Recent controversy over the Child Beale event at the National Schools’ Regatta means that this year’s schools’ head race may be one of the most interesting to date. Although the NSR committee have decided to run the event this year, the future of the first 8 event is extremely uncertain and so all crews will want to put in a solid performance in what might potentially be the last “school first 8” race at the Schools’ Head.
To make matters even more interesting, typical medal contenders, KCS and Latymer have both decided to make the step up into the “championship eight” event, leaving us with only 20 crews.
Dulwich College should be a pretty fast crew. Their fourth place finish at the 2017 school’s head will undoubtedly have given them motivation for the last few months of winter training, and so it’ll be interesting to see what they can do this year.
Winners of the race last year, Bedford should also be strong contenders for the win. They looked dominant at Bedford Head, where they beat BMS and have high quality returners in the form of Connor Sheridan, who also competed in the pair at the Coupe de la Jeunesse. However, I gather that a recent fallout has meant that they have not been able to train in Earith (a 5k stretch in Ely) and have been limited to their bendy 2k stretch of river. It is possible that this may have limited their preparation for next Monday’s race.
In recent years Norwich School have consistently churned out fast crews. Coached by the experienced Chris Williams, who coached the 2017 “coupeachter” to a Gold medal, I’d expect Norwich to be right up there.
Oratory School and Great Marlow School both show positive signs of development. Both programs managed to send athletes to the GB christmas camp in Spain. Reading Blue Coat have also shown good speed. At BASHER they put out an eight that performed well against some good crews from the likes of St Paul’s and Eton.
It’s great to see an entry from TSS. The club is famous worldwide and has produced a multitude of very skilled athletes. Calvin Tarczy, who won Gold at the JWRC and now rows at St Paul’s spent the first three years of his rowing career at TSS. There’s nothing suggesting that this crew couldn’t go out and take the win.
The unknown in this event comes from the two Irish crews. As always, anything can happen on the day, and so I wouldn’t discount any crew!
NinthSeat
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