Wallingford is typically the first race of the season for many school and club crews, with the 4, 250 metre course serving as a great testing ground for all the athletes, especially would-be triallists. Many GB Junior hopefuls race the tricky and technical Wallingford course in a single or double, with the outcome being a useful marker of how fast the individual athletes are in comparison to their rivals. Those who don’t place well then have over a month to gain speed before the GB Early IDs in Boston on the 16th November. This year the J18 Doubles category sees a comparatively small entry of 11 boats from 7 clubs, but the competition will be fierce, despite most of the top athletes being entered in the single, with steering playing a large part as always on the Wallingford course, with the tough S-Bends to navigate.
Emanuel School
Despite being a primely located Tideway school, based next to Barnes Railway Bridge, Emanuel have had very limited success in the last decade, with the last time they qualified a boat for Henley being in 2014. However, last season they focused on sculling, with their top boat at National School’s being a Champ 4x, which should mean that their current senior squad has a good grounding in it. The J18 2x entered into this event is stroked by Tom Marwood, who raced in their Non-Champ 4+ last season, coming a fairly respectable 4th in the B-Final of NSR. However, looking at the quality of their opposition I think it is unlikely they’ll be heading back to London with a tankard.
Maidenhead Rowing Club
Maidenhead are a club whose junior squad appears to have up and downs, with them currently being in a slight slump after their exceptional Championship Quad of Marshall, Kemp, Kleshnev and Rowe from 2018 that won National School’s and made the final of the Fawley. This entry appears to be made up of two J17’s, stroked by Oliver Evans, who won the B-Final of J16 2x at NSR back in May. Even though these two athletes will be competing against guys a year older than them, they should still be quick, and will be wanting a podium finish. They also have a serious advantage in that, unlike many schoolboy rowers, they’ll have had plenty of water time over the summer, probably partly in this crew.
Pangbourne College
Pangbourne are a school that usually sit at the upper end of the Non-Champ 8+ category, but they are not renowned for their sculling prowess. However, they have entered two crews into the J18 2x category at Wallingford- an A crew and a B crew, with the B crew being the only one with a name listed. Although I do not know who is racing in their first boat, it may be someone from last year’s 1st 8+ that came an impressive 3rd in the Champ/ Non-Champ 8+ B Final at NSR, winning them a bronze in Non-Champ 8+ in the process- meaning they probably wouldn’t be slow. Their J18 B 2x is stroked by Aleks Dekic, the 2 man of Pangbourne’s 2nd 8+ last year. He and his partner should also be fairly quick- but probably not in contention for a podium finish.
Royal Grammar School High Wycombe
RGS High Wycombe have also decided to enter two crews into the event, neither of whom are listed by name, making it virtually impossible to predict their speed down the course. However, as is the case with many state rowing schools, they find it difficult to field top crews, so rarely produce anything special.
Sir William Borlase’s
This double from Borlase’s is probably made up of J17’s, with the stroke man listed as Joeseph Hazlehurst, who was a member of their extremely successful J16 4x last season that sealed an impressive 4th at National School’s. His partner will most certainly also be a member of that crew, so I’m expecting these two experienced scullers to put down a quick time, and probably challenge for the win.
Wallingford RC
These two athletes will have the home advantage rowing on their normal stretch but looking at their results from last year and the fact that they’ll probably both be J17’s, I don’t think they’re going to be in the upper end of the results.
Westminster
It looks to me like the three doubles entered by Westminster are comprised of members from the lower end of their senior squad, with member of last season’s J16 1st and 2nd 8’s stroking two of the boats, with the other probably made up of J17’s as well. Only Westminster A, stroked by William Chen, is likely to be in contention, as Chen was in Westminster’s J16 8+ that won an impressive gold medal at NSR last season. Although they will probably have little practice in sculling boats, it will be interesting to see how fast all three crews can go.
Predictions
Although it is hard to call and results are often surprising this early in the season, I think that the crew from Borlase’s will probably take away the tankard, followed by Westminster A, with Maidenhead and Pangbourne not far behind. However, if there was to be an upset it would be in the form of Westminster.
MarginalGainz
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