We return to the iconic location that is the River Thames for Hammersmith Head 2023. A month on from Quintin Head and just under 3 weeks to go till the first one of the big three: Schools Head of the River 2023. Hammersmith Head will be a good marker for crews to test their speeds against other crews. The schoolboy crews will be racing hard and fast with finesse and power from Chiswick Bridge to Hammersmith Bridge on a slightly shorter course than that of Quintin (2 ¾ miles) which will see hopefully faster times.
Westminster College
Westminster lead the pack in the j18 school’s division and they’ll want to put down a fast time here. Having been in mixed 8’s at Quintin, it’s hard to say how fast their top 8 will actually be but they will have some speed with returners from last year’s boat carrying their experience and technical knowledge onto the newcomers.
King’s College School
Having narrowly lost to Eton at Quintin (coming 2nd in the division and 4th out of the J18 circle), King’s will be coming out guns blazing to try to overturn that and steal the win here. With what is a relatively new crew, it’ll be interesting to see how they fare on Sunday and how far they can continue to improve for Schools Head.
Shiplake College
Having missed out on competing at Quintin, instead opting for smaller races around and about, most notably perhaps was Wycliffe Big Head where they easily won the j18 category. Shiplake have always notoriously been fast at this point in the season and they’re expected to be fast on Sunday too (something they’ll carry on and build onto for the Head season). If the boat entered in this category is their first eight then I would expect them to win.
Other notable mentions
St Pauls, Radley, Eton and St Edwards have chosen to enter their top eights into (what is increasingly becoming common) the Open Champ 8+ category to test their speeds against crews who should be faster and will have more race experience than them. We can expect they will have some fast times. Latymer, Reading Blue Coat and Hampton will also be looking to assess their own speeds and how much they need to work in order to catch up to compete for the win at Schools Head.
Predictions
With the lack of what is typically known as the top of schoolboy rowing, it’s hard to predict who’ll win the School j18 category but if Shiplake have their top Eight in this category, my money would be on them followed by Kings and Westminster for second and third positions. All in all, it’s gonna be an entertaining race in preparation for 17th March!
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