The first main regatta of the season is upon us, a vital form test for crews entering summer racing and a chance to lay down a marker for the fast approaching National Schools Regatta. Most of the big names in J16 quads are racing, making this a good form predictor for national schools.
There are some faster heats than others but the fastest losers system should see the right crews progress through to the final. It is worth noting that some crews will have had much harder earlier races then others and this will add up, potentially influencing the results.
City of Bristol
This crew has to be one of the favorites to win this event. They won the brutally shorted Schools Head of the River Race, a notable victory for not one of the traditionally big names on the junior scene. The next day, at the Junior Oarsport Scullery, they came third conceding 3 seconds to Marlow who they beat by 2 only the day before. The less unpredictable conditions of the scullery gives this result slightly more meaning. That being said, their B crew finished 6th overall at the scullery close to their A crew so this squad has good depth to draw on if changes have been made.
Tideway Scullers
This crew won the Scullery but surprisingly did not race at Schools Head the day before. This would have given them fresher legs but their victory is nonetheless worthy of note. Having spoken about tough heats, this crew has the highly competitive Marlow crew in their heat which will likely see a tough tussle, in contrast to the slightly easier races the other favorites have.
Marlow
Marlow results from Schools Head and the Scullery are ones of impressive consistency but ones that will have had the boys training even harder over Easter. I say this as they came second a both, losing to two different crews. They should take confidence from overturning their schools head defeat to City of Bristol but they are undoubtedly bitterly disappointed from losing to Tideway Scullers. This extra motivation and their pedigree makes them one of the favorites for the win.
South African Schools Rowing Union
These boys are the ultimate dark horses. Any race results are null and void as this crew will be made up of the best that South African Sculling has to offer, unsurprisingly these crews are always pretty fast. There is some yearly variation but last years lot were fast, coming close to winning Wallingford J16 eights and pushing Hampton’s J16s to a one bow-ball win margin at Bedford. Their form is hard to guess but I’ll take a leap of assumption and predict them to win
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