It’s finally that time of the year, and as summer and the 2k season come ever closer, Schools’ Head is the first real opportunity for crews to size their opposition up, and race against them in direct competition. It’s always a fantastic predictor for success in the summer, with a win or podium finish at Schools’ Head providing crews with a well-needed boost after a long winter of hard training. The 6.8 km course is notorious for sometimes producing very difficult racing conditions, particularly between Hammersmith and the finish, and with conditions looking very windy this year- the course may well be shortened.
Eton
As Eton’s 2nd 8+, this crew should be very strong- however at the recent Hammersmith Head they only managed an 8th in J18 8’s, coming in behind the 2nd 8’s of several major competitors, including St Paul’s, Westminster and Shrewsbury. This year it will be interesting to see how they do, as the coaches may have altered their crew selection as to many last year it seemed that Eton’s top two 8’s were far too similar in speed. This crew is stroked by Kian Power- an experienced member of Eton’s 2nd boat, having stroked them to a gold medal at NSR last year, and they’ll be hoping for a repeat of the 4th place overall that they achieved in 2018.
St Paul’s
The spotlight is very much on St Paul’s and Bobby Thatcher this season- as many wait with anticipation to see whether they can continue the utter dominance seen last year. However, it already appears that it won’t be quite so one sided this season, but their 2nd 8+ should be very speedy, with this crew coming in only 15 seconds behind the 1st 8+ at Hammersmith Head, and being the fastest 2nd boat by a considerable margin. They are stroked by Milo Taylor, the 6 man of their J16 Champ 8+ that won silver at NSR, and with the home advantage, I think they are definitely favourites for the win.
Radley
Radley often peak quite late in the season, but their senior squad asserted their dominance very early this year, at Wallingford Head back in November, when they produced a surprise upset by beating St Paul’s. However, their 2nd 8+ doesn’t look quite as promising as the 1st 8+, as similarly to Eton, they were beaten at Hammersmith by the 2nd 8’s of many of their main opponents. Like most of the other 2nd 8’s, this boat is primarily made up of J17’s, who raced in J16 Champ 8’s last year- including the stroke, Fred Dreyer. Radley should be competitive but I’m not sure whether they’ll be challenging for a podium finish.
Shrewsbury
This Shrewsbury crew should be very competitive-as at Hammersmith Head (which is a great predictor for Schools’ Head, raced between Chiswick and Hammersmith Bridge) they were beaten by St Paul’s 2nd 8+ by only 6 seconds, and only lost to their own top boat by 12 seconds, albeit with a different stroke man. However, we rarely see Shrewsbury at their best this early in the season, and in recent years they have been fairly quiet, with no stand-out crews appearing out of the fold. I do think this eight should be fast though, and they’ll be hoping to make up time on St Paul’s from their result at Hammersmith Head- and from looking at the weather conditions, I think it is entirely possible that the course could be shortened to the same as, or shorter than Hammersmith.
Hampton
Hampton don’t appear to be as strong as they have been in the past this year, and both their 1st and 2nd 8’s were probably quite disappointed with their times at Hammersmith Head, with the 2nd 8 coming in almost 30 seconds behind St Pauls 2nd 8+, so I imagine they’ve been training hard over the past two weeks to try and make up that time gap. However, Hampton are known for their huge squad sizes, and with that much depth within squads I wouldn’t be surprised if they appear at School’s Head with a faster crew.
Shiplake
Shiplake appear to be having a stormer of a year so far with success across the board, from their J16 8+ upwards. Under the helm of Dave Currie as Director of Rowing they have seen considerable growth in past couple of years, and this year looks like their most successful yet, with the 1st 8+ producing the fastest time of the day at Hammersmith Head 2 weeks ago, upsetting all their rivals. Although this 2nd 8+ didn’t do quite as well at that race, I’d be extremely surprised if they don’t appear as major contenders for the 2nd 8+ title this year- given that it contains several of the athletes who raced in the incredibly dominant J16 8+ last year that one gold at NSR, and qualified for the Temple Challenge Cup at Henley. Their stroke man, Matthew Waller sat in the 4 seat of that boat, and I imagine several of the other members of that eight will be racing in this 2nd 8+, hoping to make a successful step up into the J18 events.
Abingdon
Abingdon haven’t appeared that much at the top end of junior rowing recently, and their 2nd 8+ is a bit of a mystery, with what I assume were 2nd and 3rd eights entered into Hammersmith, with the crew labelled as A coming last in Jun 8+ and the crew labelled B coming 11th. The stroke of the crew entered into Schools’ Head, R Smith, was in that last placed boat- which makes me think they may have had some boat malfunctions. Therefore, it’s hard to say whether this Abingdon 2nd 8+ will be competitive or not- it remains to be seen.
Westminster
Westminster took a break from seriously competing in Champ 8+ last year, as they decided to place their top 4 athletes in a quad. However, they did put out a fairly uncompetitive eight which comprised their next best 8 athletes, and the stroke of this years 2nd 8+, Hector Crosbie, took the 7 seat of that boat. Now the Westminster coaches are back to racing eights as they have done in previous years, he has clearly been shunted back down into the 2nd 8+. As with some of the other crews, they raced at Hammersmith, coming in just under 10 seconds behind St Paul’s 2nd 8+- although then they were stroked by James Stevenson, a J17, so clearly the coaches have changed the crew around a bit since then. However- on home water, at their home race, I think they’ll be aiming for the top spot.
Other Crews
Although I have mentioned all the crews that I think will be competitive, there are also entries from Latymer Upper and KCS, both racing on home water, as well as Bedford, Pangbourne, Monkton Coombe, Canford and Cantabrigian RC– and it is not unknown for one of these schools to produce a speedy 8+, even in 2nd 8’s.
Predictions
Going on a variety of factors- but especially the results of Hammersmith Head, I’m backing St Paul’s for the win, followed closely by Shrewsbury and Westminster, and probably Shiplake– however it’s all to play for, and if conditions are as forecast, the tideway could produce some surprise results.
MarginalGainz
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