Switching things up this coming Monday, we see a return to Eton Dorney lake, the famed home of the London 2012 Olympics. The aptly named ‘Junior Sculling Head’ will bring together 62 J15 coxed quads, all racing one after another over the two stints of 1800m, an exciting format that is unique to the Junior Sculling Head, making it literally a race like no other. Testing crews’ sprint endurance and self-discipline, not fooling for the usual regatta lake adrenaline boost, Monday’s race will bring a widespread ranking of the vast majority of junior crews. It will also act as the last race of the head season for most, meaning that the crews will want to prove how they have developed since September.
Kicking off the event, Claire’s Court School must have improved greatly to be setting off first, after a potentially demoralizing 16th place at Hampton Small Boats Head in December last year. Their quad came in 5th at the British Rowing Junior Championships in 2022, showing strong capability on a lake across a shorter distance, the only question is if they will be able to repeat this feat twice over, whilst also improving the necessary places to come away with the hopeful win.
However, My money this year is edging towards Wycliffe, who have already proved successful at Wycliffe Big Boats Head, beating competition that are also taking part in Monday’s race such as Wallingford, Marlow, The King’s School Worcester and Hereford Cathedral School. The fact that they beat second place by nearly a minute there also adds promise to the claim that they will do well at the event. The women’s side of the squad already has successful experience at the event, coming first in the women’s coxless quad (even if it was by 0.1 seconds) in 2022, clearly showing a strong coaching basis throughout the junior contingent.
Chasing them down, the Windsor Boy’s School will aim to take down the boats separating them from their usual first-off starting position, definitely confident after successes in the 8+ this season. Winners of last year’s event by 12 seconds, Windsor will be eager to repeat their previous success, though they may be disheartened by not setting off first. Even so, this could provide ammunition to overtake boats in front of them and get an even better time than if they had been set off alone at the front.
Guildford Rowing Club are coming back into the racing season at the right time, with last year’s J14 4th placers at the Junior Inter-Regional Regatta stepping up to the longer stretch the Junior Sculling Head brings with it. 2022’s silver medallists at this event, the crew of five will be aiming to do one better to fight in order to ultimately get the gold medal this time around.
Molesey Boat Club also came away from Hampton Head earlier this year with a well-deserved 2nd place, only a few seconds after Tiffin School Boat club, who are interestingly setting off just behind Molesey. Their J15 2x also came away with a bronze there, and a gold was awarded at the end of 2022 in the Hampton Small Boats Head. At Teddington Head in November, the crew also got silver in the Band 1 category, showing a consistent set of results that Molesey will want to uphold into more fierce competition this year.
With this being the second largest category of this year’s event, the Junior Sculling Head will undoubtedly put schools and clubs alike in their respective places ahead of the regatta season, which should act as a signpost for coaches and crew members to see where it is they can improve, and who are going to be their nemeses this summer. As long as the weather holds, we will see some excellent racing after a solid 6 months of training for these crews. As far as a prediction could go, I believe Wycliffe will put in a strong performance, but the move into the wider J15 racing community could prove problematic against unmet, possibly stronger crews. The Windsor Boys School will easily place in the top few results, as ever, thanks to a tried and tested coaching ‘formula’. But as always, crews could scratch on the day, experience a technical fault, or just be out paced by competitors. In the wonderful sport of rowing, no crew is 100% guaranteed to win and so the opportunity is always out there for smaller crews to get their names out there and the Junior Sculling Head could be an excellent place to see that.
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