Head of the River 2023 – Junior Eights Preview

Nearing its 100^th anniversary, the Head of the River Race is the pinnacle of the head racing calendar, with clubs from across the UK and beyond looking to stamp their mark on the Championship course before moving to calmer waters for the summer. In 2023 HORR is being held the day after the School’s Head of the River, meaning that any junior crews taking part will likely be racing the gruelling 6.8km course twice in as many days. As such, the race is likely to favour high-quality outfits, with both the skill and stamina to race consecutively in what is undoubtedly set to be exciting racing.

Radley College Boat Club

Radley are fielding 3 crews into the Head, although a lack of crew names precludes a direct identification of where they rank within the Club. Assuming their 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd eights, their 1^st eight’s strong ranking at Quintin Head, recording a time of 11:12:60 and finishing behind only St Paul’s, suggests a strong performance at HORR is likely, rivalling the likes of University of Bristol and the 2^nd eights of Thames and UL. Their 2^nd eight, finishing closely behind matched Westminster eights at Quintin, and 3^rd eight, finishing next to a KCS eight, are also likely to put in strong performances, and it will be interesting to see if these results will be overturned at SHORR the day before.

Westminster School Boat Club

Westminster is fielding two eights at HORR, perhaps a 1^st and 2^nd eight. With two matched eights finishing within 3 seconds of each other at Quintin Head, it will be difficult to predict how these crews fare at HORR without paying attention to the SHORR results from the day before. However, given Radley’s strength in reaching the final of the PE at Henley last year, it may be difficult for Westminster to overturn Radley’s 1^steight in either event.

Scottish Argonauts

Flying under the radar thus far, Scottish Rowing’s junior development programme Argonauts are no stranger to success in Tideway heads in the recent past, with the women’s crew recently placing 44^th at WeHORR. Although difficult to compare them to the other schools in the programme, it will be interesting to see if some friendly intra-club competition will motivate their men’s 1^st eight to success at HORR.

Winchester College Boat Club

Another crew which has not raced at Quintin or any other Tideway heads this season, Winchester will be looking to punch above their weight at HORR, having entered in the School 1^st 8+ rather than Champ 8+ category at SHORR. Although the latter will certainly be the priority, it will be interesting to see if their recovery strategy will allow them to be in the mix with Radley and Westminster at HORR.

Predictions

Quite simply, barring any major incident, these four clubs will finish in the same order that they do at the School’s Head the day before. Hence, by proxy, this is likely to favour Radley, with Westminster, Scottish Argonauts, and Winchester following closely behind in that order. However, overnight recovery could have as much of an effect on the outcome as the race itself, leaving the potential for disruption to this order.

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