The first major tideway race of the season and for some this will be the first of many. The Pairs Head is raced over a 4500m course starting at the finish of the Boat Race at Chiswick Bridge and finishing at the Harrods Wall. As ever with the tideway, this course will be as much about dealing with the conditions and steering a clean race as it is about sculling proficeincy. The J18 Championship 2x has an entry of 9 crews and has the quality of entry to produce some very good racing.
Leander Club
A single entry here from Leander rather helpfully under the name of LDR-1. As such it is impossible to say for sure what the makeup of this boat will be, however looking at the Wallingford LDS results, whatever combination is boated will be a serious contender for the overall win in the event. Leander had scullers place 1st, 2nd, 7th, 9th and 10th in the J18 1x, with the winning time from Tim Eliers enough to secure him the fastest overall sculler of the day. As such it would take a superb crew to beat any combination from Leander so i would expect them to be right up at the sharp end on Saturday.
Lea RC
Two entries here from Lea, the real eye catcher comes under the name of Den-Dulk. Only being given a single name means again this is pure speculation but this could be the re-incarnation of the all conquering Den-Dulk/Powell crew who took the British junior title two years running and represented GB at the 2017 match against the French. Both were in the Lea quad last year that had some good speed but exited Henley on the Wednesday at the hands of Globe RC in a really good race. This Lea crew could have some decent speed about it and if it is the above combination racing their previous winning experience in this boat class could prove vital.
Eton College Boat Club
Not a club generally associated with sculling, Eton seem to have put their eggs firmly into the sculling basket for the early stages of this year, with no pairs entered into the respective events. In this event there are 2 crews entered under the names of Nunayon and Pearson. Both raced in the 1x at Wallingford and both performed very well in what was a stacked field with over 100 entries, both placing in the top 3rd. As such i would expect both of these doubles will place well, but may struggle against some of the top sculling programmes ahead of them.
American School in London
A single entry here from ASL under the name of Wilkin. He was in the ASL champ 4x lst year and raced at Henley. Again this crew was one who raced at Wallingford, this time in the J18 2x event. Here they placed second, only 1.7 seconds behind the winners Eton. With Eton changing their crews around, it will be intresting to see if ASL can exact any form of revenge.
The other crews in this event come from Walton RC, Kingston Grammar School and the Kings School Ely. All these crews will be looking to produce good rows however i cant see any of them getting near the front of this field.
Predictions
This field should produce some good racing as there is a lot of quality within these crews. In terms of trying to pick a top 3, I feel that Leander will take the win in this event, with such strong results in the singles from Wallingford whatever crew they boat should have too much for the rest. With their pedigree in the double, if the Lea top crew is the combination I expect then they will push Leander with Eton College-Pearson taking 3rd. However this is the tideway so anything could happen and we should see some good racing.
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