Autumn Head

This years Autumn Head Race will take place on Sunday, 26th October 2025.

As some of you will have noticed already, we have had to suspend entries to the long course events because the numbers of entries are already at around our limit.

We are keeping the U19 events open, and any adjustment to the numbers in those will be done in conjunction with British Rowing.

I have set up a waiting list for those who are still hoping to get a place, which you can find here : 

https://forms.gle/F2K4gMRHL4wJHT79A

Please fill it in with individual entries per crew - this makes it much easier for me to manage, because sometimes I'll have just one or two spaces available.

The poster is shown below.

Entries will open on Saturday 20th September, at 18:00, so that clubs have a chance to discuss with their crews during the day before putting entries in to BROE in the evening.

This year our event is one of the GB Rowing Team U19 autumn benchmarking events and results for eligible U19 trialists will be provided to the GB Rowing Team U19 Programme.

To keep these separate from the general J18 events they are in listed in BROE as U19 events, although I have actually used the Sch/Jun age category for this because I am aware that it is possible for someone to already be too old to qualify for J18 but still be young enough to qualify for U19 during 2026, while if I used the actual U19 category it would include many people who would not be eligible.

This addition to the event follows on from last year when we had a large number of entries in the J18 1x events from clubs needing a timed 5km piece for their GB potential crews.  We were able to handle the extra entries then thanks to volunteers from those clubs, and would appreciate it if clubs wishing to enter the U19 events could provide a small number of volunteers to aid with marshalling the U19 crews.  Last year we took them beyond the normal crowded waiting area, under a very low bridge, which allowed them to keep moving more than is normally possible, and allowed us to fit more crews in than usual.

We often have to deal with very small numbers of entries in certain events, and so on BROE we provide an additional information box (per crew) to select what you want to happen if the crew is unopposed. Please do take advantage of this!

I will aim to let people know in advance if their crews are unopposed, but as you will know, entries can be withdrawn at the last minute, or crew members change, resulting in an age band change for a Masters crew, so it is inevitable that some unopposed crews will only be discovered at the very last moment.  In these cases I generally allow clubs to move their crews to another event if I can accommodate them, but please be aware that there is very little time to handle this, so please try to get back to me quickly !

New 2025 event documents have now been uploaded, and can be found using these direct links :

Safety Brief
Risk Assessment
Competition Safety Plan

Further documents can be found by clicking on the Competitor Information button

When putting in your entries, please pay particular attention to the extra distance that must be rowed.  The finish is approximately 1.6km from the club, and so if you are doing the long distance (5km) course you will have to row approximately 13km in total, including navigating multiple bridges and tricky bends.  If our marshalls feel that a crew is showing signs of not being able to manage this they may be instructed to turn around and come back to the club without racing.