WHILE there were medals for Abingdon RC and Hinksey Sculling School, it was Headington School who took most victories at the Evesham Junior Head, writes John Wiggins.

With their senior squad at home preparing for the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, USA, this weekend, the younger Headington girls had free rein.

Their J16 quad of Beth Jones, Sophie Melville, Tarien Van Der Merwe and Alex Peach just lost out to the host club, Evesham, in their age group, but reversed the outcome to take the J18 title.

Cordy Mahony, Sasha Hayter, Anouk Barnes, Trudie Marks and cox, Katherine Ola Wa Pango dominated the J15 quad event and Grace Parrot easily won the J15 single sculls ahead of Abingdon’s Charlotte Rowley.

It was only by a tenth of a second that Hinksey’s Jojo Blyth and Mae Willoughby clinched the WJ15 double scull.

At J14 level, there was a win for Headington’s Claudia Rossington in the single.

Headington were first in the J13 girls quad (Beth Conway, Phoebe Horan, Freya Jones and Eleanor Giles with cox, Izzy Peach) and had a further win for Numa Shah and Biba Klico in the J13 double scull.

Abingdon’s best results came from their boys, runners-up in both the J15 double and J18 single.

Hinksey also had to settle for second places in the boys J14 singles and the J15 coxed quad.

Meanwhile, in the Pairs Head of the River on the incoming tide from Hammersmith to Chiswick Bridge, Wallingford’s Sean Morris and Colin Cusack won the Masters G category for over 65s by more than 30 seconds.

The victory for clubmates, Rachel Edge and Jenny Taylor in the D category double scull was by a mere five seconds.

Jamie Kirkwood, in his first month as assistant coach at Oxford University Women’s Boat Club, won the Wingfield Sculls on the London Tideway course from Putney to Mortlake.

The former GB lightweight sculler handled the conditions the best of the five contenders, with Abingdon School old boy Dan Boddington coming home second.