As requested, here is my preview of the KRC Head of the river. A good shout actually as there are some good entries and it will be a good indication of speed before SHORR.
Jun 8+
Two main players here. Eton, who I spoke about in my SHORR CH8+ preview, [http://juniorrowing.wordpress.com/2014/03/18/schools-head-of-the-river-2014-championship-eights-preview/] are racing an VIII in Jun 8+ and IM3 8+. However, I am not sure if this is their first VIII as, generally speaking, Eton have chosen to enter their first crew into senior events. It looks as if their second VIII is entered into IM3 judging by the name given so results should tell us if this was Eton’s top crew. If it is, I can see them taking the win pretty comfortably. Behind them will be Radley [Bevan], who were 20 seconds behind Eton at the Head of the Trent. With Radley losing a lot of water-time due to the floods, it will be interesting to see whether they have made up speed. Reading Blue Coat School shouldn’t be far behind and I can see these guys pushing Radley and Eton. RBCS are entered into 1st VIII’s at SHORR and I fancy them to do well.
Jun 4X
I can only see one crew taking this. Windsor Boys, who regained the skills of the second White twin at the Scullery [Apologies, I cannot tell you two apart!], are stand-out favourites to take this. They’ve had a pretty rough season, having lost two of their star oarsmen from last year. They got back on track at the Scullery, coming home 9th and beating Star, who overtook them at the Head of the Trent. I can see Molesey taking second. With three quads entered, the depth is obviously there but they don’t seem to have clicked just yet. Their J17 quad came fourth at the Scullery but won a bronze medal at NSR last year so this wasn’t a fantastic result, bearing in mind the crew that won J164x at NSR [Sir William Borlase] raced in a different category. Windsor for the win.
WJun 4X
This is a fight between Surbiton High School and KGSBC [KIngston Grammar]. Surbiton didn’t race at the Scullery despite entering and that was a shame. They were WJ164x silver medallists at NSR last year behind that excellent Marlow quad and it would be good to see what they can do now. Kingston Grammar School finished 6th in WJ184x but were a long way behind the winners. However, a little analysis of their results from last year shows that they gained a lot of speed through the year. They were 36 seconds behind Latymer at the SHORR but recorded a time 4 seconds faster than Latymer in a heat at Henley Women’s Regatta in June in very similar conditions. Can they repeat this? We shall see! Surbiton for the win.
Good luck to all competitors!
This photo was taken from- http://www.blueflamingo.co.uk/site/blog/blog-detail.asp?id=20
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