This year there is a new event in the junior rowing calendar: the Scottish Junior Sculling Head, organised by Glasgow Schools Rowing Club and to be held at Strathclyde Country Park this Saturday 23rd September. Raced head-style over 1900m, it will be a short, sharp time trial to see which crews are doing well at this early point in the season.
With quads, doubles and A and B category singles available from J14 to J18, as well as a FYR quads category for boys and girls. FYR stands for First Year Rowing, and participants must have started rowing since the end of September 2018. This, coupled with the lower-than-average race fees (£15 for racing in as many of the four divisions as desired and only £7.50 for the FYR events), shows how inclusive and welcoming the event aims to be.
The event has drawn crews from a range of schools and clubs across Scotland, as well as a small number from the North of England, capitalising on this opportunity for early season rowing. The draw allows racing in four different events in four different divisions, and with a modest race fee, and this makes for the possibility of winning four pieces of silverware in one day, especially as there are gold, silver and bronze medals offered in each division.
All in all, this looks to be an exciting new event, and will add new life to the junior rowing calendar in Scotland, which can become a little empty later in this term. It will be interesting to see if the same crews who were performing well at the end of last season will have maintained their form, and how indicative of the rest of the season this weekend’s racing will be, with the high points being Early IDs and Fours Head for the rest of this year.
