Wallingford LDS will kickstart the season for many clubs after a well-earned rest period and sees many top juniors return to the circuit. The J18 1x field is relatively large and is dominated by scullers from Winchester, who make up 9 of the 20 entries, the most notable of these entries being from trialist Hugo Durward. However, he will face stiff competition from experienced sculler Tyler Skow as well as entries from PE finalist St Pauls.
ASL- Skow & Troyer
Tyler Skow is no stranger to great results and he is a very competitive sculler, winning J16 1x Gold at NSR lat year as well as producing strong rows at February Long Distance Trials. I’m not sure if he plans to trial this year but regardless we can expect some solid performances again this season. I think he’ll be incredibly tough to beat due to his pedigree and we can expect to see him at the very top of the results this weekend. He is racing Elite 2x in the first division presumably with other J18 1x entry ASL Troyer. Although is a powerful statement early in the season I don’t expect to see Troyer getting the better of his crew ate in the single.
Winchester- Durward
Hugo Durward is one of several in this event who is more used to one oar rather than two. Yet I believe he is capable of giving Skow a run for his money. Durward has been producing consistently solid results all of last season notably in his pair at the Long Distance Trials in February and the Selection Regatta in April. He, along with the majority of the other Winchester entries formed the backbone of the school eight that lost to Shrewsbury in the first round of the PE. A result he’ll be hoping to make amends for.
St Pauls- Woods, Waller & Guy
Both Woods and Waller were in the St Pauls eight that made the final of the PE at Henley. While this is an incredible result, I doubt given the sweep pedigree that these two will challenge for bragging rights this weekend. It will be interesting to see how they fair and if this influences coach Bobby Thatcher’s decisions for Early I.D Trials in a few months times. Guy raced in the 2nd eight at National schools and will inevitably be hunting a place in the top crew this year but I don’t think he will have the speed to match his fellow Paulians.
HWG- Munby
RGS High Wycombe has produced some quality sculling crews over the past few years. Their most notable achievement is a crew in the Fawley every year since 2013. Thus having said all that I expect to see the High Wycombe sculler be competitive this weekend, not necessarily winning but pushing the top scullers all the way down the course. I expect to see another strong quad this year from RGS HWG and it will be interesting to see how this sculler fairs.
My Prediction…Skow to take the win closely followed by Durward with the others fighting it out for the rest of the rankings.
6 Man
J18 2x is a relatively small field with only six entries. At first glance, the draw looks relatively open for anyone to come away with the win.
WRC- Wardle
On the home water, this crew will hope to take advantage of the familiar waters and come away with a solid result. Wallingford entered two doubles in CH2x at National Schools and they will be wanting to improve on that sub-par performance.
ASL- Mannhardt
I believe this double to be made up of rowers from the J16 4x last year. It is unsure how fast this combination will be as their quad scratched at Nat Schools and both doubles gave poor performances at the Sculling Regatta the next day. I hope ASL have regrouped and are firing again and are up for a tough race. Sadly, given previous performances I don’t expect to see them take the win this weekend.
SPS- Calato
Calato has had sculling experience over the past year. He was entered in Ch4x at NSR and presumably sculled at the fours head. Both he and his partner will hope to capitalise on this experience and try to turn it into a race winning formula.
EVE- Bennett & EVE- Edwards
Both these Evesham doubles are doing just one division thus they will want to use their fresh legs to their advantage. Evesham kept quite a quiet profile on the national circuit hence it is difficult to judge the speed of these crews. Despite this, anything can happen on the rowing course as we all know therefore it is extremely difficult to tell how these crews will fair.
WIN- Gunner
Given that the top rowers are battling out in singles, I expect that these two scullers from Winchester are slightly less experienced than their schoolmates in the singles. Nevertheless Coming from a high-quality system like Winchester I expect to see these a strong row from these two given the size of the field.
My Prediction…This category is particularly difficult to call due to size and great unknown factor hanging over all the crews. I’m going out on a limb and saying I don’t know who to predict but it will be interesting seeing how these doubles compare with the rest of the division and elite doubles from division 1.
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