Head season is now in full swing, with many exciting races happening over the last couple of weekends. Up next is Henley Long Distance Sculls, a race 3000 meters upstream along the famous Henley stretch. In the WJ16 4x- category there are 11 entries, with well-established clubs like Tideway Scullers School and Wallingford Rowing Club entered and other clubs looking to put a positive marker down for the season.
Wallingford RC – Warner
Wallingford RC is a club that has really put a stamp on junior women’s sculling in recent years across many categories. Taking home a 3rd place result at Wallingford Head a few weeks ago, after putting in a very strong performance against two Headington boats narrowly coming 0.9s behind second place. They will want to go one better and go for the win at Henley and cement themselves as strong competitors in this competitive category, setting themselves up for a good season.
Stratford Upon Avon BC – Richardson
Another crew to watch this weekend, is Stratford upon Avon BC, with a solid 4th just behind Wallingford at Wallingford Long Distance sculls, they will be hoping to overturn the crew from Wallingford, now that they no longer have home water advantage, one could argue that this is a more level playing field as this stretch is not familiar to either crew. I look forward to seeing how they have responded to the result at Wallingford and how they have adapted their training and preparation for this weekend.
Great Marlow School BC – Greening
The only school entered into this category, Great Marlow has not raced this season on the women’s side of their squad, so they are perhaps a wildcard thrown into the mix; they have not shown their speed yet and this has probably given them more time to work on their technicality and speed as a crew which is vital over this shorter distance head race and they will be a crew wanting to climb the rankings of clubs to beat in this category. But also last season they achieved a valiant 13th as NSR less than a second behind qualifying for the finals, they will want to start their season strong and carry that momentum through the winter and into the summer regatta season.
Predictions
However, there are crews coming from big clubs like Tideway Scullers and Henley RC who I do not want to count out. Henley RC is on their home stretch and they will know its nuances and areas of faster water. Tideway Scullers who are, as its name suggests, a sculling club that produces class and style time again in the Junior Women’s category proven by how their JW18 double came 4th at HOCR last weekend, so they are a club to watch at Henley this coming weekend. Overall however following their success so far this season, Wallingford RC looks to be after the top spot on Saturday.
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