The season started for many schools at the Wallingford Heads, now it is the turn of the respective regatta to kick off the regatta season for the majority of these crews. Some of these crews have members who will be racing for GB in Munich over the weekend (best of luck to them), and will as a result be missing their top athletes. This event is one of the final indicators of sprint speed in preparation for National Schools’, and the reason why we all go through our enduring programmes. The start of an eight’s race makes up for all the hours.
Abingdon School
An overall 5th placing at Schools’ Head means Abingdon will be one of the top School 8s racing at Wallingford. After a camp at La Base, they should have found some more speed.
Bedford School
Fresh off the back of their camp on Sarnen, where Bedford always seem to transition strongly out of the head season, Bedford will use this regatta to no doubt compete against the traditional Championship clubs as they make the step up to race Championship 8s at National Schools’. However, Bedford will be racing without their best man Connor Sheridan, who after a series of strong performances at trials earned his second GB vest. Who knows how much of a loss this will be to their eight.
Eton College
Eton will be missing two athletes to Munich, Max Shakespeare and Max Ridgwell. This crew entered may well be their second eight. However, with home water advantage, a 2nd place at BASHER regatta and overall 4th at Schools’ Head, Eton’s second 8 is still one of the top schoolboy eights in the country.
Hampton School
Hampton camped this year in Seville, where they opted for one of the strangest riggings I have ever seen with 3 buckets in middle 6. I would be intrigued to see whether they have kept it up to this point. How much free speed has is brought them?
Latymer Upper School
Latymer finished 8th at Schools’ Head and, with the help of their new Hudson USP, will want to also challenge the Championship clubs. That being said, Latymer have kept their top boat quiet since Schools’ Head and instead have been racing their 2nd 8. With no 2nd 8 entered at this event, this could very well be their 2nd 8 racing again.
Radley College
Radley are losing their Henley finalist at Head of the Charles winner Archie McChesney also to the Munich squad. They were overall 15th at Schools’ Head after a late arrival to the start meant they did not start with the other Championship crews. They will want to prove that this result was just a blip.
St Paul’s School
Another school that could be fielding just their 2nd 8 are St Paul’s. This should be no worry though, they finished inside the top 10 at Schools’ Head and beat the KCS 1st 8 in training races while on camp in Portugal.
Westminster School
It seems like the top quad is still the priority for Westminster this season, so they have slightly dropped down the rankings for the 8s. Potentially, they can improve on their head season results and challenge for a top 3 finish at the event.
Looking at the crews entered into the Schools B 8+ we find there are a number of crews with no entry in the A category: Canford, King’s College, Monmouth, Shiplake and Shrewsbury. This could be that first crews have dropped down into this category, or that they are in fact second crews and top crews from these clubs are not racing. Also entered into B 8+ is the South African Schools Rowing Union, who annually make the trip to race at Wallingford. After racing them last year, I remember they were not a highly competitive squad. However, as we know from the Italians who raced at Schools’ Head, results from previous years can mean nothing.
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