This year’s Kingston Cup shall be contested by 18 crews. J16 is often a year that sees a lot of development and change in athletes and a solid season often sets a person up nicely for GB trials the following year. With that being said, this year’s J16 Quads is hotting up to be quite the showdown. Not one crew has taken commmand of the season thus the Kingston Cup is all to play for.
Globe RC
Having recently won the Junior Sculling Regatta, beating Tideway Scullers by three seconds to boot, Globe have the momentum going into this event. A crew who have not raced as often as others, they certainly know how to perform when the situation demands it. Having a sculler like Dom Sullivan on-board, brother of Coupe winner Callum, certainly adds to this crew. Winner of the ‘D’ final at the recent GB Trials Regatta, Dom proves this Globe crew is more than capable of taking victory this weekend. Given the close proximity of results all throughout the season so far, expect Globe to have a fight on their hands that goes right down to the wire.
Tideway Scullers School
Winners of the Scullery, TSS will look to bounce back from their defeat at the hands of Globe a few weekends ago. There is nothing more dangerous than a crew who seeking vengeance after being narrowly beaten. As a crew who did not enter the Schools’ Head of the River, this is Scullers’ first opportunity to stake a claim at one of the biggest regatta races. The boys from Chiswick are more than capable of making off with this trophy but they need to draw on victory at the Scullery and use recent results as momentum if they are to regain the top spot in J16 sculling.
Marlow RC
The regatta season started well for Marlow, just edging Tideway Scullers at Wallingford. However, they followed this result with a third at the Sculling Regatta – five seconds behind winners, Globe. Following on from a successful head racing reason, Marlow are within touching distance of victory in this event. Second place at both The Scullery and SHORR emphasises the consistently quick times this crew has been producing. That being said, they will have been left licking their wounds after the Sculling Regatta and consequently will have focused their training on reversing that result.
City of Bristol RC
When asked about the bastions of sculling City of Bristol do not often come to mind. This crew have changed this opinion throughout the season. As the winners of the Schools’ Head of the River and having backed this up with a third place at The Scullery, this quartet finished their winter season on a high note. Despite being winenrs of their heat at Wallingford, they were roughly ten seconds behind Marlow, showing they have some work to do in order to move themselves back into contention for gold this weekend. On the other hand it is more than possible that this quad can come away with the win, given the tightness of racing throughout the whole of the season.
Henley RC
A crew who are yet to have their breakthrough race, Henley have every right to contest for a medal this weekend. The crew raced to fourth at the Hampton Head and fifth at The Scullery, giving a solid account of themselves. This quad also showed promise at Wallingford, finishing six seconds off TSS in their heat. This result is a large deficit to make up, but greater mountains have been climbed. It is not out of the question for Henley to feature in the medals.
We’re still waiitng for the likes of The Windsor Boys’ School to lay down a strong performance this season. The same can also be said for Star Club. Given past results, these crews will not be incontention for medals, but they could find themselves at the lower end of the ‘A’ final.
My prediction… I can’t call the result between Globe, Marlow Scullers and City of Bristol. One of these crews will be dissapointed and will be without a medal. If forced to choose, my gut says Globe will sneak the win.
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