Women’s Eights Head of the River Race 2025 – View from the Towpath

As one of the most anticipated events in the women’s racing calendar, Women’s Eights Head of the River truly attracts the masses. It was no different this year, with more than 300 crews taking to the water, which was fitting given the alignment with International Women’s Day. Cancellations have riddled the head season again, with many key lead-up events scratched, so it was all to play for on the Tideway this weekend.

The sharp end of the racing in the Open category saw Leander Club A retain the all-important headship held since 2017, potentially at no surprise given the peppering of Olympic medalists throughout the crew, including Hannah Scott, Annie Campbell-Orde, and Eve Stewart. With Leander almost eight seconds clear of the rest of the field, this year’s surprises appeared in the crews that followed or perhaps didn’t follow, in this case. For starters, one would expect to see the Pink Palace’s second crew mere seconds behind, but a time penalty for warming up in the marshalling zone saw them bumped down to outside the top ten, from sixth on time-only, finishing in positions lower than their third and fourth crew teammates.

Thames Rowing Club A picked up second place, putting in a stellar performance and coming out less than eight seconds from the headship time. The programme’s success over recent years was rightly highlighted by coach Joanne Harris on social media as she reflected on her own best Women’s Head of the River Race placing as a rower – 20th in ‘Thames B’ in 2014. This time around, the equivalent crew came in less than 22 seconds behind their top outfit over the Championship Course – placing sixth – with two more crews making appearances in the top 20: a stunning display of the depth of this embankment programme.

Cambridge University Boat Club‘s blue boat retained the title of the University pennant whilst also snatching the title of fastest overall university crew from the grasp of Oxford Brookes University Boat Club, who finished in what must be a disappointing fifth place. This certainly stands the Light Blues in good stead looking to the rest of the season, including their fixtures, and it’ll be interesting to see whether Brookes come out all guns blazing in their CUBC fixture having pulled out of racing Oxford last weekend.

An impressive performance also came from Club pennant winners, Molesey Boat Club, placing fourth and tenth, with Thames, Leander and the University of London rounding out the top ten – again noting a distinct lack of navy and maroon. Brookes rounded out the day with fifth, 15th and 23rd – a dramatic fall from grace compared to previous years, and a fairly monumental shift in the seeding looking ahead to next year’s race.

CUBC were undoubtedly the day’s standout performer on the University side, with the provisional ‘Blondie’ crew also placing as the fastest of the University ‘B’ boats – including pipping Durham’s top outfit to place 16th. Newcastle University Boat Club continued their good form after winning the women’s championship eight title at BUCS Head with a 12th-placed finish overall. Perhaps not the best day to be in the palatinate camp, Edinburgh also beat Durham by more than ten seconds in revenge for their BUCS bronze, leaving DUBC to finish in 18th place.

In the School/Junior event, Tideway Scullers School took home the glory, ending the reign of Headington School Oxford Boat Club, who placed more than six seconds behind, with Shiplake College Boat Club in third. This is another potentially surprising drop in placing from Headington, having achieved 17th overall last year but finishing in 29th this time around. Having seemed previously untouchable, could we be in for a changing of the guard at the summit of schoolgirl rowing?

In other awards, London Rowing Club improved two places on last year to take home the Senior Pennant in 13th, with Nottingham Rowing Club picking up Provincial Club – just 0.3 seconds ahead of City of Cambridge – and St Andrew Boat Club taking the Medium Club title back to Scotland. For these club crews, eyes may already be on potential pre-qualification for The Wargrave Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta, as many of those inside the top 50 at the Women’s Head of the River Race were looked upon favourably by the Stewards in 2024.

In an interesting take on entries, Bath University‘s A crew took home the Challenge Academic pennant despite their B crew having been bumped further up the start order to Senior University. Hot on their heels and less than a second behind, Glasgow University scooped the Challenge pennant. Crews breaking into the realms of top-50 seeding included those from Leander, Molesey, Irish University Colleges of Cork and Dublin, and default rivals, City of Cambridge and the City of Oxford.

For the women of rowing clubs up and down the country, this acts as a finale for the head season, and the focus now turns to the longer days of spring and the lactate of regatta season. Thames continue to dominate the club scene, but it’s certainly exciting to see them challenged by Molesey. With what could be perceived as the beginning of the end of the Brookes empire (we may come to regret this sentiment in the months to come) plus the addition of another Henley Royal Regatta women’s eights event – The Bridge Challenge Plate – it truly is all to play for in this boat class throughout the rest of the season.

About The Author

Lara Robinson

Having first sat in a boat aged 13 at Stratford upon Avon BC, Lara’s love for the sport has only gone from strength to strength. Now Women’s Captain at City of Oxford RC and in her second season writing for JRN, she primarily covers student and club level women’s rowing alongside her day job as a neuroscience researcher at the University of Oxford.

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