Pairs Head will be the first race of the 2017-2018 racing season on the Tideway for the crews entered into this event and will allow these crews to gain a great deal of experience racing on this stretch of the River Thames, which will assist them at other upcoming races, such as Scullers Head and Fours Head of the river. As this is a championship category, I am expecting the crews entered to be the club’s and school’s top combinations and these crews are therefore likely to post extremely fast times, even in potentially tough conditions on the Tideway.
Shiplake College Boat Club – Norris
Shiplake College are known to be very strong in both sweeping and sculling ability, with Jack Norris’ quad placing 2nd in J17 quads at Reading small boats head last Saturday. Norris has evidently only recently joined the junior squad at Shiplake College as he was in the City of Bristol quad which received a bronze medal in J16 quads at National Schools last summer. He therefore has a great deal of ability and experience in sculling boats and therefore Jack Norris and his partner will be looking to achieve one of the fastest times in this championship category.
Maidenhead Rowing Club – Rowe
Maidenhead isn’t an unfamiliar name in race draws when it comes to important sculling categories. This will most likely be Maidenhead’s top junior boys double and these two crew members will therefore be looking to dominate this event and win the category with a large time margin. Harrison Rowe has a huge amount of experience racing in a sculling boat, placing 8th at pairs head last year in J18A 2x and recently winning the J18 4x at Wallingford Long Distance Sculls. However, some of Rowe’s more notable achievements would be reaching the semi finals of the Fawley Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta last summer or representing Great Britain at Coupe de la Jeunesse over the summer and this therefore sets up Rowe and his partner to be posting the fastest time in this category.
City of Bristol Rowing Club – Sinclair
City of Bristol are well-known for producing strong sculling crews and this double will therefore be looking to achieve a reasonably strong time along the 3.7km stretch of the Tideway. However, I don’t expect this to be one of the fastest crews that Bristol have ever put out as Darragh Sinclair was in the J16 second quad at National Schools Regatta last season, although Sinclair and his crew members managed to deliver a strong performance and achieve a silver medal in their category.
Henley Rowing Club
Henley Rowing Club have two doubles entered in this championship category and will be looking to make a big impact on the rest of the field. Issa was part of Henley’s J16 quad which secured a gold medal at National Schools Regatta last May and therefore Issa and his doubles partner are likely to post a strong time in this category. The second double, named after O’Connor will also be looking to achieve a reasonably fast time in this championship category however as I could not find any data on O’Connor’s previous results, I cannot predict how fast this double will be on the Tideway.
Globe Rowing Club – Richardson
Globe Rowing Club have recently become more predominant in the junior sculling scene within the past couple of years and therefore this double will be trying to put in a good performance in order to increase how well known the club is within the rowing community. Richardson was part of the championship quad which just missed out on reaching the A final at National Schools Regatta last summer and he will therefore have a large amount of experience racing sculling boats and should be able to move the boat extremely well. Richardson and his partner will therefore be trying to improve upon their result from last May and will therefore be trying to gain one of the faster times in this head race.
Westminster School Boat Club – Cowling
After Westminster achieving first place in J18A 2x at Pairs Head last year with different crew members, this double will be looking to match the result achieved last year. Westminster are known to be strong in both sweeping and sculling events, usually producing both a quad and an eight which qualifies for Henley Royal year upon year. However, Cowling was part of the Westminster first eight last year, which placed fourth in championship eights at National Schools, and this would indicate that Cowling may be stronger at sweeping than at sculling and this double may therefore be slightly slower than one would expect.
Final Prediction
I think we are looking at a very exciting race, with a set of extremely close times however I would predict Maidenhead‘s sculling experience to enable them to take the win in this category, closely followed behind by the doubles from Shiplake College and Westminster taking the second and third position.
I look forward to seeing the results of this competitive category on Saturday and want to wish good luck to all the doubles racing this weekend!
EngineRoom
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