With this race being the first race back after strenuous rowing camps for many clubs, it will be interesting to see how their hard work has paid off. As this is one of the last events at Eton Dorney before NSR at the end of May, this will give us a good idea of how the results will play out this season. For this race, the best way of comparing results is to look back at Schools Head of the River and Women’s Head of the River from March. Obviously, the change from over 6km to 2km means the race will test their power rather than endurance and so it will be interesting to see how the results from head season compare with those of the regatta season.
With 12 entered into this category, it means that the top half of boats will make it into the final which ensures that every boat will be fighting for their place.
Haberdasher’s Monmouth School for Girls – This crew placed 7th at SHORR in the 1st Schools 8+ category. This places them in the lower half of the boats but they appear to have been training hard over the last few weeks and will no doubt be fighting for a place in the final. We can expect a strong performance from this crew.
Headington A & B boats – The A boat came 2nd in the Champ 8+ at SHORR and 5th in the Junior eights at WeHORR. The B boat came 3rd in SHORR 1st 8+ category. The crews have a fantastic history of results behind them that perhaps doesn’t quite match up with their results in School’s Head of the River in March. While they by no means placed badly, having won at the event last year, and at NSR and Women’s Henley, I feel they might have hoped for placings along the same lines. Having returned from their training camp over Easter, I imagine they will have been training exceptionally hard to return to their run of victories last year.
Latymer Upper School – Despite placing 6th/last in the Champ 8+, their timings in comparison with the boats in the 1st Schools 8+, show that they would have placed a close 3rd if they had been in this category which proves that their result will place them very highly amongst these other boats. They have also had several other results from throughout the season that have been very close to the top results at Quintin Head and Hampton Head earlier this season.
Lea – This crew placed 5th in the champ 8+ category at SHORR and 3rd at WeHORR among the other junior boats. I think that Lea have a high potential. They are made up of very strong rowers, containing half of the Marlow composite eight at the J16 GB vs France match last summer. They finished 5th at Hampton Head, only 5 seconds ahead of Latymer Upper and again their result at SHORR was only 6 seconds faster so I feel they might be very close when racing over the shorter distance.
Nottinghamshire County Rowing Association – This crew put on a very good show which gained them a close 2nd in the 1st 8+ category at SHORR. They appear to have achieved good results that I think could easily place them in the top half of the crews.
Royal Shrewsbury School – Placing 9th at SHORR 1st 8+ category, this crew has a small possibility of reaching the final depending on how their hard work is reflected by their result. Two of Royal Shrewsbury School’s girls eights raced at the 2017 Wallingford Head, coming third and fifth in their category which shows that they have been consistently placing highly and are capable of producing very high results.
Sir William Perkins – This crew do not have many results to compare from this season apart from a 4th place finish in the junior category at WeHORR; just 0.1 seconds ahead of Headington. With the list of Headington’s results from this season, it is easy to say that Sir William Perkins will be capable of placing very highly.
The King’s School Worcester – Having placed 12th at SHORR in the 1st 8+ category, this crew has the most to prove out of the crews who have recent results. A win at the Wycliffe Big Head in February proves that this crew are capable of good results and after heavy training, it will be interesting to see what this crew is able to do.
3 other crews entered into this category are: Putney High School, South African Schools Rowing Union and Surbiton High School, all of whom could have a high chance of reaching the final but with little evidence to back this up, I can’t be confident in the results.
In my opinion, we will see Headington A, Lea, Sir William Perkins, Nottinghamshire county rowing Association, Latymer and Headington B in the final with the first 3 taking the higher placings.
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