Raced over 4500m on the Tyne, Rutherford Head is the North’s biggest race of the winter and sees crews from all over the country meet in Newcastle. However, this category is being disputed between just two crews, but both of them will be vying for the win.
Queen Elizabeth High School
Queen Elizabeth’s has experience racing in fours, having produced competent crews for the past few seasons. They also picked up a bronze at Brit Junior Champs in the pair which they will hope will translate into the bigger boat. There has been a lot of noise made recently about their strongest athlete; Harry Anderson went to GB EID trials and could be in this boat. He produced a very impressive R24 2k which I believe was 6:18; if so this puts him in the mix with the athletes who raced at Coupe and World’s last year erg score-wise. If Queen Elizabeth’s are to win then he will be instrumental in their success.
Tyne ARC
Tyne hasn’t put out a top four for many years and their juniors tend to have more of a reputation for sculling. They have some homegrown talent of their own though in Matthew Hudson, who is an impressive sculler. There is also rumour that they have taken some guys on from Tyne United to make the four. Tyne will also be racing on home water and will want to use their knowledge of the river to the best of their advantage.
Prediction
I don’t know much about Tyne’s speed in sweep boats whereas Queen Elizabeth proved their competence with their success in the pair last year. They also possess a special talent in Harry Anderson. As such I think that they will be able to overpower Tyne.
TidewaySweeper
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