Wallingford this year was uncharacteristically choppy – the usually calm waters were unrecognizable, with actual waves rolling down the longer straights – due to the massive tailwind. While this made racing quicker, it also made it much more difficult, and the race became a test not only of strength and fitness but also skill and the ability to handle oneself under the pressure of such challenging conditions.
J18 8+
St Paul’s will be very happy to take the 1st and 2nd positions here, and it sets them up well going into the head season. SPS aren’t usually a club that performs well in matched eights; perhaps this shows that this year, SPS will have significantly more depth than in years before. For the faster of the two matched eights to set the fastest junior time of the day – faster than the Winchester 1st VIII – is pretty impressive. Radley only had one eight race on the day – so I hope for their sake the eight that finished 3rd in J18 8+ wasn’t their 1st VIII! It’s worth mentioning Hampton performing well as usual in their matched eights, with one blighted by steering issues. While I don’t think they’ll challenge in the 1st VIII, their 2nd VIII will likely be strong, as is often the case.
J18 4+
It’s good to see Winchester putting in a dominating performance in this event. Granted, their competition wasn’t the strongest, but they posted a quick time and they’ll be very happy with it. After a decent result in the eight, these top four guys are showing themselves to be able to really mix it with the more established Championship schools, and for such a young crew they’re performing admirably. Watch out for Winchester in the Summer.
WJ18 8+
A fantastic win by Henley in this event, and with a quick time, too. Not much to be said here, other than Headington will have to really watch out if they want to retain their ChG8+ title at NSR. The Henley girls are looking very, very strong.
WJ18 4+
Clearly the strongest girls in the Headington squad were entered here, and certainly Headington dominated this event. They’re not short on strength and depth, but as I said before, Henley are looking increasingly strong. I have a feeling that the rivalry is only going to intensify over the Summer, where these two powerhouses meet on a regatta course.
J16 8+
Great Marlow took this pretty easily, but as stated in the preview, this is likely because they entered a 1st VIII rather than a matched 8+. However, they looked strong, and I’d suggest they’ll grow in quality. They’re in their 1st VIII pretty early, and it’s important they change it up a bit to stop themselves stagnating. St Paul’s took a fine 2nd place in their matched 8+, a fair way ahead of SWB. SPS’s strong J15 squad have nicely made the transition to J16, and I think they’ll be challenging for the medals in the Summer in J16CH8+.
WJ16 8+
No prizes for guessing who took this – Henley RC, by over 2 minutes! They weren’t presented with the strongest competition, but this is a very strong performance from the girls in blue, and it looks likely that they’ll have the same spread of fantastic results across all age groups as they did last year.
That concludes Wallingford Head. Next stop: Sculler’s Head!
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