This year’s Schools’ Heads looks to have some ferocious racing after recent events. The weather does not look to be great but the show must go on. The Tideway will definitely put a spanner in the works for some of the squads, as it always does. A few of the crews racing have raced here recently, including Claires Court School and Norwich School, so they’ll be used to the conditions. Some familiar faces will be in this year’s event, which will most likely give light to plenty of rivalrous racing.
Claires Court School
Claires Court had a disappointing result on their last venture onto the Tideway, being the penultimate crew for their event at Hammersmith Head. This is likely to change in this event, where they will be one of the more experienced and regimented crews. I think that they will have less nerves for this race, and as long as they avoid complacency, they’ll place well.
Winchester College
Winchester College placed very well at Wallingford Head, albeit just behind the Reading Blue Coat School, who are also racing here. They’re often producing strong squads, and therefore it’s likely that they’ll dominate here. Winchester did not race in this event last year so will be excited to return.
Norwich School Boat Club
Norwich School is another school that hasn’t had the best form recently. Their performance at Wallingford was a good effort given the strength of the field but it was not their best to say the least. They are likely to be the underdogs here but their recent efforts have shown that they can do well against the strongest of crews. Norwich made it to the Thursday at last year’s HRR, which shows that they have the grit to do well here.
Pangbourne College
Pangbourne gained a very respectable result at last year’s Schools’ Head. This, therefore, should come naturally to them. They haven’t had as many notable results this year but their HRR campaign last season was definitely worthy of a mention. They were knocked out by Radley on the Thursday of racing. This result is the same for Monmouth and Norwich, which will definitely make for some exciting racing.
Monmouth School
Monmouth looks like they’ll be one of the more dominant crews in this event. They seem to have an equal foundation to the majority of the aforementioned crews so I’m looking forward to see how they place. Their squad is seemingly rather strong but it will have to be proved on the day.
Monkton Coombe School
Monkton put a massive effort into Reading University Head and reaped the rewards, bagging a second place, beating Bedford Modern. This augurs very well for them in this event. Their eight here will most likely be their top eight.
Kungalvs Roddklubb & Mimers Gymnasium, Sweden
This club seems to have a rather good rowing programme from what I can gather from the various websites I’ve scanned. They’re an unknown entity and definitely capable of giving the Brits a run for their money. This crew won’t have entered and payed to come here to lose, so they’re undoubtedly a crew to watch out for.
Others
The remaining crews, such as St Georges College and Bedford Modern School are likely to give a good effort and probably take a couple of the top spots. The form of some of the crews isn’t certain and therefore the ‘others’ are likely to cause a couple of upsets.
Predictions
I predict that Monmouth will take the gold, with the likes of Winchester, Pangbourne and the Swedes taking the next few spots. Claires Court are likely to be in contention for the 5th space with Monkton Combe; if one of the unmentioned crews don’t beat them to it. Norwich are likely to have a good going at it but I cannot see them pushing onto the top spots.
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