As much of England and the Thames Valley bows to cancellations, the ever-reliable Tyne God is crafting their race track of the gods in preparation for Rutherford Head.
From Scotswood to Newburn, the 4500 course will host the best northern rowing on Saturday. The Tyne God will also welcome travellers from north of the wall and those venturing from the south craving a hit of racing.
One of those clubs making the drive north is Abingdon School. The Gryphons are travelling en masse and have three crews entered into Junior 18 Eights. We can expect to see their first and second eights alongside their top Junior 16 crew. However, not all athletes are available for selection, so their second crew won’t be as strong as we might expect in summer racing.
Abingdon will continue to field a large squad in the second division. Their top J18s will be racing in the quad, a crew we were expected to see race at Fours Head until it was cancelled. It’s a similar story in the coxed fours. The crew with Waggett on board was due to have a crack at their field on the Tideway, but instead, they ventured to Newcastle.
Queen Elizabeth High School will field the other entry in the Junior 18 Eights. They’ve been racing frequently across the Northern Rowing Long Distance sculling series and this crew looks to be a combination of Junior 17 and Junior 18 rowers based on categories raced in over the past few weeks. ‘Wright’ has consistently been in QEH’s fastest quad, however, when he and his clubmates raced Durham Autumn Small Boats Head, their Band 1 coxed four was disqualified.
Looking into the quads in more detail it seems like we’re going to have quite a scrap between the northern clubs. Early in the season, Yarm School had a crew go six seconds quicker than Hexham down the track at Tees SBH. However, fast forward to Durham SBH and the results and margins had switched.
What’s worth noting is that in the second division at Durham, the LDS, Durham School stormed to victory on home water ahead of QEH and Yarm School. Without full crew lists, it’s hard to tell if each club has been fielding their strongest units, but if the results are anything to go by, then Saturday should be awesome. Throw in Lambton, who comfortably won Wansbeck SBH, albeit the other top crews weren’t racing, and you’ve got nine cracking entries in the Band 1 quads.
Eight more crews will race in Band 2. Keep an eye out for Glasgow Academy. They were the fastest Junior 18 quad at Inverness a couple of weeks ago, beating a robust George Watson’s College outfit by six seconds. I’d expect to see them challenge for the Band 2 title but also put a cat amongst the Band 1 crews and finish amongst the best crews in that category.
Five boats will be racing in J18 Coxed Fours. It’s often said that Aberdeen Schools always have the furthest to travel to get to any English event. Not on this occasion. Abingdon will have to travel 40 miles further to race this weekend.
The aforementioned Gryphons have two boats entered, with the second being half of their Junior 16 Eight who we will see race in the morning. ASRA brings a huge amount of pedigree to Junior 18 sweep rowing. The Granite City club often punches well above its weight, and this summer, they picked up the silver medal in Junior 18 coxless fours at the British Championships. While this will be a different crew, they’ll want to test themselves against the best that Northern Rowing has to offer in the form of Tyne United and QEH as well as one of the top schools in the Thames Valley.
My Prediction…
J18 8…Abingdon ‘Waggett’
J18 4x…Glasgow Academy to be the quickest, regardless of the band.
J18 4+…Abingdon ‘Waggett’
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