The Start Line: Scullers Head and South Hylton LDS headline this weekend’s racing
Join us as we look ahead to a superb weekend of racing across the UK
Credit: Lauren Hazel Photos
Welcome back to The Start Line! We can’t wait for a full slate of racing across the UK this weekend.
Scullers Head kicks off the Tideway season
After a hiatus due to inclement weather 12 months ago, Scullers Head is back with a bang, which means we can officially declare open the Tideway season. For many, preseason training has just come to an end, but for hundreds more, the ominous gauntlet that is the Championship Course looms ahead. 601 scullers are set to race the full course from Chiswick Bridge to Putney Bridge, but this year’s edition of Scullers Head is a significant one as it’s the first following a partnership announcement between Scullers Head, the Wingfield Sculls, and the Doggett’s Coat and Badge Wager.
The new tie-up will see the winner of Doggett’s race compete at this year’s Scullers Head, and the fastest male and female scullers from Scullers Head will be invited to compete at the Wingfield Sculls on 26 October. As such, Coran Cherry returns from his Doggett’s victory and will line up with bow number 443 in a gigantic field of competitors.
Last year’s cancelled event has resulted in an incredibly talented field set to take to the water. The Women’s Championship, Senior, and U23 categories are oozing with pedigree, and much of it can be traced back to the purple palace that is the University of London BC. Two-time U23 World Champion  Jessie Martin will race on home water, but going up against her will be ULBC stalwart and now Leander Club rower, Georgie Robinson-Ranger. Before jumping into the Bridge Challenge Plate crew, Robinson-Ranger stormed to victory at Ghent and Wallingford in the single. Combine this with a second place at the Wingfields in 2023, and she’ll feel right at home on the Tideway. Rounding out this trio of ULBC students and alumni is Daisy Faithfull, who’s back in a single after winning gold at FISU in the Women’s Eight. We can’t mention Scullers Head without Reading University BC. Coming off the back of a historic season, the club will be looking to pick up from where it left off. After last season, they’ll need to build a new trophy cabinet, and early-season success could be coming this weekend. They send a strong contingent, including Meg Knight and Zara Povey, who won Championship Quads at Henley Women’s Regatta earlier this year.
Credit: Lauren Hazel Photos
The Open events are just as mouthwatering. Two of the top five scullers from 2023 are back, including the defending champion Jamie Copus. After spending the summer in the big boats, the Oxford Brookes BC man has been spending some time across the pond, and earlier this year, was three seconds away from being selected as the Lightweight Sculler to travel to Shanghai and represent the United States of America. He’ll be pushed hard down the course by Matt Long of Reading University BC. Long starts one place back on Copus and steps up after winning the Lightweight Singles two years ago. Long is also fresh off a U23 world championship campaign that saw him place fourth in the men’s Quadruple Scull. Fifth place two years ago was Tim Wilkinson of Greenbank Falmouth RC, and he’s back for more in 2025. We often see him amongst the entries for the Diamond Challenge Sculls or the Double Sculls Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta, and he’ll be a fierce competitor once again this weekend.
Elsewhere, expect some cracking performance from Thames RC’s Thames Cup winner James Beattie as well as ULBC’s Joe Middleton, who’s raised on the Tideway having rowed at St Paul’s Schools BC as a junior. After finishing 15th overall two years ago, Bryn Ellery is back to see if he can climb the rankings. The Old Windsorian is racing for Marlow RC, having spent a few years with Leander Club, winning the Prince of Wales Challenge Cup in 2022.
The junior events are also packed full of some of the best scullers from across the country. A whopping 76 athletes are set to race in the Open J18 event, up from 33 two years ago. In the field of 22 that will race the Women’s J18 event, watch out for tideway talent in the form of Barn Elms BC’s Ella McDougall, as well as Kate Cohalan and Jess Kerbiriou of Tideway Scullers School.
Long Distance Sculling series 2025 gets underway at South Hylton
For the next six weeks, all eyes will be on the north east of England as the 2025 edition of the Long Distance Sculling Series roars back into life this weekend. Each autumn, the Northern Regional Rowing Council, with the help of host clubs, runs the LDS over six consecutive weeks travelling around the region showcasing the very best of northern rowing.
The LDS series is for sculling boats only. There are prizes for winning crews in each event in each round and prizes for outstanding individual achievements in the series are given out at the AGM in the November following all of the racing. In 2024, all six rounds of the LDS were able to be held and organisers will be hoping for more of the same over the next six weeks! Hosted by Sunderland RC, the first instalment will see crews race over the iconic River Wear. The course this year is from just upstream of the A19 bridge to the Queen Alexandra Bridge downstream of the club house.
Many of the scullers, particularly in the masters events were in action last weekend and clubs from across the region made the trip to Newburn for the Tyne Scullers Head, hosted by Newcastle University BC. There a couple of scullers who will be looking to lay down a marker on home water, one of which is Hayden MacDonald. Racing in the Open Single Scull event this event, MacDonald was fifth in the Championship Single Scull at the National Schools’ Regatta earlier this year and is carefully curating a brilliant Beach Sprint CV Speaking of NSR, keep yours eyes open for Holly Stoker. She’s racing in the J17 category but could be one of the top scullers on the day following her fourth place finish at the National Watersports Centre in the Girls Championship Single Scull.
All information about South Hylton LDS can be found here.
What else is on this weekend?
The oldest boat club in Cambridge: 200 years of Lady Margaret BC
The Cambridge College boat club celebrating it’s 200th anniversary!
Social Spotlight: The don, the boss, the legend.
Paralympic Champion, European Champion and now he’s World Champion. The Welsh dragon roars like never before out in Shanghai at the World Rowing Championships!
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That’s all from The Start Line this week!
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