After a two-year hiatus, Fours Head is back, and next Saturday the Championship Course will once again be beset with a deluge of boats of all standards – from junior to Olympic-level crews. The Open Championship Coxless Four will be hotly contested this year, with a number of world class boats hoping to emerge victorious, as well as some university crews that will be looking to mix in with the Olympians.
Leander Club
Leander have their top crew entered here – an all-star lineup made up of athletes from the Tokyo GB Men’s Eight and Four. The guys in this crew need no introduction for those at all familiar with the rowing circuit; all represented GB at senior level for a few years now, and all have multiple World and European Championship medals to their name (including Olympic bronze for Rudkin, Dawson, and Ford). By all accounts, the senior GB sweep team have returned to training swiftly after the post-Olympic period, so expect these guys to go out to dominate the rest of the field.
Leander have two other crews in the category, both of which will be looking to place highly in the field. The ‘I’ four which includes Harry Glenister are certainly a strong unit of Caversham senior team newcomers and hopefuls with a wealth of Henley wins and GB representation at junior, U23 and senior level. The ‘J’ four includes former Oxford University BC President and U23 World Champion Felix Drinkall, as well as fellow GB U23 rower James Vogel. While the ‘J’ crew likely won’t have the pace of the two other Leander boats in this field, they’ll certainly still be a formidable force, testament to Leander’s depth this year.
Oxford Brookes
Off the back of a stunning season that saw multiple BUCS and Henley wins, Brookes will be looking to hit the ground running with some well-established faces returning from Caversham to wear the Brookes colours. The ‘B’ crew staring ex-CUBC president Freddie Davidson are certainly the ones to watch here. Alongside Davidson, Antognelli memorably represented Monaco in the single scull at the Tokyo Olympics, while Aldridge, Jenkins and Davidson competed at World Cup III this year in fours as part of GB’s developmental team. Undoubtedly there are future Olympians here, and it will be interesting to see how close these guys can get to the top Leander crew. With the majority of the GB men’s senior team continuing for another Olympiad, and several young, talented oarsmen moving up into the senior team this year, the pressure will be on for seats from the get-go; this early clash may be an indicator of things to come.
Brookes have three more fours entered here, all of which have the potential to show some serious speed. The ‘C’ four includes Olympic spare Morgan Bolding and GB U23 Jack Prior.. This will be an undoubtedly strong unit, with Bolding looking to utilise his wealth of Tideway racing experience to deliver a dominant performance over the Championship Course. Brookes’ ‘E’ crew includes several undergraduates who showed astonishing prowess at BUCS this year, delivering some record-breaking performances and winning multiple events, bolstered by the experienced Jamie Copus, a GB Lightweight fresh off a Scullers Head overall win and a strong second place in the Lightweight Single at HOCR. The last Brookes crew is replete with yet more BUCS winners and young talent. As a pack, Brookes will be looking to get as many boats into the top five as possible; their tenacity and efficiency over long-distance races should pay dividends in the latter stages of the gruelling Tideway course.
Cambridge
Cambridge have their top four entered in the coxed four category, but their strongest boat here certainly doesn’t lack in experience. Jamie Hunter enters as a former New Zealand Lightweight Olympian, having rowed to a fifth-place finish in the Lightweight Men’s Four at Rio, before joining the New Zealand heavyweights in 2017 and winning a bronze at the World Championships in the pair. It’s been a long hiatus for the Kiwi, but he can certainly fall back on a wealth of experience. He’s joined by two Boat Race 2021 winners, Seb Benzecry and Ollie Parish. These guys will want to put a good marker down, as Fours Head is usually a big part of the Boat Race calendar for Cambridge and Oxford – though the dark blues surprisingly won’t be making an appearance this year.
Molesey BC
Molesey have a couple of strong crews in this category, the first of which includes the talented Oli Knight and George Stewart, and the second including former Cambridge Blue Dave Bell and Oxford Brookes alumnus Cameron Spurling. These two crews are both made up of guys highly experienced on the Tideway – Molesey ‘F’ features St Paul’s School wunderkind Joe Middleton – and both crews will certainly be looking to take some scalps.
Imperial College
Imperial seem to have their top four entered here, with former Captain and GB U23 medallist Casper Woods and frequent Imperial strokeman Max Ridgwell. Imperial are, of course, at home on the Tideway, and it would be a mistake to underestimate the value of course knowledge here – particularly in coxless boats. Placement on the river is crucial here; being in the centre of the stream on the Tideway can be a massive boost to boat speed. Expect Imperial to race with savvy, utilising their home river to their advantage.
Prediction
I think it will be tighter than expected at the top between the Leander ‘D’ four (Rudkin) and the Brookes ‘B’ four (Antognelli), but ultimately I think the established Olympians will win out over the young guns, and Leander will take home the pennant. Behind them will also be tight between Leander ‘I’ (Glenister) and Brookes ‘C’ (Wincomb) and ‘E’ (Copus), but I think the Leander guys should just have the edge in terms of experience. So, for a top three, I’m predicting Leander ‘D’, Brookes ‘B’, and Leander ‘I’. Fours Head is anything but predictable, however, especially in coxless boats, so all is to play for.
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