For the vast majority of crews racing at Chester Long Distance Sculls, this will be the first race of the 2021/2022 season. Racing over a challenging 5000m course on the River Dee, these coxless quads will need a very competent steersman to help their crew navigate the twists and turns of this river for a winning time. This junior men’s quad category features a relatively small field of entries this year with only four crews.
Northwich RC
Northwich are an incredibly strong crew with high hopes for this season, after producing a strong set of results with an all J17 crew last season. These include coming 9th at National Schools’ Regatta in the Championships Quad’s category as well as qualifying for Henley Royal Regatta in the Fawley Challenge Cup, losing a close race with Exeter on the first day of the regatta. This is an extremely capable crew with an experienced set of rowers looking to kick off their 2022 season how they wish to continue with a win at Chester Long Distance Sculls.
QPHS/Warrington
This composite crew from Queens Park High school and Warrington is certainly a dark-horse and a crew to watch out for. The crew composed of Quin Dunne, Charlie Ford, James Cox and Matt smith will be looking for an impressive result to kickstart their season as they head into winter training. Both these are relatively small programmes with few major results in recent years.
Kings School Chester
Based on the River Dee this crew will have rowed the course before, this is a huge home advantage. They raced in the Princess Elizabeth challenge cup at Henley Royal Regatta last year and it will be interesting to see if they have the same depth in sculling, as they do in sweeping. Coached by the vastly experienced Matthew Jump, regardless this crew will be a match for the highly capable Northwich crew.
St Edwards School
With very little known about this St Edwards crew nobody knows how they will do against all these top-quality crews. However, coming from such a successful and well know programme it would not surprise me to see this crew put on a good show and maybe shock us all.
Prediction
My prediction is that Northwich will take the win and closely followed by the composite crew. However, it is very early in the season I wouldn’t rule anybody out yet. Notable mentions to both Trentham and Kings School Chester J17 crews who will most likely be battling for the win in their category.
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