The Head of the Trent is on the longer end of head races in terms of distance, at 5700m, which make this a very useful run for crews heading down to this year’s major tideway races. WEHORR, HORR and SHORR are all spread over a long weekend this season; and only a fortnight away now. There are only two entries in WJ18 8+ this weekend, so it will make for an interesting match up.
Bedford Girls’ School
Bedford Girls’ School raced their eight last weekend in two divisions at Bedford Head, which will have been excellent prep for another weekend of racing. They were 6th and 7th in W.1.8+, behind several Cambridge college crews, so it is hard to gauge their speed against other juniors. Similarly, BGS raced at the Cambridge Head to Head Race (a race run over two legs of 2000m) which will be good preparation for the Scullery which, although raced in quads, is run in a similar format. However, they were the only junior eight at this event, so their relative speed to other crews is difficult to predict.
Yarm School
Yarm didn’t race an eight last year, but appeared to race a quad instead. The move back up to the eight is an encouraging sign of greater depth at the club. Yarm had two triallsits at February GB Trials this past weekend who performed well but of course, against some very stiff competition, with one athlete just outside the top 30 scullers. They won this category at Rutherford Head which is promising and now the next step will be to face up some of the other big names racing junior eights in a couple of weeks time.
Nottinghamshire County Rowing Association
This crew aren’t entered under junior, but I strongly suspect they are another crew to watch, as I believe this is their junior girls. NCRA raced at Brit Champs last summer and raced well to take the silver medal in junior eights. Recently at Hampton, they placed 4th in WJ18.8+, a fair 22 seconds behind the dominant Henley RC, but within touching distance of Lady Eleanor Holles and Marlow. However, at only close to 3000m, Hampton is a very short course, so these margins will only be increased when it comes to School’s Head. NCRA will be using this weekend as a key opportunity to gain some experience racing over a longer course to put them in the best position ahead of SHORR, as there is no doubt that they will be keen to close this gap as much as possible.
RockOver
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