The premier race of the winter is finally upon us. Crews have been setting their sights on the principal prize available to juniors before we stride into the heady season of multi-lane racing. Friday will give us the strongest indication yet of how will be the runners and riders come May. Will Henley retain their title they won in such style last year or can Headington wrest the crown back?
With many of the recent races for these crews having been cancelled, SHORR will provide these crews with a great chance to see where they stand amongst the field before the run-up to National Schools’ Regatta and Henley starts.
Henley (H Hills)
Henley has been very successful in the 8+, in particular over the last year with their win of Champ 8+s at NSR, breaking Headington’s winning streak. So far this season, Henley have shown their prowess by taking the win at Wallingford Head by 20 seconds in November.
Headington (V Gothard)
Having lost their unbroken eight superiority to Henley at NSR last May, they will be determined to finish this season on top. We can guarantee that they will have put many hours in to get to their absolute best for Schools’ Head of the River. At Wallingford Head, two Headington eights finished 4th and 6th which demonstrates that there will still a bit of work needed for the Headington eight to become equal with the Henley crew.
Lady Eleanor Holles (H O’Connor)
This crew have done well so far this year, finishing 1st at Peterborough Head in February and 2nd at Quintin Head. The WJ16 8+ has been doing well at recent races too, finishing 2nd at Hammersmith Head and this shows the strength of LEH in eights throughout this season, putting them in a strong position coming into SHORR.
Enniskillen (M Donnelly)
This crew finished 1st in the WJ18 8+ category at Erne Head of the River last weekend giving them a strong position coming into Schools’ Head. Coming from Ireland means that there are few opportunities to compare them to the other crews in this category and so it will be interesting to see how this crew, which has been very successful in Ireland, will compare with the English crews.
Istituto Statale, Italy (L Mondini)
This crew also has few results to compare to the other crews in this category and it will be fascinating to see how they fare in this hotly contested category.
We also have entries from Latymer Upper School (M Lloyd) and St George’s College (M Harris).
My predictions are for Henley to take the gold, Headington 2nd and Lady Eleanor Holles in the bronze position, however, it will be interesting to see how the crews which are travelling longer distances in order to compete will do.
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