Back for its 15th year, and 2nd year on the altered 4600m course, Quintin head is likely to be the first chance many of these boats have had to race on this stretch of the river in 2018. With only 4 boats entered into this category, it is likely to be a closely contested race. Without many recorded results in eights, it will be interesting how the rowers work together and how their experience transfers into this boat. From the draw, it is difficult to ensure who will be racing in the boats but with so few races under their belts, I imagine the boats have been training hard to tackle this well-known but unpredictable stretch of the river and the fact that all of the boats train of local stretches of the river, will also aid their success this weekend.
St George’s College
As a local Thames boat, this boat is likely to be knowledgeable about the conditions of the river which will help them tackle the course with more ease. In the last few weeks, this boat managed to take first place on their home stretch of river at Weybridge Winter Head. At Teddington Head in November, St George’s College won the WJ16 8+ category over Lady Eleanor Holles School.
Lady Eleanor Holles School
With few results for this boat, it is hard to predict how this boat will fare in the race on Saturday but I imagine that they will have been training hard over the last few months and could surprise us with a good result. With so few boats entered in this race, it will be interesting to see how the seemingly lesser experienced boats, like this one, will compare to those with a few more races under their belts.
Emanuel School
Being situated close to the finish of the race, they are likely to be one of the most knowledgeable crews about this course which will give them an advantage despite not appearing to have banked any results recently in this boat. I am curious to see how they’ll fare in what promises to be a highly contested race.
Latymer Upper School
Again, the racecourse is the local training stretch for this boat which will play in their favour. This crew has also posted results from an unfamiliar course after securing a confident win against 2 other eights at Wallingford Head of the River.
In my opinion, the win will be a close competition particularly between Latymer and St George’s with the likelihood being that Latymer will clinch the win.
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