18 years’ worth of talent have produced blisteringly fast times at the Oarsport Junior Sculling Head, with this year being no exception to the talent on display. 572 crews across 14 events race 1800m to the top of the course and then race the remaining 1800m to claim the top spot. This year, in the open Junior 18 quads, the number of entered crews increased by 30%, hitting an all-time high of 40. I think this edition is particularly exciting as most clubs have lost their top athletes from previous years, and many “unknown” clubs in the junior quadruple scull game have pulled together athletes from different clubs to set a new standard for this event. Schools’ Head of the River Race takes place the day before the Junior Sculling Head, giving crews who aren’t doubling up an opportunity to capitalise on fatigued legs and upset the scoreboard of previous dominance. This coming week will be the first time in the season that crews can prove themselves and show what they’re capable of before regatta season kicks into shape.
Wycliffe College Boat Club
A name that has sprung to mind in junior women’s sculling, Wycliffe College have yet to prove themselves on the men’s side of this event. After so much success, you’d be silly to say that this programme is missing something, though. Their Henley Royal Regatta-winning crew of Lily Martin, Violet Holbrow-Brooksbank, Mia Lows and Eloise Etherington sculled to perfection last season, which is why I believe this year could be the turn of the junior men. One name stands out when I think of Wycliffe College; that name is Fullman, whether it is Max Fullman, his sister Ella Fullman or even their mother and coach, Hazel Fullman. This family appears to have been at the forefront of the programme for numerous years.
Max begins his Junior 17 year this season, but his age doesn’t align with this young man’s talent. To list a few of his achievements so far, he was the British champion in 2023, a National Schools’ Regatta bronze medallist, the U19 Boston trials winner in 2024/25, and competed for the GB U19 team at the Coupe de la Jeunesse 2024. Accompanying Max in this boat are all fresh starts at Wycliffe College; however, to say they are new to rowing couldn’t be further from the truth. Alex Judd and Ollie Johnston are well-seasoned scullers who switched from Exeter Rowing Club at the end of the 2024 season to transfer to Wycliffe in an attempt to produce a Henley Royal Regatta-winning combination. These two athletes have medalled at the National Schools’ Regatta in the double scull, and they topped off their Exeter days by medalling at the British Championships. Finally, Finn Condren is the fourth and final member of this quartet. He is yet to prove himself in the Junior 18 leagues but if he’s made it into this quad, expect great things.
Windsor Boys School Boat Club ‘A’
A wave of excitement fills the air when Windsor Boys School enters an event in junior rowing. Their history in junior men’s sculling spans further and broader than any other club, and the standard they set each year befuddles anyone who dares to challenge them. Mark Wilkinson’s charges were runners-up in The Fawley Challenge Cup in 1993 and have raised the bar year after year since then, to the point where they are now nine-time Henley Royal Regatta winners. More recently, Windsor went across to the Heineken Roeivierkamp, where they showed their dominance by beating international crews and finishing on top of Leander’s junior men in every event across the weekend. They also took the junior quads title at Hammersmith Head at the end of February. This year’s crew consists of two returning champions from last year and is littered with GB vests from Junior 18 and Junior 16 events.
Joe Wellington is arguably the most well-known in this crew, having been a part of the U19 GB World Rowing Championships quad; after a disappointing B-final in St Catharines, I imagine Wellington will have enough motivation to fuel both the A and B crew to top the timing sheets on the 3600m course. Joe also topped the trials sheet on day two at GB Boston Trials, but he was not the only one flying the gold and green flag. Isaac Thornton finished fifth in his single on the Saturday and also featured in the quad that retained the youth quad title at the Head of the Charles. Thornton also won his first GB vest at the GB vs France match in the summer of 2024. Accompanying these two will be Ruben Taylor and Bailey Taylor, who have earned their spot in the most prestigious junior quad in Britain, if not the world. Ruben has a red box to his name and a GB vest as the single sculler at the Coupe de la Jeunesse last summer whilst Bailey has progressed from being in the second quad at the Head of the Charles to being one step closer to getting the infamous T-suit this summer. One thing is for sure; this crew will be exceptionally well-drilled.
Leander Club
Who would rule out the scullers from Leander to take the fight to The Windsor Boys’ School? This boat club has a rich history of producing world-class crews, and they won The Fawley Challenge Cup in 2023, a Trophy they will be desperate to reclaim. This year’s cohort are no exception to this rule. In 2023, we saw the race of the year occur when Leander defeated Mark Wilkinson’s boys from Windsor. The 2023 boat was stacked with some of the most powerful junior rowers that Britain had seen, with Byron Richards and Nat Gauden showing their grit and power in the middle of the boat. With Guy Hutchins and Freddy Foxwell at either end of the crew, this line-up made winning inevitable. Will this season’s boat challenge the numbers that their predecessors could manage?
This year, the names to watch are Ziggy Vizgirda and Willem van den Erenbeemt, who showed continuous dominance when they won the junior double sculls pennant at the Pairs Head earlier this year. Van Den Erenbeemt competed in the Dutch quad at the U19 World Rowing Championships, finishing fifth in the A-final and beating the British quad. He is also the son of Herman van den Erenbeemt, a world champion at the senior level in 1989, so the performance lifestyle runs in his blood. Hopefully, this experience trickles into the rest of Leander’s athletes to display another impressive performance. Next week’s outfit will likely have Will Eaton and Harry Catlin involved, who are both very well-settled members of Leander’s junior programme, but will this quad have enough speed over a longer course to match the rest of the field?
Bewl Bridge Rowing Club
It’s been over 20 years since this small southeastern English club entered any sort of boat that resembled a junior men’s quad into an event, let alone a big event such as this one. Seeing a club like Bewl Bridge enter a viable crew is a refreshing sight in a sport that is becoming more and more about the ever-tightening top end. Jack and Ben Ribbens are the two most established rowers in this crew; having rowed together for multiple years, this pair have earned their titles of being exceptional young athletes. Having won both the National Schools’ Regatta and British Junior Championships together in 2023 as well as medalling at the British Junior Championships in 2024, there are very few domestic titles that are left to be won. Two more athletes will join to form the quad at the Junior Sculling Head, which will likely be two of either Harry Tyrell-Clark, Harry Goodwin or Fraser White.
These boys will be looking for a podium finish in their first big race together, and with a coach who knows them as well as Brooke Ribbens – Jack and Ben’s Mother – it’s difficult to see many crews that will be in a better position than the boys from Bewl. Although this is an entirely new crew to the category, they will have a new perspective that could just put them into a position that others are missing.
Great Marlow School Boat Club
This crew is coming in to defend their title from last year where they took some 13 seconds out of everyone in a dominant performance. Great Marlow School secured a ticket through to the Thursday of Henley Royal Regatta too, falling eventually to US national champions, Los Gatos, by a foot. They appear to have taken this momentum into the new season by putting out a strong performance at Wycliffe’s Big Head and GB U19 Trials. On Wycliffe’s home waters, Great Marlow School managed to win the event ahead of their hosts, who finished in third. I think this is a particularly fascinating result as the Wycliffe crew is very worthy of topping the table, which means this crew must be in the running, too. Ethan Hunt from last year’s crew has proved his ability at the February U19 GBRT Trials, where he finished in the top 20, not a long way off the front runners. Alongside Hunt, Connor Quann finished in 32nd place, which conveys his power but also the physicality of this crew in achieving the GB U19 ergo cutoff. After last season’s finish in the top 16 at Henley Royal Regatta, I can’t imagine this crew will settle for anything less than a top-five finish next week.
Notable Mentions
Unfortunately, I cannot give every boat the credit they are due; however, from the 35 crews who didn’t get a mention, a few boats are clearly in a position to upset what we think we know about junior men’s sculling. Shiplake BC are always competitive, and after their unexpected performance at Henley Royal Regatta in reaching the semifinals of The Fawley Challenge Cup, I’d be a fool not to consider them.
Abingdon School are in the middle of a strong year in their junior men’s eight, and I believe after their impressive win at Rutherford Head, they will be looking to boat a quad that could produce medals alongside their eight.
George Watson’s College, the only crew from Scotland in this event, will have confidence in their programme after Ezra Ferguson conquered the February U19 GBRT Trials in the double scull, but will their quad show as much speed?
Tideway Scullers School cannot be ruled out after they took the Schools’ Head of the River title in 2024 and spent a lot of time in A-finals throughout last season.
Molesey Boat Club will be racing at the Schools’ Head of the River the day before – as many of these crews are slated to – but have had a set of very promising results throughout the winter, including winning at Kingston Head and placing second at Hammersmith Head.
With Thomas Pakulis finishing second in both the single and double at the February U19 GBRT Trials – and with Madoc Gundry returning from last year’s quad – I expect the crew from Lea Rowing Club also to be competitive.
Prediction
This is an exciting event to predict as there are many unknown crews and athletes to decide between. I think there is one crew who is a clear favourite; Windsor Boys School will likely take the victory. However, second and third place will be hotly contested by any one of the crews above, including Leander, Wycliffe, Great Marlow, Molesey, Lea and Shiplake.
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