For me, this weekend marks the first significant events of the new calendar year. Taking place upon the dusk of a cold January, some of the UK’s top eights will converge upon the Thames to race the Quintin Head. Not only will the junior category be a spectacle to behold but the senior events hold the sensuous promise of fantastic racing. Meanwhile, Dorney Lake will play host to the processional enthusiasts reply to Marlow Regatta; the Thames Valley Trial Head. Sculling is the name of the game and junior crews make up a large proportion of the entry demographic.
As the nights get shorter and the weights get heavier, the junior world does it’s usual whistle-stop tour of the top head races. Hampton, Henley and a murky Peterborough are some of the highlights- all three events were cancelled last year so optimism will be a key emotion to drive us through February.
March is where it all kicks off. The head season takes it’s long awaited bow as the majority of the rowing speaking world converge upon London in two weeks of madness. The Women’s Head of the River takes the opening slot and we’re looking forward to seeing what the top squads have been doing over the winter. With barely enough time to recover, the two top junior events take place in the space of two days. The School’s Head of the River gives us our best indication yet of who the front-runners are for the summer while the Junior Sculling Head acts as a stage for the best scullers in the country to do battle.
Junior Rowing News will be covering all of the above events and more- we’re going to be competing, reporting and acting as your guide through the back-end of the head season. Our team will be working on the events and aiming to get accurate, insightful previews published in the run-up to all the major races.
Below is a schedule for the events we aim to cover between now and the end of March.
Quintin Head of the River- 31/1/2015
Thames Valley Trial Head- 1/2/2015
Peterborough Head of the Nene- 7/2/2015
Hampton Head- 7/2/2015
Henley Fours & Eights Head- 14/2/2015
Head of the Trent- 1/3/2015
Hammersmith Head- 1/3/2015
Women’s Eights Head of the River- 14/3/2015
School’s Head of the River- 16/3/2015
Junior Sculling Head- 17/3/2015
Kingston Head- 21/3/2015
If anyone has any additional events that they want us to take a look at, please drop us an email at juniorrowingnews@gmail.com or tweet us @JuniorRowing and we’ll see what we can do.
The previews for the Quintin Head and the Thames Valley Trial Head will all be online by tomorrow.
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