The Pairs Head of the River 2014 Preview – Women’s J18 Doubles

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A total of 29 entries in this event, with some of the crews racing for the first time since the start of the season. A number of these crews have already raced at the Wallingford LDS however, and so may have a slight advantage over the rest, coming into the Pairs Head. This is certainly an event to be watched, as success for a crew on the Tideway this Saturday, will show where they stand in terms of the top junior women scullers in the country. This is also a very diverse event, with entries from clubs such as Liverpool Victoria and St Neots, in addition to the array of entries from more local clubs. A number of these crews are racing as J18s for the first time, and so their results as J16s must be taken into account. For that reason, Weybridge (Wheeldon) are my favourites to win this event, having recently won this same event at Wallingford. This crew were also the second fastest in the time-trial in the J16 doubles, at last year’s NSR. Wheeldon also raced on her own in the J17 singles at Wallingford and placed second. This Weybridge crew seems to be on top form recently and I expect them to win by a fair few seconds. Two seconds behind Weybridge at NSR, were Latymer (Woolley), who didn’t race last Saturday, although they have shown themselves to be quick in the double and I expect them to do very well come Saturday. Also of note are the crew from Surbiton High School. At last year’s Nat Schools’, Surbiton’s Anderson came third in the J17 singles and represented GB at the annual GB – France match. With results like these, she is set to do well. The question is whether she will be able to carry this success from the single into the double at Pairs head. As always another crew to watch out for are the Scullers crew. Tideway Scullers continue to succeed year after year at the biggest events, and Pairs head is usually no exception. I would expect TSS (Saunders) to take one of the top spots on Saturday, as Saunders took Gold in the women’s J16 singles at the British Rowing Junior Championships in July. On the basis of all of these results, I would expect the Weybridge crew to win on Saturday, followed relatively closely by Scullers and the duo from Latymer, coming in third.

Dr Oarsome

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Dr. Oarsome

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