With the first weekend of November drawing nearer and the mornings getting darker, we are certainly in the midst of head season. With a few local events under clubs belts and new training programmes and crews setting in for the season, we are sure to see some strong and proficient performances over the 6,800m Championship course from the University Stone at Mortlake to the University Stone at Putney on the ebb tide.
This year’s draw holds very few of last years’ top placing clubs in this category; Tideway Scullers School, placing 4th last year, and Great Marlow School, placing 8th, are the only notable outfits from last season to re enter this year. Great Marlow, however, have been training hard and with a recent win at Reading Small Boats Head under their belt, it looks as though this crew could be strong contenders for the win on Saturday.
Bedford Modern, Hinksey Sculling School and Shrewsbury School are all entered this year, and all have the potential to place in the top five. Shrewsbury have been busy with crews racing at the Head of the Charles alongside a recent training camp in Dartmouth and they should be set for a successful weekend. Additionally Bedford Modern have been working away with continuous crew selection from times trials and race results in local heads over the first few months of the head season so they will be aiming for one of the top times of the day.
Tough competition could be brought to the category by crews such as Putney High School who are a consistently excellent group that tend to place well in competitions, as evidenced by some of their results last year. They took a win at Bedford Head earlier in the season, placing well against crews such as LEA. York City RC could also pull it out of the bag this weekend, with a win at Head of the Don and also at York Autumn Sculls to boost their pedigree. These wins will certainly give both crews the confidence needed to give a favourable performance this weekend.
Predictions:
1st Great Marlow
2nd Putney High School
3rd York City RC
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