Head of the River Race 2023 – Fastest Overseas Crew Preview

The Head of the River Race has a long history of attracting international crews, the third running of the race was the first to have overseas representation when a crew from Kildare, Ireland were the third slowest finishers in 1928. Crews from continental Europe joined the race in 1931 and have been present in many races since. Foreign crews have even made it all the way to the front of the pack as the German National Team won back-to-back in the mid-90s and the Dutch also won in that era. This year’s entry does not appear to contain any national teams but it still wide and varied: 24 crews from seven countries will join the almost three hundred British crews racing on the Championship Course this Saturday.

Irish Crews

Britain’s closest international neighbours are no strangers to the Tideway. The Fastest Overseas Crew here twelve months ago was an Irish crew and they will want to replicate that success over the St. Patrick’s Day weekend. This year’s Irish contingent contains four clubs.

At the Erne Head of the River two weeks ago in Enniskillen, the comfortable winners were the crew from University College Dublin BC, who have dominated the Irish racing scene in recent years. Two crews from the Liffey-based outfit will race on the Tideway.

They will be joined by two crews from the winners of this event at the Head of the River twelve months ago: Cork BC. The men from the South of Ireland were beaten into second on the Erne but will be wanting to write the score on the water they did so well on last year.

NUI Galway rounded out the podium in Enniskillen but will be wanting to prove their mettle against a wider range of crews in London, and perhaps upset their countrymen. They too have brought a pair of crews this weekend.

The last of the Irish Contingent is a Masters crew from the Dublin-based club Neptune RC, who will be wanting to measure themselves against the best of the British Masters, though this boat may be a flag of convenience for the composite boat from across the island that will be racing at Vesta Vets Head the following day.

German Crews

Long the largest foreign contingent at this race, this year they can only tie the Irish with seven crews entered. English language information about many of these crews is limited but the entry is headlined by Muenchener Ruder-Club von1880 e.V., no strangers to the British rowing scene. A top fifty finish here twelve months ago plus a run to Friday in the Thames Challenge Cup at Henley this year, they have found an affinity for the Thames and have brought two crews across with them this time from Munich.

The other German club sending two boats is Akademische Ruderverbindung “Westfalen”, this is the student rowing club affiliated with the University of Munster, but they are not listed on the Provisional Draw as taking part in the University event.

Other entries include those from Bessel Ruder Club and Hellas-Titania Berlin Rudervereinigung whose relatively high position on the draw suggest some confidence from their entries secretary on their final position. Finally, the last German entry is Favorite Hammonia Hamburg Ruderclub from Hamburg who are starting towards the back, suggesting that this crew is less likely to succeed in the overall order of the head.

Swiss Crews

Not far from the German crews are the Swiss entries, both from the North of the country in the canton of Zurich. Seeclub Stäfa hail from the city of Zurich itself, while the boathouse of Ruderclub Schaffhausen is so far north you can see Germany from the landing stage. It is important to note that Seeclub Stäfa are not the Zurich-based rowing club that raced this event last year but are instead based a twenty-kilometre row away along their home lake the Zürichsee. Schaffhausen, the other club with representation are bringing two crews to the Tideway this weekend from their home on the Rhine. This demonstrates some depth in their squad to have eighteen athletes willing to make the trip but it remains to be seen how strong this line-up will be.

Dutch Crews

While their strong history of rowing and relative proximity to London would suggest that the Netherlands would have more entries but only two boats have made the trip across the water. The most intriguing of them is the crew from USR Triton. This is the student rowing club from Utrecht and have a strong history in the sport. Winner of the Dutch Varsity as recently as 2019, they are a crew with some talent, they finished not very far back from the fabled Neurus in the eight at the recent WinterWedstrijden.

Also coming across from the Netherlands is the Rotterdam-based Royal Maas Yauchtclub this is a relatively old masters crew and will be looking to contend more with their age group peers rather than the younger range of international crews for this particular trophy and will be racing again in the Master’s Head on this course the following day.

Spanish Crews

While some of the British crews racing on the Tideway will soon be off to Spain on their Easter training camps, two Seville based clubs are travelling to London for this Head of the River. Competing in the Open category is Club Remo Guadalquivir 86 with their neighbours on Canal de Alphonso, XIII Club Nautico Sevilla. Spain have found a great deal of success on the world stage in the growing Beach Sprints and Coastal arena of the sport. They will be wanting to show that they can do it on the flat water too. These clubs are well placed to do it after Andalusia recently dominated the Autonomous Community Championships in Spain.

Italian Crew

The only Italian entry in this year’s event, Canottieri Limite, are the oldest rowing club in Italy. This crew may be quite young, however, as many of the boats racing at the recent D’Inverno sul Po were in the limited age categories, either Junior or Cadet level racing. However, this crew is not entered in the junior category and its late placing in the provisional start order could suggest it is made up of older, less talented rowers than the young-guns stealing the limelight on their social media.

French Crew

The rowing club of an elite-graduate school in Paris, Aviron CentraleSupélec Paris, their men recently came second in the university division of the French long distance championships. They will be looking to give a strong representation of themselves in a way that similar institutions have struggled to historically. A start number deep in the two-hundreds suggests they may not be able to surpass previous markers, but they will do their best.

Belgian Crew

Rowing in the capital of Belgium, Union Nautique Bruxelles round out the list of overseas entries. It has been a producer of great talent as one of its former youth members will race in the Cambridge Blue Boat the other way down this course next weekend. They also have placed three members in the most recent Belgian Coupe squad. Their current senior men’s squad seem to have fewer recent accolades to speak of, especially in big boats, but their placing in this race may look to correct that.

Prediction

This trophy is exceptionally difficult to predict given that most of the crews have not only never raced each other, they also have no common opponents to aid comparisons, but based on domestic results and historic reputation I would expect the trophy to go to one of: University College Dublin (Ireland), Muenchener Ruder-Club von1880 (Germany) or most likely USR Triton (Netherlands).

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