OXFORD University’s Wadham College were handed a confidence boost with success at the Henley Fours and Eights Head, writes John Wiggins.

They won the Band 3 event to head into the annual Neptune Torpids, raced on the river Isis between February 28-March 3, in high spirits.

Despite winning the Band 2 competition at Henley, Pembroke, the reigning champions of the bumps event, need to sharpen up as they trailed Wadham’s time by 11 seconds.

Starting between them at the Torpids will be Oriel, who will also have their sights firmly set on regaining the headship.

In the women’s event, only five seconds covered Hertford, Pembroke and Keble, who start in that order for the bumps.

At Henley, Pembroke won the Band 2 eights ahead of Hertford, one second ahead of Band 3 victors Keble.

In coxed fours, there were comfortable wins for Corpus Christi College in the men’s Band 3 event.

Headington School also triumphed in the girls J16 group, while their J14 coxed quad finished as runners-up.

Meanwhile, Oxfordshire’s rowers looked to strengthen their bid for Great Britain selection over a 5km time trial course at Boston.

Headington’s Lucy Pullinger and Franny Curtis won the J18 pairs, with Alice Plucknett and Alice van Onselen sixth.

Cordelia Mahony also excelled as part of the triumphant J16 double scull.

Radley’s Archie McChesney was the highest ranked local boy.

He finished as part of the fourth-placed pair, while he was seventh on the first day with schoolmate Theo Metcalf.