The eyes of the sculling world will turn to Chester this week, with the commencement of the Chester Long Distance Sculls at one of the oldest rowing clubs in Britain [Royal Chester Rowing Club]. The J18 2x category is made up of seven crews representing a total of four clubs, so we can expect a good and varied race.
Kings School Chester Rowing Club
With an impressive list of alumnae in both sides of rowing, from Olympic gold medalist Tom James on sweep to London 2012 lightweight silver medalist Christ Batley, one would suspect that Kings would be able to compete with the very best, especially given that this is there “home turf” so to speak. The three boats entered by KSCRC in this event will no doubt be heartend by the fact that they have an excellent pedigree overall at Chester, gaining mutiple top ten finishes in 2017 and 2018. It would hard not to see Kings doing well. Weather they can win is another question altogether.
York City Rowing Club
York City Rowing Club have become a staple of high class rowing in recent years, not just in the northern rowing circuit but across the UK. Yorks two crews have talent a plenty. Orksov for example, placed second at Durham Regatta and Tees Long Distance Sculls in J16 4x. With a decrease in crew members and an argubly finer line for error, the young rowers of York will be local favourites if anything else. We could yet see them top the podium in this event.
Nottingham and Union Rowing Club
Having once been a powerhouse of British university rowing in the 1990’s, it would be fair to say that Nottingshire Rowing in general had not achieved those heady heights in this century. However, the rise of Notts and Union Rowing Club has proved that the region is not as “down and out” as one might think. In 2018, the club broke their win record for the second year in a row with an impressive 107, from J12 all the way to Masters. They will hope that Burrows will be able to continue that sucess in this event, espically given a 2018 win in singles.
Prediction
Considering King’s School Chester’s “home turf” advantage and recent resurgence into national podium positions, it will be hard to see them not succeed in this event. However, I hope York and Nottingham Union will be able to challenge the home team, in what will be an unpredictable event.
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