On Saturday over 40 J18 singles will take to the Thames to race at the Henley Long Distance Sculls on the iconic Henley stretch. With such a large field of athletes competing this looks to be cracking race and a good warm up for Early IDs in a couple weeks. There have been a significant number of entries from Henley, Sir William Borlase and Claires Court.
Henley Rowing Club
On home water Henley are putting out 6 strong scullers looking to take the win. Leading off the field is Hutchins with a strong result at Wallingford LDS coming in 4th, he is definitely a favourite. Also coming from Henley is Ribbons, a very competitive sculler which means that there will be certainly some internal club bragging rights up for stake. All 6 Henley boys will be ones to watch and at the top end of the timing sheets.
Sir William Borlase
Another local to the Henley bowl is Sir William Borlase, an extremely well-established club with a rich history in the Fawley Challenge cup. With 4 scullers entered, Downes, who was 3 seat in last year’s Fawley quad, will be looking to get a strong result this weekend using his experience on this stretch of water.
Claires Court School Boat Club
With very little know about these boys it will certainly be interesting to see how they compare against the likes of Henley’s top juniors. As with Borlase, they have some returning members from their last Fawley campaign, three out of four are back and ready to try improve from their somewhat disappointing Wednesday finish. Certainly a squad to look out for as this season progresses. It seems unlikely that any of them will take the win but it would be crazy to rule anybody out of contention.
Honourable mentions also go to Charles of Leander, and Moule of Sudbury who gained a bronze medal in the J16 1x at the Junior Sculling regatta. I would not be surprised to see both these scullers right at the top end of the timing sheets.
Predications
I would put my money on Hutchins claiming the victory, swiftly followed by Wallace, and thirdly Moule. This is set to be a cracking race with this superb field of scullers.
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