GB selection news

Congratulations to the seven boys who have been invited to Easter assessment for the GB junior team.  After strong showings in their pairs at Boston, Will Kenworthy, James Gardner, Fred Vystavel, Chris Snowden, Rufus Stirling and Luke Briggs have earned themselves four days in exotic Nottingham.  Alastair Camm will be looking to keep the new coxes on the block in their place.

Trying times

Long Leave saw two sets of GB trials.  A typcally grey and cold weekend in Boston (Lincs) played host to the GB junior pairs trials yesterday and today.  Results for our boys were very encouraging, with three pairs in the top eight (Will Kenworthy and Chris Snowden were 5th, James Gardner and Fred Vystavel 7th, and Luke Briggs and Rufus Stirling 8th),  Charlie Cornish and Andy Barakat were a bit further back in 32nd.  Abingdon and Hampton also showed well, with two pairs each in the top four.

However, with three athletes in action a week earlier at the U23 trials on Dorney Lake, the signs are that the squad is in good health.  At those same trials Constantine Louloudis OE just missed out on the A final in the trials for the GB senior team.  Coming seventh overall with a partner who doesn't make the ergo cut-off time will no doubt have caused a few selection headaches...

Peterborough Cancelled

Stop press - Peterborough Head of the Nene has just been cancelled, so no racing for Upper Boats or Colts tomorrow.

Hampton still seems to be on.

A guide to racing categories

 

Hopefully the formatting on this will work.  This is taken from the 'Rowing Guide' page on the website and explains how British Rowing racing categories work:

 

Eton Year group	ECBC Group	Racing categories	Explanation
F	F	No external races	F race individually in singles and in house groups in quads
E	Junior Colts	J15A, J15B, J15 2nd	A and B denote a class of event - so small schools will race their A crews in a B event.  2nd crews must be a school's B crew or below
D	Colts	J16A, J16B Novice, Intermediate 3	See above for A and B crews.  Novice is for crews (of schools, clubs or colleges) who have no regatta wins.  Intermediate 3 is the next group up and will often involve club, college and lesser university crews, along with school 2nd/ 3rd VIIIs or Colts VIIIs
B,C	Upper Boats	J18, J18B, 2nd/3rd VII Intermediate 3,2,1 Senior, Elite	See above for A and B crews.  There are also specific categories for 2nd and 3rd VIIIs at National Schools and some other regattas.  See above for IM3.  IM2 is a good club/ college standard, often entered by 1st VIIIs early in the season, or good 2nd VIIIs.  IM1 is a high club/ college/ 1st VIII standard (Henley hopefuls).  The 1st VIII would only enter Senior or Elite when it was looking to be stretched by very strong crews.

Racing this weekend

This Saturday will see the club racing in two different venues, with some stern tests for newly selected crews.  Links to draws and directions are all available on the website, as is a glossary of some rowing terms.

Upper Boats and Colts head to the Nene in Peterborough.  Almost all boys will race in Division 3, which goes off at 1430.  The VIII will race in IM1 (Intermediate 1) and go off head after winning the event last year, the 2nd VIII race in IM2 and there are Colts A, B and C crews in the J16 category.  We have chosen not to use boys from Colts to make up a 3rd VIII on this occasion, so five boys from the 3rd VIII group will race in a coxed four in the 1200 division.  There is no crew in IM3, despite what is listed in the draw.

Junior Colts will race at Hampton, in three VIIIs.  An A crew will race in the J15A category, and two matched crews will race in the J15B category.  These are all in the second division at this event, which starts at 1400. 

Eton Invitational Head

Results from the invitational head race held at the lake on Saturday can now be seen on the website.  There was a great turn out, with seven other schools competing.  As ever, at this early stage of the half, there was plenty of racing in mixed VIIIs, but there were a number of encouraging results, and it was especially pleasing to see that our J15's clearly have some promise; some would have been rowing sweep for only the fourth time on Saturday. 

At the Upper Boats end of things it is a tough week coming up, and seletion is intensifying too, with a pairs matrix today and some important testing to come in the near future as we start to settle into crews.

The first big test for many will come on the weekend of the 5/6th February, when Upper Boats and Colts travel to Peterborough, and Junior Colts race at Hampton. 

New Boat Club vehicle

Through the generosity of the Eton Vikings' Fund we have now taken delivery of a smart second hand Discovery 3. This should hopefully mean an end to boys pushing trailers and minibuses out of muddy fields and will mean that we don't have to hog the school minibus fleet quite so much.  With towing vehicles and trailers now all at the boathouse it should make our operation a good deal more efficient too.  With the arrival of a new Hudson eight, coxless four and pair, there has been plenty for the boys to get excited about at the start of the half.