For many of the school crews racing at Chester this weekend it will be their first race of the new season after the long summer break, with many choosing to focus on their sculling for the first weeks of their campaign, before moving back into the sweep boats before Fours Head. Chester Long Distance Sculls is raced over a difficult 5km course, with several sweeping bends and a bridge to navigate followed by an almost 180 degree turn in the last kilometre- so a good line in these coxless boats will be vital for a quick time. The Junior Quads are split into J17 4x- and J18 4x- categories, with a total of nine entries across the two, so I’ll give a quick run down of both.
J17 4x-
It is notoriously difficult to judge the speed of any crews this early in the season, with most having very few to no results to go on, and many racing in crew combinations and boats not raced at any other point during the year. However, the one entry from King’s School Chester looks like it could be fairly quick, going on a combination of their home advantage and knowledge of the course, and the fact that this quad is probably based on last season’s NSR B-Final winning J16 4+. The entry from Queen’s Park High School is also on home turf racing on the River Dee, as one of the few state-school boat clubs that regularly compete nationally. However, their crews are usually fairly mixed, so I’m not expecting anything special from these J17’s. Finally, St Edward’s Oxford have sent two J17 Quads all the way up to race, which as far as I can tell, are comprised of members of last seasons J16 8+, which did quite well at National School’s, winning the B-Final. However, it’s always hard to judge whether talent in a sweep boat will be able to translate to speed in a sculling boat. Despite that, I think that St Edward’s A (Abel) will take the win, probably followed by King’s School Chester.
J18 4X-
The J18 Quad category has five entries, with the first being from Northwich Rowing Club – a fairly small club based fairly close to Chester. However, they don’t have much of a reputation for medalling at competitive events, and with this crew being partly made up of their Champ 4x from last season that only managed a 17th at NSR, I don’t see them producing anything particularly special. The King’s School Chester have also entered a crew, but as usual it is virtually impossible to tell how fast they will be, other than the fact that their stroke man placed 24th at NSR in a J16 4x back in May. York City Rowing Club have also sent a quad to compete – but as with many small club across the country, it’s unlikely that they will be able to compete with the likes of St Edward’s or King’s Chester. Finally, St Edward’s have sent two quads, and I’m expecting their A crew, stroked by William de St Croixto easily take the overall J18 4x win, with him and some of the crew having placed 5th at NSR in their Champ 4- last season. After that I’m expecting either the Teddies B crew or the boat from King’s Chester to come second.
MarginalGainz
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