Scullers Head of the River Race explained

Scullers Head of the River Race
Frequency:	Annual
Location:	Championship Course, River Thames in London, England
Years Active:	1954-Present
Prev:	7 December 2019
Next:	November/December 2020
Participants:	500 crews

The Scullers Head of the River Race is a rowing race held annually on the River Thames Championship Course from Mortlake to Putney, open to single scullers only. The race is held in November or early December each year on a week usually to suit the mid-morning or mid-afternoon timing of the ebb tide.

History

The Scullers Head was first raced in 1954 when it was won by John Marsden.^[1] It now admits entries of over 500 scullers^[2] and is the largest sculling race in the UK for a single class of racing shell. The race gains enough entries to organise the greatest number of marshalls for any singles event on the Thames and it draws considerably more overseas single scullers than the same race held in reverse usually three to four weeks before, the Wingfield Sculls, which dates to the middle of the 19th century.

In 2014 were the first admissions of categories for adaptive rowing for athletes with disabilities, in TA and LTA adaptive rowing classifications.^[2]

Annual organisation

The race is organised by Vesta Rowing Club, Putney, London.

Results since 1990

Men

Date	Winner	Club	Time
1990	Rory Henderson	Leander	22:51
1991	Steven Redgrave	Marlow	21:32
1992	Guy Pooley	Leander	20:56
1993	Peter Haining	Auriol Kensington	23:13
1994	Peter Haining	Auriol Kensington	19:53
1995	Niall O'Toole	Commercial RC, Dublin	21:16
1996	Peter Haining	Auriol Kensington	21:49
1997	Martin Kettle	Queens Tower	20:31
1998	Greg Searle	Molesey	21:18
1999	Giles Monnickendam	Notts County	21:29
2000	Rod Chisholm	Tideway Scullers
2001	Guy Pooley		20:03.94
2003	cancelled due to exceptional weather conditions
2004	Mark Hunter	Leander	21:22.13
2005	Tom Gale		22:05.18
2006	Mahé Drysdale	Tideway Scullers	19:55.26
2007			20:58.76
2008	Alan Campbell	Tideway Scullers	20:30.57
2009	Jamie Kirkwood	Imperial College BC	20:55.38
2010	Stephen Feeney^[3]		21:31.20
2011	Adam Freeman-Pask		21:09.02
2012	Alan Campbell	Tideway Scullers	20:43.32
2013	Sigmund Verstraete		21:06.99
2014	Jamie Copus		21:03.55
2015	cancelled due to exceptional weather conditions

Women

Date	Winner	Club	Time
Results missing
2009	Hester Goodsell^[4]	Reading University BC	22:21.92
2010	Beth Rodford^[5]	Gloucester RC	22:54.06
2011	Imogen Walsh		22:35.9
2012	Georgina Phillips		22:40.24
2013	Lou Reeve		22:14:41^[6]
2014	Brianna Stubbs	Wallingford RC	22:41.31
2015	cancelled due to exceptional weather conditions

See also

• Metropolitan Regatta The London Cup (singles). Held in late May/very early June at Eton-Dorney Lake.
• Diamond Challenge Sculls rowed by race-winning singles at Henley Royal Regatta, forming the second prerequisite of the rare accomplishment of a 'Triple Crown' with those above and below. Held in July.
• Wingfield Sculls rowed by singles along the course in reverse, the last component of the 'Triple Crown'. Held in October or early November. Where the Scullers' Head is also won there is the theoretical possibility of a 'Quadruple Crown' for a single sculler able to win all four events. As the Diamond Sculls is not open to women, a win at the Scullers Head forms the last leg of the UK's Triple Crown for an all-round champion female single sculler.
• Rowing on the River Thames

External links

• Scullers Head

Notes and References

1. Daily Telegraph Obituary John Marsden 5 March 2004
2. http://www.vestarowing.co.uk/vesta-scullers-head/
3. Web site: Stephen Feeney | British Rowing . 2011-05-10 . dead . https://archive.today/20100323005557/http://www.britishrowing.org/gb/biographies/stephen-feeney . 2010-03-23 .
4. Web site: Scullers' Head.
5. Web site: Scullers' Head.
6. http://www.vestarowing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/ScullersHead2013.pdf Scullers Head 2013 Results