photo creds to @a_blind_photographer
As the nights grow longer and smaller rivers start to freeze over, we all know winter is coming. With winter comes the Fuller’s Head of the River Fours. Following the best part of two weeks worth of flooding across the country, many of the crews racing may not have had any water time over the past fortnight. This means the often unpredictable event has just had another curveball thrown at it. Band 2 Junior Quads fields a massive 37 entries meaning that in total just under 50 junior men’s quads will be taking to the water. These kinds of numbers aren’t usually seen until Henley Qualifiers.
With Band 2 Quads, we will see crews racing who will highlight the depth of the top programmes as well as up and coming young crews and those looking to lay down a marker early on in the season.
Kingston Grammar School
KGS return to the Tideway following a relatively good Pairs head performance. Among their results was a 6th place in J16 Senior Doubles and 5th place in J18 Champ 2x. Kingston are usually found somewhere towards the top of non-championship Schools in sweep so it will be great to see how they fare picking up an extra blade.
Henley
Henley are back with another boom. After qualifying three quads for the Fawley back in summer, Henley have another trio racing this weekend. Two of those crews will be up in Band 1 however, their quad in Band 2 will be no slouchers. Henley earned themselves a seed for all three of their crews at HRR and they will be wanting to lay a marker early on to prove they can do it all over again.
Sir William Borlase’s
Compared to the glory days of Borlase Sculling between 2012 – 2015, things have been rather quiet from these lads. However, this season Borlase have picked up wins in IM 4x at Reading, and raced over the pond to 15th (with a clash) at HOCR. Now there’s a high chance that the crew racing Band 2 this weekend did not produce all these results but could the sculling squad this weekend be the start of a Borlase resurgence?
Tideway Scullers
TSS were the second club to have a trio of Fawley crews racing. On home water the Chiswick-based scullers will wake up feeling dangerous. Alongside their outstanding top end of scullers, TSS also won the J16 Quad at the British Junior Champs back in July and 4th in the J18 equivalent event.
Team Keane
Team Keane have two crews entered into this category. This up and coming club placed 2nd in the B Final of J16 Quads at the Junior Championships suggesting that these two entries will be slightly younger. That being said, if this club continues to progress at the rate they currently are, some of the more established players will be in for a shock this weekend.
Wallingford
Wallingford are another bunch of young guns ready to make a mark on the J18 scene. At last year’s major events, they were 5th at NSR in J16 Quads and come the British Championships they snuck a bronze medal. Despite their youth, Wallingford have the potential to feature in the top few crews in this category.
St. Paul’s
Joining this year’s bumper entry are St. Pauls school Boat Club, perhaps one of the most prominent names on the pages of websites and the lips of junior sports journalists over the last two years. Having obliterated any previous records on the Henley course in 2018, St. Pauls under the guidance of Bobby Thatcher catapulted themselves into the spotlight, and it’s under this pressure and scrutiny that any rower adorned in Pauls’ colours faces on the circuit today. At this year’s Wallingford LDS, two St. Pauls crews found themselves at the bottom of the pile when results went live, with A and B crews placing third and fourth respectively, a large margin behind the eventual winners, Radley. At last year’s Fuller’s Head, the St. Pauls coxed four won their event but were the only St. Pauls crew on the Tideway, so hardly a shock. This does demonstrate, however, that the club – as we know – are well drilled in the rigours of the Tideway, experience and knowledge, which can sometimes outweigh seasonal racing claims.
Radley
Radley, the winners at Wallingford have a somewhat stronger history in this category having finished at Wallingford in a blistering time of 15:38, leaving St. Pauls trailing almost 2 minutes behind them. Radley also has considerable experience on the Tideway, with their Champ four clocking in 3rd place last year at Four’s Head, but much like St. Pauls, had no quad entered. Radley also failed to present a quad for competition on any of the relevant categories at National Schools’ 2019, signalling a wider shift in the junior community towards sculling in a world where the eights and fours of the circuit become ever more competitive.
Dulwich
A boat club with a manic junior history, Dulwich, have subtly demonstrated their unique aptitude for the quad in recent seasons. In the J16 quads at NSR’19, the crew made the B final before being eventually being beaten by competition, who crucially won’t be competing in this category on the Tideway in a few days time. Much like their competition, Dulwich were a no-show at Fours Head in 2018, adding the mystery of this event.
Fulham Reach
Fulham Reach as the newest boat club on the Thames will be on home water this weekend. A strong finish position in a tight category at The Scullery allowed their on-water determination to shine through, proving that perhaps this is the training ground for future blues. In recent times, FRBC has enjoyed a variety of successes up and down the country, meaning it’s not unlikely that the golden shield will be an emblem to watch in the rowing revolution sweeping in sculling boats.
Westminster
Westminster may have something to prove in the closing stages of 2019, after a somewhat disappointing performance in this event last year that saw them trail behind the pack in 15th place. As a club, Westminster have a strong history and throughout recent years have fluctuated in and out of the ‘big boy’s club’. At Wallingford LDS there was a strong show of force across the board with a win in the J18 doubles and a silver medal position for the J18 single. These results come in the wake of a slow finish to last season at Henley where the School eight was unable to progress beyond day two, having been rowed over by Eton College.
Conclusions and Predictions:
As was mentioned earlier, this year’s band two entries are unusually high, showcasing not only the talent in the current ranks, but also a wider shift towards sculling at the top end of the sport. As a result, this race will be a tough one to predict, however the pedigree and history of some crews stand out above the rest:
- Wallingford
- Henley
- Radley
Good Luck!
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