St Neots is a unique head race in the sense that there are 5 main divisions during the day raced over 2600m. Crew are able to enter which ever division they wish and the winner has the fastest time across the divisions. A relatively small field of only 8 scullers will contest J18 singles. However, there is some strong experience in the field in the form of Alex Ventisei from Bedford Modern.
BMS- Ventisei
Alex Ventisei was part of the very successful BMS quad last season. This quartet racked up some highly commendable results including 5th at SHORR, 2nd in the ‘B’ final at NSR and an ‘A’ final at Marlow Regatta. Alex was also involved in the trials process in a pair and was invited to attend Final Trials following a tough race off. I think Alex will go into this race confident of victory barring any upsets. His crew mate, Sam Kavanagh races IM2 1x in the same division so it will be interesting to see how they get on against one another.
STA- White, Gowing, Sharp & Molloy
Three of these scullers, White, Gowing and Sharp raced in the Star Junior Quad last season. They raced to 6th place on the CH4x ‘C’ final at NSR, 13th at SHORR and 4th fastest non qualifier at HRR. Given the pedigree of junior sculling at Star I fully expect this quartet of scullers to form another quad. However, this weekend I expect to see White, Gowing or Sharp lead the way from these Star scullers. That being said I do not expect them win the battle over Bedford this weekend, however, with races over different division who knows what might arise.
PET- Beale, DEB- Ward & LER Toor
It is quite hard to tell how these three scullers will do this weekend because their respective clubs did not show at major events last season, thus making it incredibly difficulto compare and estimate possible speeds this weekend.
My Prediction..BMS to take the win and the Star scullers to follow in suit.
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