Halfway through the Easter Holidays, forty boys headed off to Portugal to take part in an 8 day training camp just north of Porto. We stayed in a hotel right next to the beautiful Caniçada lake. We had the lake completely to ourselves which went on for 8km uninterrupted. The lack of distractions and need to constantly turn around meant that we could be very efficient with our training. We rowed two to three sessions a day, spending time in both small boats (to help work on mo

The First VIII’s Head Race season didn’t, however, finish with Schools' Head as they went onto compete at The Men’s Head of the River. Men’s Head is an event for students and adults with about 400 crews representing clubs, universities and national teams (this year the Chinese National Team was racing). While there were only a few other schools, the aim of the race was to see how our First VIII stacked up against these crews. The course was the same as Schools Head (with an e

Schools' Head is the culmination of the Head season, usually involving over 300 crews from the UK and even a few foreign teams. On 16th March, with most of the categories cancelled due to unfavourable weather, five Eton eights travelled to London to brave the Tideway. While it was unfortunate that only one Junior Colts crew was allowed to race, they did incredibly well in their first major race to hold their own against other schools who have all had an extra year of serious