HEADINGTON School and Abingdon School made a winning start to the new year with successes at Hampton Head and Wycliffe respectively, writes John Wiggins.

The Headington senior squad were out of their eight, racing in both divisions of the Hampton Head in smaller boats over 3,000 metres on a fast-running Thames.

In the morning’s double sculls, they missed victory by just 0.3secs, while their second crew were a further six seconds behind in fourth.

But they combined in the afternoon to secure a win in the quad for Danielle Semple, Rosie Little, Lucy Pullinger and Katie King-Smith.

The second eight showed the depth of the squad, finishing third in the J18 eights.

Headington’s J16 girls took second place in the quad race.

The crew of Beth Jones, Alex Peach, Mya Nott, Tarien van der Merwe, Jaz Barker, Emily Waldron, Leith Greig-Connor, Rachel Grainger and cox, Lizzie Townhill then took the WJ16 eights title.

Struggling with illness, the Radley College first eight had to settle for a runners-up finish in the J18 event, while their J15s were also second and the J16A boat, third.

Consolation came in the J16 second eight, which Radley dominated.

The 4,500m course at the Wycliffe Big Head on the Gloucester-Berkeley Canal was the preferred destination for Abingdon School.

While struggling to get on terms with old rivals Shrewsbury School in the adult Open event, their first eight of Freddie Bermingham (cox), Robert Kinnier Wilson, Ed Hall, Josh Braithwaite, Rob Harris, Ed Fry, Jack Lewis, Stuart Pearson and Jamie Sudlow dominated the junior category.

Abingdon’s J16 eight of Charlie Hall, James Stammers, Matthew Wiblin, Daniel Wilmot, Gabriel Dobson, Henry Muller, Connor Brown and cox Noah Walker finished second to Shiplake in the morning’s age classification.

They followed that with a comfortable victory in the adult novice event.

A further runners-up slot was achieved by their J15 eight.