This year’s peairs head will be the first opportunity for crews to test their speed against a large high class field upon the living body that is the tideway. The draw this year contains some Notable entries from Marlow along with Maidenhead as well as tideway based crews from Westminster and St Pauls amoungst the 23 entries (3 crews have scratched).
Marlow- Wolfin/Long & Cooper/Simon
These four athletes are largely unchanged from the very successfull J18 quad that Marlow fielded last season. Thry had some exceptional results including 2nd at SHORR, 4th at NSR and 4th at Marlow and they reachedt the semi final of the Fawley losing to winners Claires Court. Ben Simon was also selected for the Coupe quad which won gold in both races. Given the vast experience in these two doubles, I expect to see some solid results, However I reckon Cooper/Simon will get the better of their clubmates come race day. I fully expect to see both doubles challenging for the top postions in the category.
Maidenhead- Walters/Rowe & Collins/ Felstead
Maidenhead are another club hoping to recreate another great season. For the Pairs Head they are without their big guns such as Victor Kleshnev. In his absence the club is racing pretty much its second boat from last year. The quartet raced to 3rd place in th’D’ final of CH4x at NSR and Walters raced in the ‘C’ final of CH2x while Collins/Festead won the ‘F’ final. Being the frist crew off in the category will give Walters/Rowe a good eye for the competition and if they race anything like MRC’s top quad did against Abingdon in the Fawley, then we’re in for a good race from either of these doubles.
Lea- Badcott/Donald &Duncalf/Sommerville Yesufu
A theme is starting to occur in this category! Once again Lea is splitting its strong quad from last year into two opposing doubles. Lea’s quad from last year made the ‘A’ final of CH4x but sadly went out in the first round of the Fawley. This year I expect to see the crew bounce back from this loss to Molesey and really fight it out amounsgt the top crews. In the mean time I think both this doubles will fair well this weekend and should look forward to a good result.
St Pauls & Westminster
Home after advantage can be extremely important, potentially more so on the tideway. Knowing the waters will be extremely useful for these crews. The St Pauls ‘Calato’ double scratched at Walingford to this will be their first test of speed. Smith was apart Westminster appear to be fielding a double with some serious experience. Jones raced in Westminster’s top 8 at NSR and Allen was selected for the coupe pair who came 1st and 2nd. I think this crew will be fast and will look to be ranked very highly come the end of racing.
My Prediction…Westminster and Marlow for the top spots with the rest battling behind.
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