Hundreds of scullers will race the Thames from Mortlake to Putney Pier on Saturday 19 September, in the biggest single sculls race in the country.
Vesta Rowing Club’s Scullers Head sends off more than 500 competitors along the 6.8km Championship Course, the same stretch of water as the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race but rowed the other way, downstream on the ebb tide. Racing starts at 9:30am from the University Stone at Mortlake.
The Scullers Head has been tied to two much older Thames races since last year, and Vesta has confirmed the arrangement stands for 2026. The winner of Doggett’s Coat and Badge is invited to compete at the Scullers Head, and the fastest male and female scullers of the day are invited to the Wingfield Sculls, which follows on Sunday 25 October. Matt Long, who won last year’s race by more than 20 seconds, took up his place and finished second at the Wingfields last October.
Doggett’s Coat and Badge has been rowed on the Thames every year since 1715 and reaches its 312th running on Wednesday 2 September, a fortnight before the Scullers Head. Three apprentice watermen are contesting it: Jack Finelli, Callum Howard and Charlie Milward. Whichever of them wins comes to Putney. The Scullers Head runs a category of its own open only to registered apprentices of the Company of Watermen and Lightermen.
Vesta has a claim on the other race too. Harry Blackstaffe, racing in the club’s colours, won the Wingfield Sculls five times between 1897 and 1908, and took Olympic gold in the single sculls in 1908.
First held in 1954, the Scullers Head has drawn Olympic and World champions among its winners over the decades, and has become the race serious scullers use to measure themselves against the best in the country. It also asks more of volunteers than any other sculling race on the calendar, with marshals stationed the length of the course to keep 500-plus boats moving safely.
Not everyone on the water is an international. Entrants are split into four bands by ranking, from Championship down to Novice, so that beginners race beginners, and there are separate categories for juniors, under-23s and masters. Entry costs £48.
Putney Town Rowing Club, based on the Embankment, sent 31 of its own scullers down the course last year, while a further 22 visiting scullers boated from the club on race day.
Entries close at midday on Monday 7 September, through British Rowing’s BROE2 system, and Vesta has warned it will shut the entry list early without notice if it fills before then. There are no late entries and no waiting list.
Scullers from the Putney clubs collect their race numbers from Vesta on the morning, and prizes go to the fastest man and woman and to the category winners at a ceremony at the club once racing ends. Results are published on the club’s website afterwards, with fuller course details and entry categories at vestarowing.co.uk/scullers-head.
