The number of entires in the Peabody Cup is much larger than last year, so there is sure to be lots of exciting racing. At Henley Women’s Regatta, we often see the major entries in eights swap into the quad, as they prepare for the imminent Henley Royal Regatta. In recent years, Headington have chosen to stick to the eight and have dominated this event. But with HSOBC entering their national school’s winning quad into senior quads this year, it will be interesting to see if this opens the door to other clubs in this event.
Lady Eleanor Holles
LEH started the year with some decent results in small boats, notably 3rd in both categories at Four’s Head and 4th at the Junior Sculling Head. They didn’t appear to race the eight much this season in the lead up to NSR, but produced a solid 3rd place finish at School’s Head. At National Schools, they narrowly lost out to Becket School in the last 500m, dropping them into 4th position after a bronze medal finish last year. They’ve chosen to race this crew in eights at HWR, with the exception of one sub for E. Witt who is racing the single. As the highest ranking crew besides the reduced HSOBC crew from the NSR final, it will be interesting to see if LEH can challenge for the win.
Headington A and B
Considering their consistent success at all the major junior events, it comes as no surprise that Headington have entered and subsequently won this category for the past 3 years. This year they have opted to enter their top quad into the senior quads event, so they have lost 3 girls from this eight. However, after many second place finishes to Henley’s B crew, Headington’s second eight came out on top at NSR. Both of these second eights made the A final in the process; an impressive achievement. For this reason, the changes to this crew will still be for strong athletes, so although it may be more of a challenge, I wouldn’t be surprised to see HSOBC take the win again this year. With regards to the B crew entered here, it appears to be mostly the remainder of their second eight, and they will have to see if with the reshuffling they can still keep ahead of Henley RC.
Henley RC
Henley’s second crew this year have been of an admirably high standard. Earlier in the season, their 5th place finish at WEHORR proved they could compete with even the top A crews. Unfortunately, a loss of momentum into regatta season saw Henley-somewhat unexpectedly- fall short at National Schools, coming second behind HSOBC. There is no doubt that they will want to overturn this result, especially on their home stretch of water. With Headington’s second eight weakened they should be able to keep ahead, but it may prove difficult racing Headington’s top mixed crew. Having said this, the tough knock-out nature of the event means it is still all to play for and there will definitely be some competitive racing.
St. Paul’s School (USA) and Buckingham B&N School (USA)
It is great to see crews coming over from the USA fairly regularly now to raise the already high standard of junior girls’ rowing here. There tends to be a wide variety of different American clubs entering year on year, and St. Paul’s School most recently entered this event in 2014, where they lost out in the final to HSOBC by only half a length. Given their entry again this year, I’d anticipate a high quality crew from St. Paul’s School. It is hard to know the standard of the Buckingham B&N School’s crew, but there is every possibility they are also of a high standard given the long trip to compete here.
Grange School/ King’s Chester, Monkton Combe, Sir William Perkin’s and Royal Chester
These crews did not feature at the National Schools Regatta and will likely be weaker than the larger clubs entered here. With some schools such as SWP prioritising a quad, I wouldn’t expect these crews to reach the final rounds of this event.
Prediction:
Semi Finals to be:
– Headington A
– LEH
– St. Paul’s School
– Henley RC
Headington A to win.
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