When the organising committee for the 2024 edition of the Schools’ Head of the River selected Wednesday 20th March as the date for the race, even their wildest fantasies cannot have encapsulated weather as picturesque as the sampling of spring on offer this afternoon. After near-torrential rain in 2023 was followed up by a winter of flooding, I began to think we may never see competitive racing in the UK again. Then, over a crisp and still horizon, came the floating bow of Shiplake College, cutting through the water at pace in their attempts to hold off a head’s worth of opposition flotilla. I am pleased to announce that junior rowing is back – and better than ever.
St Paul’s really did cut the mustard at this year’s Schools’ Head of the River. A superlative performance which was crowned in taking home the headship by over ten seconds alongside two further wins in the junior 16 championship eights and third eights. Although Shiplake College caught a boat-stopper at the Harrods buoy – certainly costing them a few seconds on the timing watch – there was no catching Bobby’s boys. Their impressive, and undefeated in categorical competition, winter comes to a close with all eyes now turning to what they can produce on the straights of Dorney Lake and Henley-on-Thames. Behind them Shiplake will be ruing their mishap but cajoled by the reality that even in the face of a generational St Paul’s outfit, they’re not too far off the pace. King’s College Wimbledon were third and a second behind Shiplake whilst Teddies finished fourth, 0.3 seconds ahead of Radley College. With Eton College dropping out just before racing due to sickness and a recent bereavement in their community, this leaves the summer tantalisingly open.
Headington School just won’t lie down, will they? The remarkable consistency with which they apply pressure at the top-end of junior women’s rowing is one of the great feats of human engineering and credit must go to Ryan Demaine, Chris Hermes and the coaching team, who have delivered yet another women’s headship to the esteemed school. Behind them, a lot of talk – on this platform amongst others – was given to a surging Hinksey Sculling School boat, who carried with them a new weight of expectation alongside a host of junior internationals. In the end, they wound up third, narrowly behind a Shiplake College crew whose venture into sweep will be one to watch closely as the season unfolds. The Prince Philip Challenge Trophy has been scooped up by international entrants for two of its three years on offer and there will be watchful eyes across the Atlantic as the UK racing season takes shape.
I felt almost remiss in not opening the piece with probably the most remarkable result of the day; an astonishing scull from a fearsome foursome at Wycliffe College secured them the women’s championship quad title and the third-fastest women’s time of the day (ahead of all but two of the championship eights). God only knows what they’d have achieved in with one oar. Greg Flower’s program is blooming and the crews behind them – including Diamond Jubilee holders Tideway Scullers School – were cut adrift by over 30 seconds. Henleys aren’t won in March though and after the disappointment of 2023, Wycliffe will be acutely aware of keeping their foot on the gas right through.
Not to be overshadowed, Tideway Scullers School’s resurgent junior squad continues to punch above its weight. They won the open championship quad category, knocking both Windsor Boys School and Leander out of the top three for the first time since 2013. In their wake were Marlow – whose status as bridesmaids in both quad events will surely be motivational material in the coming weeks – and Hinksey, whose heroics in last year’s Fawley Challenge Cup will live long in the collective memory.
Casting our eye – unwillingly – towards categories where we (or specifically, I) were off the mark, the open first eights was a real turn-up in the formbook (for me, at least). Norwich School secured the narrowest of wins over Great Marlow School, whilst St George’s College were third and over 20 seconds back on the leading twosome. According to our social media team, Norwich have already been unloading in the DMs and I’m apparently not welcome within 50km of the town.
Godolphin and Latymer were winners in the female equivalent, seeing off Kingston Grammar School by half a second. Other stand-out performances included Eton College’s second eight upholding the honour of their name in the conspicuous absence of a first boat by winning the second eight title and finishing inside the top-ten overall; Latymer Upper School unseating both Henley and Headington at the top of the junior 16 girl’s tree, and St Paul’s School tearing the field apart in the open equivalent to reaffirm the reality that Bobby Thatcher’s program is here to stay.
It’s hard to contain the excitement when hundreds of crews come tearing down the Tideway in pursuit of prestige. The Schools’ Head of the River opens the door to a summer of racing that has echoed in the halls of boat-clubs through a long, dark winter. 2023 showed us that a strong performance here in no ways guarantees silverware in a few months’ time and it is now up to the winners to get comfortable as the hunted. The chasing pack meanwhile will surely relish the hunt.
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