With a lot of the formative races of this season being cancelled due to adverse weather conditions, it will no doubt have been frustrating for these junior crews as they try and build their strength together as a squad. Fours’ Head is the second big Tideway race following Pairs Head in late September, so hopefully despite the bad luck on the racing front thus far, they will have been using the season wisely to prepare. Over a distance of 6.8km, Fours Head takes place on the Championship Course from Mortlake to Putney. With so many strong crews entered, this is an exciting chance to see how competition is shaping up at this point in the season.
Lady Eleanor Holles Boat Club – Louw, Supple
Lady Eleanor Holles have had a strong start to the season. At Wallingford LDS, Supple took second place in the WJ18 double and the 5 crews which were entered for the WJ18 coxless quads also did well, with two taking 5th and 6th place and the rest filtering down from there. The club were also successful at Pairs’ Head, with Supple taking 1st place in the WJ18 championship doubles and another crew coming first in the WJ18 senior doubles. Last season, Supple raced in the WJ16 quad which took 3rd place in the B final at National Schools Regatta, another strong result. Though these are generally results from smaller boats, it seems that LEH have been making the most of racing so far, so it will be exciting to see how the two entries from the squad, which had a very strong season last year, do at the weekend.
Emanuel School Boat Club – Jeynes
This Emanuel School crew has just come away from a good season, with successes in both sculling and sweep events. At National Schools Regatta the girls took 4th place in the Non-Championship coxed four and preceded this with 5th place in the coxless quad at Wallingford Regatta, in addition to 2nd in the quad and first place in the four at Bedford Regatta. With these results in the bank from last season, it will be exciting to see how the girls have continued to improve their performance in these first months of the new season.
York City Rowing Club – Faint, Soma
One of the clubs which has had to travel further to race, York City RC nevertheless has some very strong entries. In 2018, Eliana Soma took 1st place in the WJ14 double sculls at British Rowing Junior Championships, a great achievement. At Chester LDS this year, she came second in the WJ16 double, suggesting a strong start to the season for this double. Meanwhile, Faint came 1st in the WJ18 intermediate double at Pairs’ Head this year, which is another fantastic result for the club. Both Faint and Soma were also part of the crew which came 2nd in the B final of the WJ16 coxless quad at National Schools Regatta 2019. With such strong results kickstarting the season, as well as some in the bank from past seasons, it looks like these York crews are in with a strong chance at placing well.
Wallingford Rowing Club – Robson
This crew performed well at Nat Schools last summer, placing 5th in the B final of the WJ16 4x category. After a whole summer and autumn of training, Robson’s crew has strong potential and it will be interesting to see how this young crew steps up to racing in the older category.
Sir William Perkins’s School Rowing Club – A/B
With a 2nd place finish in the summer at Brit Champs in the WJ18 4x, we can see this school boat club has valuable experience in this category. However, without any surnames to the entry we are unable to tell whether the crew will be the same or whether we can expect a fresh squad of medal winners. Either way, this crew could be one to watch.
Predictions:
1 – Lady Eleanor Holles BC
2 – York RC
3 – Wallingford RC
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