The first major side by side of the season, and with less than a month to go until National Schools’ Regatta, a vital piece of preparation for all of these crews. Much is made of the J16 year, it is a transition towards the top end of the junior rowing scene and the piping hot waters of the Championship events. This J16 event has 11 entries this year, with only Westminster and Eton doubling up.
Eton College BC
Two boats coming from Eton, both of which are racing on home water, with the event being at Eton Dorney. Eton have a strong J16 programme every year, with vast depth and quality to their crews. This year is no exception to that, with two crews labelled A and B, so i would assume these to be Eton’s top offerings from their J16 squad. Eton have had a good head season with their top 8 winning the J16 Championship 8s at Schools’ Head against a high quality field, with their B crew winning J16 2nd 8+. Eton don’t tend to race a lot in the Head season, as demonstrated by a lack of results but have had an Easter training camp overseas, so will really be a threat to this event, especially seeing as Eton tend to come into their own in the summer season.
Shiplake College BC
A name rapidly becoming one of the top dogs across the junior rowing scene, Shiplake seem to have a fast J16 8+ again this year. This crew has form to back them up, with a commanding win at Reading Uni Head and Henley 4s and 8s, and a solid 2nd place at Quintin Head. They took 4th place at Schools’ Head, albeit a fair way off those crews ahead of them. Nevertheless, Shiplake again, have been on a training camp in France, and will no doubt be looking for a good result come Saturday.
St Pauls School BC
So often associated with top end junior crews, St Pauls look to have another solid J16 cohort this year. So far, they have seemed to struggle to quite scale the heights of last year, but that isn’t to say they are not in the mix. They took a 3rd place finish at Quintin Head, with their Head season culminating in a 5th place finish at Schools Head. As is the way with many of these crews, they had a training camp in Portugal over Easter so will no doubt have found speed, the question is, how much?
Westminster School BC
Stalwarts of junior rowing, Westminster have a two boat entry here looking to see what they can do at this early stage of the season. Westminster have found the very top end of the J16 scene hard to access for the past couple of seasons now, so they are hoping this squad is the one to buck the recent trend. They had a two boat entry at Quintin Head, with boats finishing 1st and 9th, and another strong pair of results at Schools’ Head, finishing 2nd in J16 Championship 8s, and their B crew finishing 2nd in J16 2nd 8s. Another really strong entry in this event, who will be looking to turn the tables on Eton from Schools Head’
St Edwards, Shrewsbury, Radley and Hampton finished 6th, 8th, 9th and 10th respectively at Schools Head so we could see a titanic battle amongst these crews, but the margins to the crews in front of them from Schools Head means they may not challenge the top end of the event, although Radley in particular have a habit of picking up speed late in the season so you never know.
The final set of crews that make up the draw are Kings College School, Dulwich College, South African Schools Rowing Union and St Georges College, these crews will all be strong entries, but I don’t see them challenging the more established crews in this event.
Predictions
A tough event to call, with it being unpredictable as to how crews will fare over 2000m rather than the longer head races that all these results represent. I think home water will be the difference for Eton, so with that in mind, my top 5 would be
- Eton A
- Westminster School A
- Shiplake College
- St Pauls School BC
- St Edwards School
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