The challenge pennant is my favourite at the Women’s Eights Head of The River Race. This club event provides the perfect racing opportunity for clubs of many sizes to come together and champion women’s rowing. This category comprises most of this year’s entries and is poised to provide close and exciting racing this weekend.
St Andrew Boat Club A
Making the trip down to London, St Andrew Boat Club A will aim to defend their title from last year when they won the overall Challenge Club pennant. As they haven’t done much racing against crews from the south, it is more difficult to predict how they will perform this year. However, I would not be surprised to see another strong performance from them this weekend.
Agecroft Rowing Club B
This Agecroft Rowing Club B crew has gained lots of racing experience in the lead-up to Women’s Head of the River Race of the River Race. They won the intermediate eights category at Head of the Trent and had a strong showing at Runcorn Long Distance Head. As a result, I expect Agecroft to come to the Tideway with the ambition of winning.
Vesta Rowing Club C
Vesta Rowing Club has multiple crews entered in the challenge category this year. With the advantage of being on their home water, Vesta C will be looking to improve on their seventh-place finish at Hammersmith Head and put down a strong result on Saturday in front of their home crowd, who are always an immense support along the Putney Embankment.
Mortlake Anglian & Alpha Boat Club A
Finishing second at Hammersmith Head in the intermediate eights category puts Mortlake Anglian & Alpha Boat Club in the spotlight this weekend. This strong performance will have planted doubt in the minds of the other crews, and starting at 124th behind Vesta C should result in some tight racing on Saturday.
Barnes Bridge Ladies Rowing Club A
Another crew with lots of Tideway experience is Barnes Bridge Ladies Rowing Club, who recently placed eighth at Hammersmith Head in the intermediate eights. Starting 125th this Saturday, there is a perfect opportunity for the mentioned Vesta, Mortlake, and Barnes Bridge crews to fight it out on the water this weekend.
Notable mentions
There are so many crews this weekend deserving of a notable mention, but at the top of this list is Grosvenor Rowing Club, who finished second in this category last year. Based on results from the Head of the Trent, I also expect Worcester Rowing Club A and City of Oxford Rowing Club B to perform well.
Predictions
This is a difficult pennant to predict, with many crews coming to race against each other for the first time this season. After some strong performances this season, I would expect Agecroft Rowing Club or Mortlake Anglian & Alpha Boat Club to do well, with the potential for any of the mentioned crews to come out on top.
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