Women’s Eights Head of the River Race 2025 – Open Preview

The Women’s Head of the River Race race attracts 3,000 women, comprising over 300 crews from the UK and beyond. Following the recent cancellation of Henley Fours and Eights Head, there is anticipation as to whether rankings will shift in this next Tideway race. The open category is for the elite crews, and a staggering 16 crews have entered this year.

Leander Club

Leander have been hogging the headship since around 2016, which immediately poses scepticism as to whether they will let it go this year. While Leander ‘A’ are pretty much always front-runners, the depth of their squad should not go unrecognised, especially with A – D crews entered in the Open category this year. Notably, at the Women’s Head of the River Race 2023, Leander A and B placed first and second, obtaining the headship, second place award, and club pennant, with their D crew also within the top ten. Leander appeared in the top four U23 pairs and the top two U23 singles in the most recent February trials, and these bigger boats will no doubt demonstrate this same speed high in the ranks. Leander ‘A’ is likely to be a reprisal of the crew that took on and beat Cambridge last weekend in a Boat Race fixture (Eleanor Brinkhoff, Juliette Perry, Lauren Carey, Hannah Scott, Lauren Irwin, Eve Stewart, Philippa Emery, Annie Campbell-Orde and Jack Tottem, cox). The B crew – who raced Blondie – could well comprise Abigail Topp, Amelia Standing, Imogen Magner, Olivia Castillo, Amy Salesky, Lola Anderson, Phoebe Snowden, Isy Hawes and Erin Kennedy, cox.

Oxford Brookes University

Similarly to Leander’s streak at the top, Brookes have been biting at their ankles for a while and have now entered boats ranging from A to E in a full-fledged attack. At the Women’s Head of the River Race 2024, Oxford Brookes ‘A’ came second, the ‘B’ crew came fifth, and the ‘C’ crew narrowly missed a top-ten finish. At the 2023 edition, Brookes ‘A’ placed third, obtaining the third place award plus senior and university pennants, with their ‘B’ crew also finishing in the top ten overall. A lot has been made of the ongoing controversy surrounding Brookes and they have not had much opportunity to answer their critics in open competition. Whatever comes of the off-water investigation, you can be sure that Brookes will come out firing on all cylinders this weekend. Their pedigree in rowing is immense, and the expectation never seems to faze them. With athletes including Claire Feerick, Grace Richards, Rhianna Sumpter and Martha Birtles to call upon – the latter of whom is returning from a Great Britain development camp – you can expect fast times.

University of London Boat Club

UL are a club on the up, especially if you emphasise their slew of early 2025 results. Based on previous Women’s Head of the River Race results, it looks like they will be finishing in the top ten; their first women’s eight finished sixth in 2022, fifth in 2023, and fourth in 2024, so they are slowly moving up the ranks. This increase coincides with the move of their women’s coach, Tom Gale, from LEH in January 2022, where he and Smithy (the programme head coach) led two female eights to consecutive championship eight wins at the National Schools’ Regatta. More recently, UL won the women’s championship eight at Quintin Head but were just pipped to the post by Molesey at Hammersmith Head a few weeks later, leaving two UL crews to fill the silver and bronze medal positions. This crew will also be fully eligible for university this year, which will be their major aim regardless.

Thames Rowing Club

Thames are the dominant women’s club programme in the country. In 2023, they just missed out on a top-five finish at the Women’s Head of the River Race, contending with a ten-second penalty. However, last year, they came third, winning the third-place award and club pennant. Thames A raced the Cambridge ‘Blue Boat’ (another contender in this category) at the beginning of February, winning the first piece by six inches and losing the second piece by a third of a length. Led by Tom Mapp and captained by former Boat Race winner Rosa Millard, the Putney-based collective will be keen to ensure they retain their club headship.

Molesey Boat Club

Molesey are looking particularly strong this year, especially off the back of their aforementioned win at Hammersmith Head last weekend. This comes off the back of a recent fixture with Oxford University on the Tideway, so it is clear that their race stretch practice paid off and is likely to do so again this weekend. Molesey travelled to Boston alongside Leander at the Head of the Charles 2024, and whilst they couldn’t knock them off the podium, they still impressed with a top-ten finish in the open category.

Cambridge University

With just over a month to go until The Boat Race, Cambridge are always good to watch at this stage of the season and still hold the university record of 18:17.7 (set in 2017). Last year, they placed seventh overall, trailing just behind Molesey A, but were the fastest university crew, even with a five-second time penalty. Although Cambridge are not technically competing in the ‘open’ category, we think they’re worth mentioning in regards to the fact that their training will be on the up as they prepare for The Boat Race. After losing out to Leander’s top crew last weekend in two separate pieces, Paddy Ryan will be focused on honing his charges into the most formidable unit they can be approaching race day. Having enjoyed a fantastically successful 2024 – where they took victory against Oxford before making The Island Challenge Cup semifinals at Henley Royal Regatta – 2025 begins for the Light Blues on Saturday.

Predictions

Multiple top-tier crews will be vying for dominance here. History provides a solid reason for Leander to remain the favourites to retain their headship, but Oxford Brookes are expected to challenge once again. Considering recent results, it looks as though Molesey and Cambridge will be pushing for third. However, with several clubs rising through the ranks, I wouldn’t rule out any unexpected moves within the top ten as crews like Thames and UL continue their upward trajectory.

About The Author

Darcie Summers

Darcie had a successful junior career both nationally and regionally. After winning women’s champ eights with LEH in 2019, she has now returned to the school as part of the coaching team. She has recently started writing for JRN to solidify her involvement with the rowing world.

See author's posts