16) is about to start life in Jack Hunt sixth form.

Neill (18) and Fox (16) were part of a quad which won the Fawley Challenge Cup at Henley. They are the first members of Peterborough City to win a race at Henley.

Included among their victims were a crew from Malvern Preparatory School in the United States. Malvern had swept all before them in the States, but found Neill, Fox, Jonny Walton (Leicester) and George Caines (Nottingham) too strong.

Neil said: "Malvern had been the top crew in the States all year so I guess we must have caught some-one's eye when we beat them.

"Nothing was said at Henley, but soon afterwards an e-mail was sent to our club and that was followed up by a phone call to my house from a coach at Yale.

"It's certainly an exciting opportunity and I will probably sit the Academic test in January and take it from there. From my own point of view a lot will depend on how my rowing develops in the meantime.

"While I am at Reading I will be training with the GB team at Caversham. I represented GB in the European Championships this year and I have trials coming up for the Youth Olympics which take place in Australia in January and I am hopeful of getting a place in the World Under 23 Championships next year.

"But Yale is certainly a tempting prospect. They have three boat houses all over the States which are among biggest in the world."

Neill won an excellent silver medal in the European Championships in Cork. He will be studying physical geography at Reading.

Fox, the reigning Evening Telegraph Junior Sportsman of the Year, has long been seen as an outstanding prospect.

He is a multiple champion at national youth and national schools level.

Fox also won his first GB cap this summer, but he has plenty of time to mull over the offer from Yale. He has only just taken his GCSE exams, but he is considering whether or not to visit Yale early in 2009.


FACTFILE . . . on Yale

• Yale is a private university located in New Haven, Conneticut.


• Yale was founded in 1701 and is the third oldest university in the United States.


• Yale-educated Presidents since the end of the Vietnam War include Gerald Ford, George HW Bush, Bill Clinton (right, top) and George W. Bush (right, bottom).


• Yale rowing crew is the oldest collegiate athletic team in America. The Yale Crew won the men's eight event at the Olympics in in 1924 and 1956, the last time a college crew won gold.


• The school mascot is 'Handsome Dan,' a bulldog, and the Yale fight song was written by Cole Porter while he was a student at the University.


• Yale students claim to have invented Frisbee, by tossing around empty pie tins from the Frisbie Pie Company.