Once again the PE crews from today have been halved, and we are left with another batch of 4 exciting races waiting for us once the Henley night festivities are complete (I am looking at you Blue Coat-you have earned it).
Teddies vs St Paul’s
St Edward’s capitalised on a KCS crew who did not know what had hit them to take the first PE race of the day. It was a similar story for St Paul’s as well, who made easy work of a young Scots AUS crew, hopefully we will see them come back even stronger next year. I do not see how Teddies, despite their performances these past two days, will have the better of St Paul’s tomorrow. With a 1:51 to the barrier compared to SPS’s 1:48, this timing marker is the only indication of their true speed, with both crews not going fully flat out past here.
Shrewsbury School vs Scotch College AUS
Surprisingly, Shrewsbury were much more talkative this race round. Cox Ollie Toms said ‘the race [versus Monmouth] could have been much harder for us and the lads were really pleased when we crossed the line. We will have to take tomorrow’s race as it comes, it has been one day at a time so far.’ They will face the early squarers Scotch College in the most anticipated PE race of the Friday. Scotch have been tight-lipped all week on their approach, the most we could get out of them is that they ‘know Shrewsbury are a good crew.’
St Joseph’s Prep USA vs Shiplake College
In one of the most exciting finish sprint finishes of the entire regatta so far, St Joseph’s Prep, USA, managed to row through Flatow-Oberschule GER coming through the Stewards’ Enclosure. The final verdict was 2 feet with a well-deserved round of applause from the entire press box as the crews drifted past us. The guys from St Joe’s were happy with the win, but were quick to stress that they feel that there’s more speed to be found for them and if they have a good race, they think they can square up to Shiplake. As the prospect of the weekend comes ever closer, they say ‘we’re excited to see how we compare to the top British schoolboy crews and if we can be in the realm of top level crews‘. Shiplake cox Jacob Kirby said ‘tomorrow we are planning for a quicker first 500m and also a more aggressive race overall. Today went pretty much how we expected [against Reading Blue Coat].‘
Radley vs Eton College
Red crew or blue crew? Although it was expected to see Eton beat Westminster, the race was by no means easy, and after this struggle Eton look to be dropping off the curve moving forward. Radley will have the will of the most vocal crowd at the regatta when they boat tomorrow, and also the advantage of an easier race today. Either way, based on past performances, both crews are not in their top form.
OarsomeBows and TidewaySweeper
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