The regatta season has now officially begun, with many clubs resting and training over Easter the crews are ready to start the hectic season of regattas coming up with this coming weekend being the first of the big races for juniors.
Surbiton High School Boat Club
Surbiton’s WJ16 girls squad has been strong over the past season with some very impressive results. Back in Autumn they won the W.J16.4- in addition to W.J16.8 + which has set them up for the year as strong competitors and have been ahead of Henley in some events. Also at the more recent Junior Sculling Head they placed a very strong 3rd,which was above many other top crews in the category. These girls will have a very strong chance this weekend and should be up in the top part of the competition within the category.
Marlow Rowing Club
The past year has been extremely promising for the girls squad at Marlow with a set of very good results. Right back at the beginning of the head season the girls demonstrated their strengths with a win at Hampton Head and 2nd pace at Henley Sculls. They successfully rounded up the end of the head season with a very respectable 4th at Junior Sculling Head and 1st at School’s Head of the River. Marlow will definitely be a crew to watch out for on Saturday as they have been a tough crew to comet against all year round.
Walton Rowing Club
Walton have been fairly quiet over the past season in terms of results, however they place 5th at School’s Head of the River. This proved that these girls were definitely part of the main competition, but with the lack of results it will be interesting to see where they place this weekend as they may be a dark horse within the mix of strong competitors.
Lady Eleanor Holles Boat Club
As ever the girls squad at LEH have attended many races over the past year with some respectable results. These most recently include 7th, 14th and 25th at Junior Sculling Head and 11th at School’s Head of the River. although these results aren’t right in the main bulk of competition they are still promising to see how they will perform in a regatta, as well as showing they have a large number within the squad so competition between the girls should be boosting the boat speed. I think they will have a good race this weekend, and will be pushed by the competition surrounding them.
South African Schools Rowing Union
We know very little about this team expect from they are a group of South African Teams and are linked to the national squad. Therefore based on this we should see some very impressive results form the girls and it will be a good experience for them to race the British Crews.
Hinksey Sculling School
This girls squad have done a fair amount of racing this year at both national and local levels. They placed an impressive 4th at School’s Head of the River which was a really impressive result when against such tough competition. From looking at results in doubles and quad at local events I think that these girls could have good potential this weekend but it will be down to the training they have done in the past few weeks and how they respond to other crews when they are side by side racing.
St Paul’s Girls School Boat Club
Over the course of the year there have been few top results form this squad as they only placed 22nd at Junior sculling Head which removes them form the main teams of competition. However I think that it will be a good race for them and will enable them t set a bench mark for the upcoming regattas this season, and perhaps at National School’s Regatta we will see them in the top 10.
King’s School Worcester Boat Club
The girls at King’s have had an impressive year at local heads with crews coming 3rd and 6th at Wycliffe and having a double win the west Midlands Championships allowing them to go through to inter regional championships and winning silver. At a national scale however they haven’t produced quite such impressive results with 24th and 30th at Junior Sculling Head. However after an intense Easter training cap the girls should be set to go for the regatta season and produce some promising results.
Bedford Modern School
The girls at Bedford don’t seem to have raced much this year in this category and definitely not at a national scale, despite this though they placed 2nd at Nottingham Trent Head earlier in the season. This weekend will be an opportunity to see the rest of the competition and hopefully put in some good racing that will place them in the top section of this particular category.
Fulham Reach Boat Club
There seems to have been little racing form the Fulham J16 girls squad, however despite this the club seems to be producing strong results elsewhere particularly in the older categories. This is a promising outlook on the club as I would expect training to be strong throughout the club. These girls may be holding their cards and be a surprise to the crews looking to be fighting for the top spots on Saturday.
Putney High School Rowing Club
The Putney girls have had a strong season at local events performing well in their categories. They have competed at a few national scale events however haven’t produced many results. This weekend will hopefully bring them an opportunity to compare themselves to their opposing crews in the category for future events in the season.
Llandaff Rowing Club
The Welsh club have been producing results within their higher age groups due to strong links with Cardiff University. The girls will be able to have a strong race and get a flavor of the regatta season whilst it’s just starting of.
American School in London Boat Club
This squad in general has done very little competing this year, with no significant wins. In which case it will be an exciting event for the girls to compete in, whilst enabling them to experience racing against some of the top clubs and schools in the country.
Predictions:
1st – Marlow
2nd – Surbiton
3rd – SASRU
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