With the darker mornings truly upon us and winter closing in, head season rumbles on. Squads up and down the country are more settled into their clubs for the season, and Fours Head provides the first real opportunity to show off newfound strength and depth for many in the Club category. With nineteen crews entered into Women’s Club Quads, it’s all to play for on the Tideway on Sunday.
Upper Thames Rowing Club
Champions in 2022, the last time this event was run, Upper Thames RC will be looking for a repeat of past success. With bags of experience in this boat, including 2016 World Champion and Tokyo Olympian Fiona Gammond, I have no doubt in predicting that this crew will likely be toward the top of the standings. Gammond is joined by former Reading University sculler, Lucy Ryan, and Beccy Norman – neither of whom are strangers to success on the club sculling scene. Completing the lineup is Hope Kannor, who featured in the UTRC Wargrave ‘A’ crew, and I look forward to seeing how this quad fares come the weekend
Thames Rowing Club
Not often the first to spring to mind at the mention of club sculling, Thames Rowing Club will be looking to make their mark on home water this weekend. Franny Curtis is a fresh face in this lineup, having joined TRC from Queen’s University Belfast, where she saw a multitude of sculling successes including BUCS medals, to add to HWR and National Schools wins with Headington School Oxford. Sophia Stiling and Maggie Mlynek are names seen throughout TRC lineups last season, and they’ll know the Championship Course like the backs of their hands, so I hope to see a skillful line and a quick time posted by this crew.
City of Oxford Rowing Club
This crew is an impressive composite of scullers, all drawn together at City of Oxford RC this season. Caitlin Lockey, still fresh from the World Beach Sprint Championships, joins more seasoned scullers Pippa Biggs and Hazel Wake – both of whom made it through multiple rounds of their respective events in the single at Henley Women’s Regatta last season. This is certainly a crew with sculling prowess, and steered by former Oxford Lightweight, Amanda Thomas, in the bow seat I’m excited to see what they can pull off on the day.
Tideway Scullers School
Another crew on their home stretch of water, Tideway Sculler’s School have put out a relatively young, yet still experienced quad for this event. Georgia Marshallsay spent her final junior year at TSS, and qualified for the Bea Langridge Trophy at Henley Women’s Regatta mere months ago, making it to the semi-final only to be knocked out by a strong Marlow RC crew. Similarly, Charlotte van der Wiele joins TSS from Globe RC, with whom she represented England in the single at the Home International Rowing Regatta in July. I hope to see this crew put their experience into action and challenge crews with many more years of practice.
Notable Mentions
This is certainly a strong field, with contenders for top spots also including Mortlake Anglian & Alpha, London Rowing Club, and Agecroft Rowing Club. Club categories provide the excitement of there being everything to play for, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Cantabrigian Rowing Club and Twickenham Rowing Club climbing the ranks either. None of these mentioned clubs are huge sculling hotspots, so I’m excited to see the racing unfold.
Predictions
My first prediction is that it will be tight for the top spot. My gut instinct is that we’ll see a near perfect repeat of 2022, with UTRC coming out on top and Thames in silver medal position, but I’d really like to see City of Oxford put themselves in the mix to unseat some of the big dogs here, especially those who may get a little too comfortable on familiar water. It’s all to play for, and it’ll certainly make for some exciting racing on Sunday.
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