Phew. We did it. A Tideway Head without incident, inclement weather, disruption or destruction. Apart from the sight of six schoolboy eights racing abreast through Hammersmith Bridge, giving the resident umpire mild heart palpation, the Schools’ Head of the River returned to the water with little fanfare. And, in truth, that is exactly how we like it – proper junior racing, head to heart to hand, clawing every possible second of advantage via stream, station or symbiosis over a four-and-a-half mile course. After an enforced absence, as the world battled a seemingly never-ending pandemic, there was a collective sigh of relief as Shiplake College’s Championship Boys Eight, leader of a pack of over 300 junior crews, wound up underneath Chiswick Bridge. It’s a pleasure and a newfound privilege to be back – and yesterday’s racing has left us with plenty of circulating narratives to unpick.
Championship Boys Eights
Shiplake retained their title in spectacular style, putting five seconds into their nearest rivals Eton College. A lot of the chatter before the event had been about the pretenders to Shiplake’s head racing crown – KCS, Teddies, Eton and St Paul’s had all had fairly robust winters and came to the Tideway in good racing shape. Dave Currie’s boys are garnering a reputation as long-distance racing specialists though – the question now remains whether they can carry this momentum into regatta season. Watching from Hammersmith Bridge, I was struck by the relatively lean frame of the Shiplake boys – they always seem to be bred for mileage and lack the power required to triumph over 2000m. Perhaps 2022 will see a regime change.
The remainder of the results were as expected – the top four all made sense and it was great to see Teddies back at the top table of junior rowing. After their sensational seasons in 2013 and 2014, their program has been in a holding pattern – the apex of the development curve is clearly upon us and I’m curious to see how they fare in the summer months. St Paul’s will almost certainly be a little disappointed with a fifth-place finish but always come back stronger at the National Schools’ Regatta. The drop-off after Radley College, who finished sixth in a time of 17:08, and Hampton School, who were seventh in a time of 17:40, was startling – the National Schools’ Regatta finalists are picking themselves at this point.
Championship Girls Eight
A somewhat expected win for Henley. Credit where it’s due though – it is only down to the remarkable strength of their program that we all came into Monday expecting them to walk away with the headship. What we may not have expected was their proximity to Headington, who had a blinding race to finish a second behind. Headington are the holders of the Prince Philip Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta and will surely have one eye on building a dynasty in that department. The battle between these two for supremacy in both the eight and the quad – given both disciplines are now on offer at HRR – will be fascinating to watch.
Not wanting to designate this a binary contest, it’s also worth mentioning Surbiton High School, who are rapidly becoming one of the fastest schools programs in the country. They were 12 seconds back on Henley and will certainly be in contention come May. Teddies finished fourth, reinforcing their position as a centre of excellent for both boys and girls. The one footnote is Wimbledon High School – I for one expected a little bit more. After their stellar season through 2021, admittedly in lower age groups, I was hoping 2022 could be a breakthrough year for these girls. In my opinion, eighth doesn’t reflect their immense talent and they’ll be looking to bounce back in a big way (an amalgamation of their first and second eight, who placed second in their category, could be in order).
Championship Boys Quads
All hail the Windsor Boys School. This performance, across all four quads, was one of the most impressive in recent history at the Schools’ Head. Not only did their ‘A’ crew win the category outright by over 20 seconds, they managed top ten berths for the remaining three boats – that’s 16 athletes placing inside the top ten quads in the country. Keep an eye on their performance at the Oarsport Junior Sculling Head tomorrow – I’ll be very interested to see how these boats break down in terms of age. Leander Club, who only boated a single crew throughout the entire roster, finished in second but only just managed to hold off the advances of Windsor Boys School ‘B’ by half a second. Westminster School, who look to have placed their best eggs in the quad basket, were fourth but nearly 45 seconds back on the winner. Marlow Rowing Club and Claires Court rounded out the top six (Windsor D and Windsor C were seventh and tenth respectively). The Triple is very much on for Mark Wilkinson’s boys – the real question seems to be when not if.
Championship Girls Quads
Shiplake College picked up where they left off last summer to take the win by nearly ten seconds over Marlow Rowing Club. After their extraordinary performances throughout the 2021 regatta season (which involved peerless domination of the National Schools’ Regatta, Henley Women’s Regatta and Henley Royal Regatta), we all know the strength of Dan Safdari’s program. I have to acknowledge that I wasn’t sure if these girls had the firepower to take the victory – Marlow seemed to be moving faster approaching the event but I guess the Tideway and the nous of racing at the top level paid dividends for the bees. Molesey Boat Club were a relatively surprising, and welcome, entrant in the bronze medal spot and it was great to see the top four crews containing three clubs (Tideway Scullers School took fourth spot). 35 entries into this category, which is indicative of the phenomenal depth that junior women’s sculling enjoys in the UK. The introduction of the Diamond Jubilee Challenge Cup to the Henley Royal Regatta roster in 2012 has played a significant role in catalysing growth for younger female scullers and we can only hope it will continue to drive true talent to the top of the GB pyramid.
School Boys First Eight
We correctly predicted the winner of this one, as Reading Blue Coat made school history to win this event for the first time. It wasn’t the fastest category ever (two Second Eight crews beat Reading’s time) but you can only beat what is front of you. Enniskillen Royal Boat Club, our friends from Ireland and loyal supporters of both this and the National Schools’ Regatta, finished in second and these two crews were ten seconds out on Pangbourne College in third spot. The rest of the crews bore familiarity to the names we usually see at the business end of the First Eights category – St George’s College placed fourth, 13 and 17 seconds ahead of Great Marlow School and Norwich School in fifth and sixth. Based on these results, we’ll have two battles forming come May – the fight for bronze and the fight for gold.
School Girls First Eight
A relatively small field but one which Shiplake College dominated to secure their fourth win of the day. Their time of 19:14 would have placed them fifth in Girls Championship Eights, which begs the question as to whether they will shift up a slot for the summer. Enniskillen brought two boats to the Schools’ Head and got themselves a double helping of second place – they’ll be hoping to take a step up the podium on both accounts in a couple of months. In almost perfect synchronicity, the top four crews were separated by around 15 seconds each, with Yarm School taking the bronze medal and The King’s School Worcester finishing fourth.
Junior 16 Boys Championship Eight
A bad day for JRN, as we only managed to correctly predict one of the top three (soz Latymer and Radley). The latter come out on top, by seven seconds, and have laid down a good mantle for summer racing. I love this category – it’s often brutal tight racing that lays the foundations for years to come. Some perform exceptionally in this age group before falling away, whilst others lay down the early marker of a dynasty to come. Latymer, who don’t always appear at the top end of Championship Eight racing, will have been delighted with this result whilst the talent production line at Eton College keeps on churning out quality athletes. It’s worth noting that Eton were some 24 seconds back on Radley – a mighty deficit to recover in two short months.
Junior 16 Girls Championship Eight
When it comes to junior women’s rowing this year, I can sense auto-predict willing me to type Henley’s name into the winners box. Well, auto-predict, it turns out your instincts were right again – the girls in white smashed every other contender to take the win by over 30 seconds. We all know success breeds success and the magnetic pull Henley seem to have on all talent in the Thames Valley is becoming more and more pronounced every year. Credit to them – it is rare to see a club shake a fist at the big educational rowing programs, let alone take them head on and win consistently. Repeating the results of the J18 cohort, Headington School finished second and Surbiton third – but this one was all about the sheer dominance displayed by Leon Redman’s Henley.
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