With many top clubs opting to race in the sweep events, the open quads gives us a chance to look at some of the local clubs and Universities. However, with so many races being cancelled so far this season it is hard to judge the make up or form of a lot of these crews making this week all that more exciting to watch pan out.
Band 1 looks like it will be two Scottish crews competing for the victory on Saturday with both Edinburgh University and Glasgow University sending highly competitive crews south of the border. The Durham Amateur quad is a junior crew stepping up to race against seniors. However there have been a couple of substitutions meaning we will have to wait to see the pace of their potential Henley Royal-bound boat come summer. They will be battling against the composite from Agecroft and Leeds in an effort to cause an upset and chase down the two Scottish university boats. The Durham School crew looks to be the school’s second quad with their top athletes opting to enter the J18.
Band 2 sees a great variety of entries. Tyne Amateur, on home water, will have high hopes of a top three finish with good pedigree within a large squad this year. Also pushing for a potential win will be the crew from Leeds who make the journey north and will be very closely matched with the quad from Tees Rowing Club. The crews from Northumbria University and Sunderland University will be aiming to show that squad size is no barrier to success, and this could prove to be a great match up. Durham Amateur and Sunderland City make up the division and it will be intriguing to see if they can match the speed of the Tyne and Leeds crews.
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