Dorney Lake, home of rowing at the 2012 London Olympics, will once again play host to the Oarsport Junior Sculling Head in 2024. The competition will be raced over a total of 3.6km, separated into two separate 1.8km time trial pieces. This year, the J17 quadruple sculls has seen 26 entrants.
Shiplake College
The bees are typically known for being highly competitive within the junior sweep racing scene, however the quad they have entered for this event is composed of some of the top young scullers within the country. Shiplake pulled a competitive time at Quintin Head at the end of January, placing in fourth behind King’s College School, Eton, and Radley: at Wycliffe Big Head their eight placed third, although a minute behind Abingdon School in first. Despite the fact that these successes have both been in sweep, their recent impact at GB Trials suggests that they will be just as well versed with two blades.
Molesey Boat Club
A club that saw a lot of success last season within junior sculling in 2023, finishing ninth in the J16 and second in the J18 quads at this event last year. Additionally, Molesey’s J16 quad achieved second place at last year’s National Schools’ Regatta, competing against many of the other crews that are also entered into this event. More recently they placed second in the quads at Hampton Head, in both the J18 and J16 categories, suggesting an equal focus on sculling this year.
Trentham Boat Club
Trentham were relentlessly fast at this event last year, finishing second at J16 level and only a second behind Windsor Boys, who would go on to sweep all before them at the National Schools’ Regatta. If this is roughly the same crew, we can expect great things from them in 2024, and I would be really excited to see them appear at J18 level at some of the season’s pinnacle contests.
Windsor Boys School
Winners of the J16 quad at basically every event last season, this should be a tasty outfit from the boys in green and gold. Despite dominating at J15 level, Mark Wilkinson’s Windsorians typically get stronger with more time in the program so it will be great to see how this crew is faring and whether any of them have already been plucked to race at J18 level. After the remarkable feats of 2022 – where Windsor Boys ‘A’ and ‘B’ raced each other in the final of the Fawley Challenge Cup – could we see another monster season from this group of young athletes?
Notable Mentions
Two competitors in this category also raced recently at Wycliffe Big Head, where Great Marlow School won in the J18 quads ahead of the two crews from The King’s School, Worcester, who placed second and fourth, though whether this order will be repeated is hard to predict. Other competitors include Claires Court School, who placed second behind Tideway Scullers at Hammersmith Head and fifth at Hampton Head; and Wallingford Rowing Club, who regularly produce competitive crews at this level.
Prediction
Ultimately, it is difficult to predict who will win given the disrupted head season so far, however I think this could be a straight shoot-out between Windsor, Trentham and Molesey.
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