On the scale of things, I’m probably not as familiar with the fours as I am with the quads so I apologize if this preview is a little short. I’ll be running through a similar format to that of the quads though, with my pre-race favourites given a section. So…
Radley College
These guys have three returners from the NSR finalist eight from last year, including two junior international oarsmen in the form of Charles Elwes and Robbie Wendin. I fancy these guys to be top 5 material, especially following their solid start to this season including their win at Reading Small Boats Head in J18A 4+. Elwes finished 24th in the early ID trial last weekend so they’re looking good for a high finish.
St Pauls School
Made up of the 1st place and third place crews at Pairs Head in J18 2-, these boys are looking strong this year. They have three returners from their 4th place CH8+ in this boat joined by Arthur Doyle who finished 5th at trials last weekend. This looks to be their top boat and I’m tipping these guys for success this year. They have at least 5 returners from last year and these boys are the crew to watch at the moment in my opinion. I’m going to tip them outright for the win.
Gt Marlow School
This is the same crew that won a bronze in First Coxed Fours at NSR and so they are an established unit. They tried their hand at sculling last year too, finished 5th at the Scullery in J174x-. An outside bet, I think these boys will prove to be a headache for the established rowing schools, such as Abingdon and Hampton.
Honestly, from the entries, I can’t see Hampton or Abingdon doing that well. They appear to have entered several of their better athletes into other events so that may be why their entry looks fairly innocuous. Its hard to judge with no proper results from significant races to go off and so I’ll withhold judgement until then. It will be interesting to see what these guys can produce but I’m not writing anyone off just yet. However, I do think that St Pauls and Radley look the strongest at the moment.
Now for Junior Girls…
Headington
The dominant force in Junior Women’s rowing, this particular four will be no exception. With two of the crew who won CHG4- and CHG8+ at NSR, I’m sure these girls will be fast. Its quite remarkable that one school can be so totally dominant and, under Ryan Demaine, I’m sure they will continue to display professionalism. Not only did they win CHG8+ at NSR but they then went on to final at HRR in a quad, a totally different class of boat. A classy display of strength in depth and, with returners from last year, I think they’ll be strong again.
Bedford Girls School
A pretty classy line up, with Lottie Bruce and Courtney Osbourne Walker both involved. I actually presumed these girls would do a quad but they’ve obviously decided against it, having finished behind Latymer at Henley LDS. I’m looking forward to seeing how this boat gets on as the members produced some promising results at Hampton SBH. Will be good to see if they can challenge Headington.
Other shouts go to Lady E Holles, Sir William Borlase and Tideway Scullers.
So, there is my entire Fours Head preview. My apologies for a pretty poor preview for the Fours, I haven’t got much to go off at this time of the season as a lot of clubs train and race in smaller sculling boats.
Good luck to all competitors this weekend, I’ll be racing too although I won’t tell you in which event. That’s for you to work out! I’ll probably post a brief review on Sunday.
Race hard and I hope my predictions are accurate!
This photo was taken from: http://www.britishrowing.org/news/2010/november/5/fours-head-start-order
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