Ever the loyal regional reporter, the last few weeks have seen me travel from Plymouth to Penrith, Bristol to Bradford, and Chester to Cambridge, checking out some of the greatest regional rowing there is to offer in the process. Unfortunately, in that time, I also had to hold my breath, bite my upper lip, and wash my hands very, very thoroughly as I headed to the big smoke itself to see provincial crews go hammer and tongs down the Tideway in search of the most coveted silverware in regional rowing – the Women’s Eight’s Head of the River Race (WEHoRR) provincial pennant and the Jackson trophy.
At WEHoRR, it was all change at the top of the provincial field as Nottingham squeaked to victory in the Provincial Pennant by only 0.3 seconds over City of Cambridge. These two crews managed to put a sizable gap between themselves and third-placed City of Bristol. Congratulations must go to Nottingham for retaking the pennant they last won in 2023. Hopefully, they can use this as a springboard to Wargrave qualification and beyond. Losing top spot by such a very slim margin must hurt for sure, and it would be easy to get demoralised, but I am sure that City of Cambridge will be back in earnest to try and claim provincial top spot once regatta season gets underway.
Just off the podium was the crew from Worcester, whose recent pedigree in smaller boats seems to have translated into 8+ speed this winter, perhaps indicating some good recruitment or greater depth within the squad. Scots abound as St Andrew round out the top five. Whilst Scottish crews tend to be more choosy with which of the ‘big’ summer events they attend (after all, it is an awful long way down the A1 to Dorney), I am sure this crew will be looking to take some silverware north of the border once the weather warms up.
Heading further south, we saw strong performances from Tyne and Agecroft to take 6th and 7th respectively, before arriving at perhaps the most notable provincial result of the WEHoRR, Pennant Holders Cantabrigian in 8th. Perhaps previous years’ success has come at the cost of developing new athletes, or the drive for ever higher levels of performance has resulted in burn-out, or perhaps the crew simply had one bad row (we’ve all been there) – who knows. What I can say for sure is that Cantabs and coach Tom Copeland will not take this result lying down and will be back with fire in their bellies when the weather gets warm.
Rounding out the top 10 were Royal Chester, whose women are fast establishing themselves as a squad to be reckoned with, as well as Derby, winners of the small club pennant (and given their recent results I would argue are small-no-more) who, like their west-midlands rivals Worcester, have translated small boat speed from last summer into a pennant-winning performance this time around.
On an admission of personal laziness, I’d written the men’s section of this article mentally before boats took to the water at Head of River Race (HoRR). Most of the major contenders for the Jackson Trophy had taken to the water at Trent Head a few weeks prior, and Jackson Pennant holders Royal Chester had been the class of the field, followed by Nottingham, Agecroft and Tyne. Fast forward to HoRR and the unthinkable happened. Agecroft managed to close the gap and push themselves into the winning position, with Tyne having a strong row to push Royal Chester into 3rd place, leaving a fair amount of head-scratching to be done in all three camps.
Agecroft did well to find the speed needed in such a short time, especially with the number of new members when compared with the 2024 crew. But, I think it’s too early to write off Chester after just one race – after all the margins at the top were close, with 4th placed City of Bristol finishing within 10 seconds of the winning time.
The third row of the grid was an east-midlands lockout with Nottingham and local rivals Derby in 5th and 6th respectively, demonstrating a concentration of talent in a relatively small area that should not be overlooked. 7th place was taken by an 1877 Club (Durham University Alumni) crew which looked strong on paper but perhaps suffered from the inevitable degree of unpreparedness which comes with being an alumni crew. Heading north over the border, we find St Andrew making their strongest showing in several years, and the Edinburgh-based crew will certainly be contenders when they make their way down south again in the summer months. In my December edition, I noted the emergence of a strong-looking squad at Hereford and I am pleased to see them romp to a 10th placed finish in the Jackson.
Looking at the top 10, perhaps the only surprising omission is any club from Cambridge, perhaps the high concentration of competitive clubs in just one small city is spreading their talent base, preventing any Cambridge crew from being serious Jackson contenders (albeit this problem seems to be exclusive to the men’s crews)
Often overlooked, the second eights of both sexes often make for interesting results. It’s fairly usual to see second eights break into the top 10 in the standings, but this did not happen this year*, a testament to the sheer number of provincial programmes able to produce strong crews this winter, and a sign of the ever-growing strength of provincial rowing programmes. On the women’s side, City of Cambridge managed to turn over Nottingham to take the title of fastest provincial second 8+, testament to how closely matched these squads seem to be this year.
On the men’s side of things, nobody seems to be able to match the strength in depth of City of Bristol whose 2nd 8+ placed 11th* beating several A boats from strong clubs, and whose 3rd 8+ managed a top 20 finish, squeaking clear of the Royal Chester 2nd 8+ who finally appear to be establishing performance on a deeper level.
It’s no secret that the head season is less glamorous, interesting, and enjoyable than the regatta season. But, for provincial crews, it allows a shot at silverware without the inevitability of having to overhaul the juggernaut Tideway clubs to take the win, and I will only ever see that as a bonus. On the plus side, regatta season and small boats racing can give provincial clubs opportunities to excel (see Royal Chester’s 2024 coxed four) and this could well be the year we see some coveted club red boxes leaving the Thames Valley for the first time since 2012.
*the official HoRR results include Glasgow University as a Jackson crew – perhaps they fielded some non-student athletes to make the boat, but one would expect them to enter university events this summer, hence their absence from the main body of the article.
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