Background

The race is over 3 miles upstream course from Moulsford Railway Bridge to the OUBC boat house at Wallingford Marina. There are usually two divisions at 10.30am and 1.30pm.

Wallingford Head was originally an unofficial Christmas head race run at Wallingford Rowing Club. The 1994 race included novices who had been rowing for only a few months, scullers - recreational and serious, juniors and squad crews from Wallingford and Oxford Brookes.

Most of the "serious" training at that time of year was done in eights but there were no head races at that time of year for eights - yet many clubs do train in them throughout the winter. There still are very few races for eights until March.

It was decided to add a date to the ARA calendar to run an event at Wallingford. Primarily for Eights, it was however decided to add all sweep oar boats so as to allow both head races at Wallingford to cover all boat types.

The first event in 1995 was a healthy and promising 97 crews. However, that race had to be cancelled on the day due to freezing fog. The fog did not lift until well into the next day. We can remember everyone arriving and telling us "that it was clear in Henley!".

A lot of competitors stayed faithful and re-entered the event the following year and entry numbers have increased every year since then.

The 2005 event was slightly oversubscribed with entries; we accepted 260.

The 2006 Head was cancelled because of flooding, after we had accepted 278 entries, the absolute limit of what we think we can safely accommodate.

More 2006 pictures on the results page!

On Friday 7th, 2007 the Thames was on Red boards until at least Monday, even with no more rain. The river was still rising and there was a lot of water upstream of Wallingford from the previous night's rain. Saturday and Sunday are predicted to be very wet (and windy), so the December 2007 event was cancelled and re-arranged for 13 Jan 2008

 

 

 

Hosted by Wallingford Rowing Club