As the final races of head season beckon, that can mean only one thing; a gruelling test for all against the championship course. For the first time, Women’s Head, Men’s Head, School’s Head and Oarsport Junior Sculling Head will all be raced on consecutive days. This means junior entries are down for Men’s Head, however in events like this, more and more crews are coming to double up over the Monday and Tuesday.
A seventeen boat category this year, down from nineteen last years’ race, and will be lead off by a quad from St Peters School, York, however with very limited race results, and the Yorkshire Head being cancelled last weekend, they are an unknown force, albeit a force which I expect to lack significant Magnitude.
The Tideway is an altogether different beast to any other race, and a far cry from Dorney in the final weekend of May, and therefore, the home crews should always be at an advantage to the others. This means Tideway Scullers School’s quad should be in a very strong position come Monday, with this being the only J16 boat from scullers’. Westminster School and St Pauls School, both have quads entered, but are both second rate boats, with both schools prioritising Champ J16 8’s. However, both schools should have strength in depth, and especially with the domination of St Pauls in the J18 category, this transfer down to the younger squads.
Windsor Boys School, in recent years, have been able to churn out some very quick scullers, and their J16 cohort is no different, boasting the quickest J16 1x at the recent February trials, in the form of Julian Van Gelderen, this and their recent prestige, undoubtedly puts them in a very strong position going forward.
Henley RC are another club with recent success at trials. With three scullers inside the top 15, combined with their successes already under their belt this year, they are in a very favourable position. Also on the Henley stretch, Leander Club have an entry here. With very little information on this boat, I am unsure where to put them, but any boat from Leander is set to be a quick one.
This all being said, my money is on TSS, although with the tideway it is always down to the performance on the day.
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