This weekend sees the return of the Northern Long Distance Sculling (LDS) series, with the first race on the river Tees, hosted by Tees Rowing Club. The huge twists and turns of this course mean that pure boat speed is not enough to come away with victory, boatmanship is at a premium on what is surely one of the most winding courses in the country.
Long Distance Scull
The morning LDS sees 202 entries with the majority of these being junior crews, as always, this event provides a great opportunity for local juniors to test their skills on a long and challenging course. There are some categories with great competition lined up, a selection of these include:
Open J18 Coxless Quad
Last year Yarm School narrowly missed out on qualification for the Fawley Challenge Cup, having retained two members of that quad. It doesn’t make sense to look beyond this crew for the winner of the junior quads. They were the fastest quad in the north last year and expect more of the same this season. Durham School don’t appear to have their top quad competing so expect Yarm to complete a comfortable victory.
Op J16 Coxless Quad
Making a long journey south to compete this weekend it looks likely that George Watson’s College will be the pick of what appears to be a competitive field including strong entries from Hexham, Tyne Amateur, Queen Elizabeth High School, and St. Leonard’s School. There isn’t much to go on in terms of statistical results, however, these crews will likely be well-matched with all clubs having strong performances towards the end of the regatta season last year.
Womens J18 Coxless Quad
The top event in the junior women’s category will be a tight-fought battle featuring George Watson’s College, Tyne Amateur, York City, Hexham, and Durham Amateur. Although we can expect George Watson’s and York City to be quick, the junior programme at Tyne Amateur is looking strong and expect this crew to be the front runners for a win.
Open MasCD Coxless Quad
It’s always good to see multiple entries in the masters categories and the open quads here is one of the hardest to predict. The Sunderland City quad have great pedigree at both local and national level, Tyne United have two crews competing which demonstrates the excellent strength in depth they have in the squad. It is, however, the slightly younger crew from Hexham that are likely going to come away with the win this weekend.
Open Double
Sees the most diverse and potentially interesting boat class with six clubs competing. Tees, St. Leonard’s and Durham Amateur all have experienced crews entered however it is likely going to be between the Tyne Amateur ‘Campbell‘ crew and the Leeds University/Tees composite for a victory, the latter being the favourites on this occasion.
Open Single
The Open singles is a huge field, a very encouraging entry list for the first event of the series. The pick of the scullers here has to be Cleugh from Durham Amateur. With a huge performance against senior athletes at Tyne Scullers Head recently, expect Cleugh (a J16 athlete) to out-pace his rivals including some seasoned senior competitors.
Open J18 Single
The only sculler likely to be faster than Cleugh is racing in the J18 Single. Burford, from Chester-le-Street, won the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup at Henley this year with St. Edwards and looks forward to a fast time that will probably place him as a clear winner on Saturday. Durham Amateur (Davison) and the Durham School sculler will continue their on-going friendly rivalry in the battle for second place. We will keep an eye on Hills from Chester-le-Street and Smith from Talkin Tarn in band 2 who both look strong coming into the LDS series.
Womens J17 Single
The Women’s J18 scull contains another large field, without a lot of information to go on, it will be interesting to see the early season pace of the scullers from St. Peter’s School and Tees. Most eyes will be on Stoker from Sunderland City given strong results last year, expect her to lead the field on Saturday.
Small Boats Head
The afternoon sees the Small Boats Head which includes sweep boats alongside sculling. With a large volume of boat classes, some with only a couple of entries we have chosen to preview what look to be the most competitive categories.
Open J18 Coxless Quad
Once again expect Yarm School to be the fastest on the water. Durham School ran them close all of last year however, having lost two key athletes, the crew that performed very well at Henley qualifiers last year are having to rebuild. Yarm should have the raw speed to see off both St. Peter’s and Durham.
Open J15 Coxed Quad
The successful launch of Lambton Rowing continues, and how encouraging to see entries such as the ‘Thomas’ crew in the J15 quads. George Watson’s, with two entries, are as always demonstrating the size of their squad and although the crew from Yarm should be towards the front of the pack, the winner will most likely come from one of the two Scottish crews.
Open Double
The Open doubles is a smaller field than predicted, but should be a very close race. There would be sound logic backing any of the crews from Durham Amateur, Tyne Amateur or York city, however it looks to be a second victory of the day for ‘Cleugh’ from Durham with York City coming a close second.
Open J17 Double
The pick of the junior double events is definitely the J17 category. After a strong regatta season earlier this year, Hexham are looking good. The only crew likely to challenge them will be ‘Jackson’ from York City, expect the victory to come from one of these two.
Open Single
The Open single sculls will see two familiar faces going head to head as Baird from Durham Amateur and Heslop from Hexham compete once again for North East bragging rights. Hulse had a promising start to the season at Tyne Scullers Head and Mangharam from St. Peter’s has good form, however, the prediction here is for Heslop to overturn the Tyne Sculler result and come away with a victory.
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