The apex of the pre-Christmas run is here. The Fours Head is the earliest indicator of speed we have to take with us into the long festive break as programs retire indoors and mileage is wracked up on machines across the land. Fours and quads taking to the water to rinse the reverse championship course is the natural progression after pairs, doubles and singles took their respective turns in the weeks beforehand. Winning at the Fours Head won’t secure you a red box come July but it does start to establish a pecking order and reveal the narratives that will need to be enforced or flipped in the summer.
Leander Club (A)
Leading us out are the fearsome foursome from Leander Club, the pink palace and the closest thing we have to rowing royalty. Three of this crew won the Prince of Wales Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta last summer and come into this race as firm favourites to take the headship. With the absence of Olympic-standard athletes – given the fact that Paris is mere months away and the trialing process formerly kicks off just a week later – this represents a real opportunity for these lads to take the racing head on. Miles Devereux, younger brother of Seb, is an internationally-minted sculler with a strange penchant for finishing seventh; he’s managed to win ‘B’ finals at successive U23 world championships alongside an identical result at the 2019 World Rowing Junior Championships.
Reading University
Likely to be one of Leander’s closest challengers, and hunting them down from slot two on the docket, Reading University have made a real fist of establishing themselves as perennial challengers in the UK sculling bracket. The zenith of their recent exploits arguably came in 2022, when their top quad finished as beaten finalists in the Prince of Wales Challenge Cup to – you guessed it – Leander Club. This boat will be desperate to start reversing the natural order. With only one returner from last year’s ‘A’ boat – Josh Lyon, who has already taken the U23 title at the Vesta Scullers Head of the River this season and won the men’s edition of the 2023 Wingfield Sculls – this boat will be an interesting one to watch evolve over the coming months.
London Rowing Club/Maidenhead Rowing Club
A composite always stirs the blood and this crew are certainly a peculiar mix. Featuring two of the lads who won the Wyfold Challenge Cup in London colours last summer (Edoardo Marshall and George Cowley) alongside sculling extraordinaire Rui Xu and Maidenhead’s highly decorated Victor Kleshnev (fresh from the completion of his studies at Harvard University), this boat will be one to watch. As always, it’s difficult to ascertain how much preparation time they will have had but the raw talent on-board means they have to be taken seriously.
Nottingham University
A club on the rise, the University of Nottingham will be hard pressed to find the speed to overturn the leading contenders but the fact that they’re pitching up to race against the big boys demonstrates a heightened ambition across the green and gold. Lucas Salmon Hernandez represented Great Britain at the European Universities Rowing Championships in September, finishing eighth in the men’s lightweight double, whilst Dylan James raced in the Nottingham University Temple Challenge Cup crew which bowed out on day one to Harvard University.
Leander Club (B)
Somewhat disconcertingly, Leander B might be one of the front-runners in this event despite being the second-ranked boat from the club. Rowan Law, the final piece of the winning Prince of Wales Challenge Cup quad at Henley Royal Regatta in July, is the centrepiece of a crew that also contains Oxford Blue Tobias Schröder, who has switched his attention to sculling after years of sweep. Levin Graf, formerly of Durham University and a serial triallist, sits in the middle whilst Jack Keating, two-times Prince of Wales Challenge Cup winner in 2021 and 2022, completes a tasty line-up.
University of London
Generally known for their exploits with one blade, this UL crew are an interesting composition formed by head coach Smithy. Joshua Burke stroked their Temple ‘A’ crew at Henley Royal Regatta last summer whilst Jacob Ioras was a junior international in 2022 and comes with exceptional sculling pedigree after winning Henley Royal Regatta as a Windsorian schoolboy. Joe Middleton and Ioras teamed up to finish fifth in Open Double Sculls at the Pairs Head of the River a few weeks ago and would love to better that next Sunday.
Thames Rowing Club (A + B)
It wasn’t enough for Thames to simply slap everyone about in the club sweep events. Nope, now they’ve turned their attention to sculling. This group have been dedicated to bettering the high-performance sculling options at the Putney-based institution over the last year or so and have been enjoying moderate success. Both of their entries next weekend have talent well spread, including Zack Youell (former Henley Royal Regatta winner in the Thames Challenge Cup) Jake Brown (same winning crew as Zack in 2021), Joe Wolfin (a former Princeton heavyweight) and Henry Lambe (Abingdon schoolboy and Great Britain junior international). Although the ‘A’ crew look marginally stronger on paper, I will be very interested to see what happens when these two boats lock horns on home water.
Bath University
A club with a great deal to shout about, Bath had a blinding season on the men’s sculling side last year. Their two superstars – Cedol Dafydd and Jamie Gare – seem to have moved on but the promise of the program is still clear. With three returners from the crew that qualified for a hotly-contested Prince of Wales Challenge Cup in 2023, I expect this unit to be competitive and placed somewhere in the middle of the pack.
Prediction
Hard to look past that leading Leander unit – they’ve got the nous, horsepower and pedigree to sweep the field. Their strongest challenge is likely to come from Reading, Leander B, Thames and that London/Maidenhead composite.
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