After an eventful year full of ups and downs for all crews we are now looking ahead to one of the final races of the season, Henley Women’s Regatta. National Schools’ Regatta flew by with some impressive results and a chance for crews to place themselves against other top competing crews across the country, the girls will now have a chance again to prove themselves again and earn the prestigious titles and hopefully enjoy some June sunshine.
Sir William Perkin’s School (A)
The year has been promising for Sir William Perkin’s School, with a wealth of good results behind them. A 4th place finish at School’s Head of the River and a 6th place finish at Scullery placed them in the centre of the mix of crews looking to gain those top places at National Schools’ Regatta this year. The girls completed National Schools’ Regatta with a win in the B final securing them a small victory however from the girls perspective I feel that a placement in the A final was wanted more but they just missed out in the semi finals. Next weekend will be an interesting one for the girl’s and spectators as all will be able to see how they compare to other crews when everyone should be at their peak fitness and after a couple more weeks of training after NSR.
Henley RC
Successful would be the word to sum up Henley’s girls crews this year. With wins in every event they have entered over the past season they are definitely the crew to beat. NSR was no let down for them with a win in both the quad and the eight they girls came away extremely happy with their perfomances. The crew contains three GB trialists all of whom are already wearing Munich vests to go alongside last year’s experience from Coupe and Junior World’s these girls are undeniably powerful. Not only have they won multiple events this year but they have won them with some distance showing just how strong they are compared to their competitors. They will most certainly be looking and are almost guaranteed a win at HWR but Latymer and Marlow will certainly be putting up a good fight.
Tideway Scullers School
Despite finishing at School’s Head of the River in 5th just 6 seconds behind SWPS, Tideway Scullers have since gone strength to strength finishing 4th at NSR. This was a hugely promising result for the girls as they were beating crews such as Headington. This success will have certainly boosted the crews morality and so they should be aiming high for HWR as they could come as a shock to some of the other crews including Latymer and Marlow who only placed a few seconds lower than them in the final at NSR. Izzy Lack is in the crew next weekend which will certainly be giving strength to the boat as she has been competing recently in Munich alongside opposition from SWPS.
Latymer Upper School (A&B)
This year Latymer have gone strength to strength in their junior quads with both A and B crews competing at extremely high levels across the board. With a disappointing bronze at last years National Schools’ Regatta the girls certainly picked up their games this year and have been consistently been putting pressure on the Henley crew. With a victory win at School’s Head and also Wallingford Regatta they have definitely placed themselves in a good position to perform well at the weekend. This year’s National Schools’ Regatta saw their A crew place 2nd in the A final and the B crew also 2nd but in the B final. Despite not taking the win it has shown to all their maintained effort and strength throughout the year. From how we can see the competition now both Latymer crews will be giving extremely good performances over next weekend with the A crew most certainly battling it out with Henley in a final.
Headington School
Headington are great names in the rowing community but this past year they haven’t been giving the performances we might usually expect. Other clubs including Henley, Laymer and Marlow have been placing much higher and putting in far stronger performances on the water. National Schools’ Regatta was a disappointment for the girls with a second place finish to Henley in the eight and a 6th place finish in the quad it wasn’t what they’d hoped for. Perhaps this year’s set backs will have pushed them on, leading us to a promising performance next weekend at HWR but I feel this is unlikely given the rapid improvements of the Latymer crews and the pure strength of Henley.
Marlow
Marlow have been off the scene for a while but it has been promising to see this years crews producing competitive results with other high level crews. A 5th at Scullery and bronze at School’s Head of the River, it certainly set a scene of success for the crew. Despite not being a favourite to place in the top three, it was impressive to watch the girls cross the finish line ahead of the likes of Tideway and Headington in 3rd place at NSR. At HWR next week I think there is a strong feeling that Marlow will be certainly setting some pace and providing some competition within the top three places, they will be looking to claim a title but this will be a hot contest between Latymer and Henley as well.
Warrington and Henley are two crews which certainly need to be watched out for next weekend. They placed 4th and 5th in the B final at NSR which may not seem hugely impressive but both crews have been consistent all throughout the year and have been positioning them selves up there with some of the more renound crews. Northwich in particular finished ahead of SWPS at National Sculling Regatta, throwing them some promise for next weekend.
Prediction:
- Henley
- Latymer Upper School (A)
- Marlow
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