As we approach the end of the fall rowing season, Wycliffe Rowing Club will be hosting a small boats head on December 4th. As the temperature drops below ten degrees Celsius, boats of one, two, or four people will be facing off at the Gloucester Berkeley Canal in a race of about 2500 meters. The Junior 15 quad event will consist of ten boats from six different schools. Here is the breakdown of the race:
Queen’s Park High School (QPH):
Queen’s Park High School has entered two boats into the race on Saturday — one stroked by Hall-Jones, and the other stroked by Howard. The former boat raced at Chester LDS and pulled an impressive time of 19:23 for five kilometers. Not accounting for the speed increase due to shorter distance, this equates to a time of fewer than ten minutes on this 2.5-kilometer course. In 2019, the winning time was just over ten minutes, at 10:04.6, putting Queen’s Park High School’s boat in a good spot to take first place, even if the course is just above the 2.5 km distance. While there was not much data for Howard’s boat, Queen’s Park High School’s record certainly indicates that both of their crews will be worth watching.
Wallingford RC (WRC):
Wallingford Rowing Club has registered one boat for this race, led by Gunn. Wallingford RC doesn’t have a lot of experience in their younger quads. However, they placed first and third at the Marlow Town Regatta in their J15 4x+. They also performed well in their J16 quads, earning the top spot out of 5 with a time of 16:05.0. If these past performances are any indication of their skill ahead of this race, they will certainly be competitive.
Hereford Cathedral School (HCS):
Hereford Cathedral School also has one boat in this race. While they have not raced in many major youth regattas over the last few months, Urbanski, who is the stroke seat of the boat racing at Wycliffe, achieved third place at a recent race in a double. Other than this, not much has been seen from the Hereford Cathedral School, which is near the Hereford Rowing Club, and has a lot of rowers which train at both. But this does not mean they are not in the running for the upcoming race.
The King’s School, Worcester (KSW):
The King’s School, Worcester has placed two boats in this race, stroked by Austin and Watson. This boat club has put up many times both at Wycliffe Head in past years and other regattas in recent time. They placed first at last year’s Wycliffe Big Head 2020 in the J16 4x, with a time of 16:06.4, almost 40 seconds ahead of any other boat. The King’s School also placed fourth in the 2019 Wycliffe Small Boats Head, not too far from the first place boat. In the National Schools’ Regatta of 2019, the Worcester School had two boats pull around a 7-minute time for a 2000 meter piece, a good pace to be competitive in this regatta.
Monmouth Comprehensive School (MOC):
The Monmouth Comprehensive School has two boats entered into this race. Momouth has been a frequent participant in the Wycliffe regattas. In 2020, although they placed the last two spots in the Wycliffe Big Head J14 4x+, they pulled impressive times of 20:56.9 and 21:20.7. Because those were J14 rowers last year, they will likely be among those racing in the J15 category this year. Just the year before, they came third in the J15 4x+ race with a time of 11:08.3. While this is not the fastest time compared to the other boat crews, it is certainly not far from the other times.
Royal Grammar School, Worcester (WRG):
The Royal Grammar School has registered two boats for the race. In the past, they have competed at the Wallingford LDS, where they rowed a time of 18:24.1 for 4250 meters. They also rowed a time of 12:32.6 at the Wycliffe Small Boats Head 2019, placing 5th in the J15 4x+ event. While these times are less competitive than the performances by the other crews in the same crew, two years is certainly enough time to turn that around.
Prediction:
While all of these rowing clubs have shown impressive times in the past, it’s impossible to ignore Queen’s Park High School’s crew’s time in past races. They have rowed at at paces that would’ve won Wycliffe in races that were double the distance. For that reason, I predict that Queen’s Park High School will take the top spot in this event.
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