Reading Amateur regatta runs across both days of the weekend, however finals are on the same day so it allows for maximum racing. There is a 1500m course on Saturday and this is shortened to 1000m on Sunday across the same stretch of river running through Reading.
Saturday
Singles
There are two crews racing for the University of Birmingham BC. One is Erin Meredith, she had an incredibly successful BUCs regatta coming third in the women’s championship double, first in the women’s championship lightweight doubles and in the the intermediate lightweight singles. This is a hugely impressive BUCs campaign from Meredith, and she comes into this weekend as one of the favourites. Martlet BC which is an Alumni club for University College Oxford has Pippa Biggs representing them, she managed to come eight in the A final in the championship single at Metropolitan Regatta on the Sunday. Naomi Holland, one of two Upper Thames RC scullers, has had some good results this season. She came third in the B final at the Met regatta on Sunday. Mortlake A&A BC had a sculler, Bailey, who also raced at the Met Regatta and came second in the B final in the championship single on Saturday. Caitlin Armstrong for City of Oxford RC another sculler who raced at the Met regatta recently and came a strong fifth in the A final in the single on Saturday, in the same event she came third on Sunday in the A final.
Doubles
In the band one competition there is another University of Birmingham crew, and they have recently had plenty of success on their campaigns as mentioned earlier with Erin Meredith but also with Kathryn Mole and Emily O’Connor. Shiplake college had a quad that came second in the B final of Met Regatta on Saturday, so perhaps half of this crew are racing in this event? Or there was a pair that came second in the A final at Met Regatta on the same day, so perhaps those girls are turning their hand to sculling. Hannah Milnes and Lizzie Webster of De Montfort University recently raced at the Met Regatta and came fifth in the A final and also managed to secure a spot in the C final of the BUCs regatta back in May. Globe RC are also racing, recently a quad has raced at the Met Regatta on Saturday, coming third in the B final just behind the Shiplake crew.
Quads
There are two Bournemouth University crews one with Jaeger Andrew, Zoe Butterworth, Naïa Hill, and Bethan Hickey the other with Nicole Dance, Davis, Niamh Hutchinson, and Lindon-Thomas both of these crews raced at Met Regatta in two separate quads but both made it to the C final on Saturday and the B final on Sunday. They also had a similar line up for racing BUCs regatta back in May in the intermediate category and clearly have expereince under their belt in quads this season, so I expect them to be quick this weekend. Maidenhead RC had a crew racing this category at the Met regatta on the Sunday and came second in the A final. Maidenhead have an excellent reputation as a club that knows how to achieve results, and this crew seems to be no exception. I think they will be the ones to watch out for heading into this category.
Sunday
Singles
A total of seven scullers will be racing for the win. Bournemouth University had scullers racing for them at BUCs regatta, in both the intermediate and beginner categories, and some of which also are racing in the quad category this coming weekend. There is also two entries Walbrook RC, Niamh Conetta and Abujbara. Abujbara managed to come fourth in the D final at Met regatta. The are also strong competitors from Wycliffe College BC, Reading RC and Reading University. Izzy Lancaster of Reading University came fourth in the championship lightweight single at BUCs regatta, and then managed to come second at the Met regatta on Saturday therefore winning the lightweight category.
Doubles
There will be eight crews will be racing: Wycliffe College, three lots of Bournemouth University crews; and from BUCs regatta we can see they have an amazing depth of squad, Army, Southampton University, Walbrook RC. The crew from Walbrook, Natasha Gallagher and Renee Mybrugh came a strong fifth in the A final for the championship doubles at Met Regatta. Wallingford have also entered a boat, and they had a quad that raced at Met on the Saturday and managed to come third in the C final of, which then perhaps this crew is breaking down into smaller crews for more summer racing.
Quads
We see the same two Bournemouth University crews, one with a bypass straight to the final, the other having to go against Army Rowing. For the Army, P Birch raced in her single at the Met regatta and came second in the B final. There have also been many other great performances throughout the team for indoor events throughout the year.
Predictions
It is amazing to see such range across the women’s sculling along with depth of squads. The single sculling events for both Saturday and Sunday will be hard to get a spot in the final for with some quick names coming up. This spans across the doubles and quads alike. I think we will see a lot of the University of Birmingham crews, along with the Walbrook double, the Maidenhead RC quad.
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