Schools Head 8th March

We had two crews in the Schools' Head on Friday 8th March, a J18 4+ made up of three seniors and a novice - Stewart Johnson from the novice A crew, Matt Allsopp, Ben Ade and Stephen Salter at stroke with Sam Billington as cox. They were our A crew on ability, although the entry showed them as Ryde B. They did brilliantly in a large field of 22, coming 7th just 20 seconds behind the winners. They struck a lower rate than other crews yet passed five boats and had a good overlap on a sixth by the finish. Considering they only had one outing together before the race, this is very promising. I think they should do the Nationals and perhaps get the club's first medal in Junior events.
The eight was a combination of the JS four and the rest of the novice A  with Clare Salter coxing. Putting two crews together for a race of this sort is a gamble and they didn't gel as one might have hoped. Nevertheless, they beat two crews to come 25th  in first eights, 44th of 51 J18 eights altogether.

By the way, this was the long course - the full Boat Race distance of 3 and a 1/4 miles.