Under excellent conditions, the British head season was capped off with the oldest race on its calendar. More than 3000 athletes raced over the famous four-and-a-quarter miles, ranging from beginners to Olympians, with everything in between.
At the front of that field, Leander Club reigned supreme once again as they claimed their 15th overall headship and second in a row. Their 12.1-second margin over Oxford Brookes is more than double their victory from 12 months ago, and with all three eights placing in the top ten, there is a good feeling in the pink palace.
On the club scene, the unstoppable rise of Thames Rowing Club continued as they broke into the top three for just the second time since 1961, with their second crew also finishing in the top ten. This won them both the club pennant and the Vernon Trophy, both by 12 seconds over their local rivals from London RC – who finished sixth and eighth with their ‘A’ and ‘B’ boats separated by just 11 seconds.
While the Vernon trophy may have gone as predicted, the other two major club prizes did not. In the Page trophy for upriver Thames clubs, Marlow upset the favoured Molesey crew while JRN’s pick for the Jackson trophy – Royal Chester RC – finished third in the rankings behind Tyne Amateur as well as Agecroft, who claimed the trophy for the first time since 2018, as the traditional Manchester-based programme returned to the top of the provincial rankings.
On the university scene, the Cambridge University provisional Goldie crew finished in eighth overall, claiming the Burnard Churcher Trophy as the top university crew, leading the University of London and the Oxford Brookes ‘C’ crew, their only entry carrying the university designation. There was more on show for UL as they won the newly minted Thames Valley Trophy for Temple-eligible crews based on the Thames.
The Scott Skirving trophy, open to programmes not based on the river Thames, will likely be contested between the high-performance academies in the north of the country, and its inaugural edition was incredibly tight. Edinburgh University claimed the victory by just 0.2 seconds over Newcastle University, with Durham in third, a further 7.2 seconds back.
In the overseas pennant, Commercial Rowing Club claimed the victory for a second successive year, returning glory to Dublin as they finished 18th overall. However, they were not the only ones bringing prizes back across the Irish Sea as their neighbours Neptune RC won the medium club pennant.
In the beginner eights, Exeter University won out, setting up an exciting BUCS Regatta showdown as the top two crews from BUCS Head were not racing this weekend.
A closer date on the calendar is Schools’ Head of the River on Tuesday, which reduced the entry of junior crews at the head. However, we were still treated to a great suite of racing as Westminster School won the junior pennant by just 1.6 seconds over Abingdon School, while Hinksey Sculling School won the junior club pennant, finishing fourth in the junior ranks.
Among masters rowing, the highlight of the head season came on Sunday, but the masters at Upper Thames had a great Saturday as they posted both of the top times among masters rowers. There was a 76th place finish for the crew including James Cracknell, Drew Ginn and Richard Schmidt, while the Upper Thames’ masters B crew also claimed their pennant as the only other masters crew in the top 100.
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