OXFORD University’s lightweight eight won the Sutherland Rose Bowl with a dominant performance at the Upper Thames Autumn Head, writes John Wiggins.

The crew recorded the fastest time of the day by a huge margin of eight seconds to take victory in the IM2 category.

The four returning Blues from 2016, Rowan Arthur, Sooraj Mahesh, Henry Smith and Alex Pavitt were joined by George Watkinson, Doug Chesterton, Alex Miles, Tom Schwantje and cox Allison Bryan to race over the 3km course at Henley.

Oxford College crews were also showing some pace.

Trinity won the women’s novice four and Pembroke the IM2 coxless fours, beating two City of Oxford boats in the process.

The City club were, however, victorious in many other events and took revenge, pushing Pembroke into second in the IM1 coxless fours.

This crew then split into pairs, with Will Clarke and Rupert Pye-Watson winning the IM2 and Lucian Purvis and Malcom Nisbet the senior event.

After triumphing in the IM1 coxed four, Matt Jones and Henry Drohan landed the spoils in the IM2 pairs.

City’s women claimed victory in the Masters C eight, as well as the IM1 quad and the novice doubles, who finished just ahead of their Donnington Bridge neighbours, Falcon.

Wallingford had a high strike rate for their few entries, with a win for Andy Knight and Martin Waller in the Masters D double scull.

Together with David Wright and Paul Taylor, they then produced the fastest Masters quad of the day.

Abingdon School’s senior boys picked up victories when Stuart Pearson and Jamie Sudlow won the J18 pair and quad sculls.

Joe Nash and Fergus Mitchell triumphed in the IM3 pair and coxed four, with the school also claiming the J18 coxed four and novice double sculls.

Headington School’s girls were much-travelled over their two-week half-term.

Following the seniors’ trip to the Head of the Charles Regatta in the USA, it was the turn of their J16 squad who raced at the Armada Cup near Bern, Switzerland.

Ten ranks of single sculls 25 boats across started simultaneously to race a 9km course.

Of the 13 Headington competitors, Mattea Wüthrich came fourth in the J19 event, with Leith Greig-Connor and Rachel Grainger ninth and tenth in the J17 category.

Other local schools were simultaneously in action in Philadelphia, USA, at the Head of the Schuylkill, an event which sees more than 2,000 boats race across the weekend.

Radley supplemented their success at the Head of the Charles with third place for their coxed four in the Varsity event.

Their other four was 21 and they were 15th in the Varsity eights event.

St Edward’s top result of the five events entered was second place for their boys in the Junior Varsity Fours, while their girls were tenth in the Varsity quad sculls.