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As the winter months begin to close in and the days shorten, the races start to get longer. This is the early stages of the head season and Wallingford is one of the first in the calendar making it a perfect opportunity for clubs and schools to assess how their team is doing and who put the time in over the summer. As evident in this draw, this leads to multiple entries from some schools, so it will be interesting to see who comes out on top.
Headington
Headington has entered two boats in this category. Their previous success in this race has been limited and last year the best result they secured was 6th. However, Headington had a very good summer season. If you look at the J16 results from Henley Women’s Regatta, both their quad and four made it into the semi-finals and the quad made it one further into the finals. This is an excellent indicator that they have a strong squad and I’m sure they will be hoping they can carry this success into this season.
LEH
LEH has also entered multiple boats, 9 to be exact. LEH has an undeniably good reputation and last season some of these girls had strong J16 seasons. Taylor and Supple both competed in the WJ16 quad that came 4th at the Junior Sculling Regatta. This is just one example from a squad that has a lot of talented rowers, so there will be some good results from this cohort.
Emanuel
This category last year was dominated by Emanuel girls, with their doubles coming 1st and 2nd and overall they had a very good previous season. A WJ16 double came 1st at Pairs Head in the club category and they had a good Henley Women’s Regatta, with Polak rowing in the 8+ that lost out to Henley in the quater finals. They will be aiming to improve on this and Wallingford will be a good starting point.
Maidenhead
Maidenhead is a club that has a very good reputation for producing excellent results, last year their junior double made it into the quarterfinals of HWR and at The Scullery Stuij raced in the WJ16 doubles and placed a respectable 3rd in the B final. So these two doubles from Maidenhead could be the ones to look out for if they can start the season off on the right foot and build off the results of last season.
Predictions:
It’s hard to predict the outcome of these early races, especially when taking into consideration the summer break many of these school girls will have had. But based off the results from last season and squad reputation I think LEH will have strong contenders but also Emanuel have a good track record in this race so they might pull something out of the bag. There is also a crew from Henley that could perform well.
SweepingSculler
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