Durham Small Boats Head will probably be the first race of 2019 for many of these athletes, and at only 1800 meters, it should provide a taste of the regatta season to come, as very few head races are that short. However, it is a fairly technical 1800 meters, with the extremely narrow arches of Elvet Bridge located mid-course, in the middle of a sweeping bend, and the River Wear being fairly narrow anyway, so it should produce some interesting racing- with good steering possibly gaining you a few seconds. This year the J18 singles has produced a good number of entries- 13, from 5 different clubs and schools- so some close racing is to be expected, particularly on such a short course.
Chester le Street ARC
Chester le Street are a fairly major rowing club located North of Durham, but they have produced a major unit in the form of Joseph Adamson, who raced in both the Munich Regatta, and then the Junior World Championships in Racice with Laurence Joss, coming second in the C Final. He also picked up a 5th place in Champ Singles at the National Schools’ Regatta, and with a GB vest and numerous wins in the Northern Rowing LDS series to his name, he is definitely the favourite for the win. There are also two other entries, Slater and Roberts, and although it appears they haven’t done an enormous amount of racing so far this season, with their names rarely appearing in the LDS series, apart from Roberts winning J17 Doubles at Tyne LDS in October, and Slater being almost a minute behind Adamson at the same event.
Durham ARC
With Durham ARC being the hosting club, Morris has a slight home advantage, particularly as he will know this technical stretch very well. His results from so far this season have also been fairly impressive, being the fastest single of the day at Novembers Durham LDS, despite being entered into J17 Singles, beating several Men’s Open Singles from the nearby Durham University Boat Club. He clearly has some speed- and will be looking to challenge Adamson.
Tyne ARC
Tyne ARC is another, fairly small club in central Newcastle, and like many of these smaller northern clubs, they don’t often make the trip down to the larger events such as NSR in the south. Therefore, much of their racing is done during the winter season in the Northern Rowing LDS series, where both Hudson and Tyler have raced so far this season. Hudson picked up the Open Doubles win at Durham LDS, and the Singles at Berwick LDS, but came over a minute down on Chester’s Adamson at South Hylton LDS in November. I expect Tyler is his doubles partner as his name doesn’t really feature on results, but nevertheless- can either really compete against Adamson?
George Watsons College
The 5 J18 scullers from George Watsons will be making the trek all the way from central Edinburgh- and it appears they don’t make the trip frequently, as they have only raced a few times this season. However, their J18 8+, with Freeman at stroke, came second to Chester at Rutherford Head, and a J18 Quad made up of Peter Demyanov, Rory Mainland (who is actually a J16), and Harry Grant, came 2nd to Aberdeen Schools at the Scottish Schools’ Head. The final sculler, Marwick, also raced here in another quad, coming further down the results table. Although they do not appear to be extremely fast, one of them, Peter Demyanov, went to GB EID’s in his scull, so could potentially have some speed.
Queen Elizabeth High School BC
This school is another on the River Tyne, which frequently races in the LDS series, and they have two entries- Andersen and Wilkinson. Wilkinson raced in a winning J17 Coxless Four at Durham LDS, and Andersen in a single, coming a good 30 seconds behind Durham’s Morris. They also raced in a few other LDS events, but both being J17’s in a J18 event, they’ll be trying to prove themselves against the older scullers.
Predictions
I expect that, aside from any illness or injury, Chester’s Adamson will take a clear victory, given his Junior Worlds pedigree. However, I think below that the racing could be very interesting, with Durham’s Morris, and George Watson’s Demyanov battling it out for second.
MarginalGainz
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