From humble beginnings in 1955, Fours Head has grown into a premier head race on the London rowing circuit. Raced from Mortlake to Putney, a course of some 6.8km, the race provides a welcome opportunity for rowing schools from London and beyond to hone their racing skills against each other. With a packed field of rowers from 14 different clubs, and with many schools fielding multiple boats, it’s anyone’s race to win.
St Pauls School Boat Club
St Pauls School Boat Club is very much the strong local favorite in this event. After all, it was a St Pauls crew that set the record for this event in 2014 of 19:29.4. Not bad for schoolboys. Notwithstanding St Pauls outstanding depth of talent within their Senior Squad, a 3rd place finish at NSR 2021 and a defeat to Eton in the PE final shows that even the boys from Barnes are beatable. Now with Henley a distant memory, the grind must go on. Three Pauls crews are entered for this event. All three contain members of last seasons victorious J15’s who won both 1st and 2nd Eight’s at Marlow(Phillip Wolfsenburger Seb Harker and Paddy Barry) but had their season cruelly cut short by the pandemic and missed the chance to repeat at Nat Schools. With the big names of Pauls Fours past, De Graaf, Tarczy, and most recently Kwok and Middleton looming large, the pressure is on. A top-four finish at least for one or more of the St Pauls crews.
Eton College Boat Club
Eton College Boat Club also come into this race with much to prove. A Henley win, 1st, 2nd and 3rd 8+ wins at NSR are superb achievements, even by the boys in blue’s high standards. But the post-Henley holiday is over. Eton must continue to achieve if they have any hope of making this season as good as the last. A win for J18 4- at Reading Small Boats Head proved to be a good start, but Eton will know that form before a regatta can often have little bearing on the result. A member of the victorious 3rd 8+ crew at NSR and part of the crews that won two events at Reading, Samuel Iriving, heads up one crew as does his fellow 3rd 8+ winner Alex Van Steenis. A solid placing would not be beyond the realms of possibility for any one of these crews, and they would certainly be in the conversation to win the event.
Radley College Boat Club
If one were to give a prize for consistency in schoolboy rowing over the past couple of years, Radley College Boat Club would have to be in the conversation. Since the takeover of former Reading sculler and Olympian Sam Townsend in 2017, the club has gone from strength to strength. A win at the Head of the Charles, back-to-back Henley Saturdays, and medalling at various national regattas has cemented Radley as a firm competitor to the seemingly endless domination of Eton and St Pauls. Although covid and a heap of squad injuries caused their last PE campaign to end less than favorably (a loss to Shiplake on Wednesday, wins at Dee Autumn Head against arguably stronger opposition than their Eton counterparts will have provided a confidence boost to the Radley crews. Of the three Radley crews entered, the best chance of a solid finish comes for a crew containing Henry Jones, a member of the 1st 8+ that rowed in the PE this year. Thus far, Radley has come up against crews from lower-level clubs and schools in the main. To see them row against their main competition in this regatta and throughout this season will show who has the advantage at present.
Predictions:
Predictions: St Pauls and Eton will fight it out for medals with Radley, with Shrewsbury and KCS providing challenges. A dark horse could be Hinksey, who proved at Henley that they can win in sweep as well as sculling.
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