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The Fours Head

TSS women's quad

Entries

Entries in the 2023 Fours Head are invited in Open and Women’s crews in Quad Sculls, Coxless Fours and Coxed Fours in the following four categories (24 events in total: 18 Senior and 6 School/Junior):

Please note that these categories will NOT be further subdivided into bands.

Entry fees

The entry fee for the 2023 Fours Head is £80 per crew.

Definitions

CHAMPIONSHIP: Open to any crew (including composites)

Note: this event is NOT intended for junior crews of National Schools ‘championship’ standard. Junior crews should enter School/Junior (Sch/Jun).

SENIOR crews must enter Championship if they contain any crew members (excluding the cox) who have competed (in either rowing or sculling) within the last THREE years at any of the following events:

  • The Olympic regatta.
  • The World Rowing Championships.
  • A World Rowing Cup regatta.
  • The World Rowing Under 23 Championships.
  • The World Rowing Junior/Under 19 Championships.
  • The Oxford-Cambridge University Boat Races (Blue or Reserve races, but not Lightweight).
  • A semi-final at Henley Royal Regatta in any event (including junior events).
  • A final of a Championship event at Henley Women’s Regatta.

Crews who are required to enter Championship must state in the Notes field on BROE2 which rowers meet which of above criteria (1 criterion per rower is enough).

Crews (including those eligible for Sch/Jun) may also choose to enter Championship if:

  • Some or all of the crew were top 5 finishers in our race the last time it ran (2022) in an overall category e.g. Women’s Quads.
  • The expected speed of the crew will make them competitive in Championship (against top Senior crews).

Crews who choose to enter Championship (without being required to do so), must state in the Notes field on BROE2 WHY they believe it is safe and appropriate for the crew to go off with the fastest entries.

CLUB: Open to crews (including composites) that are not required to race in Championship and are not eligible for Academic or School/Junior.

ACADEMIC: Open to crews that are not required to race in Championship, and in which all of the rowers/scullers are current, full-time students at the same British or overseas academic institution. Composites are NOT permitted, with the exception that the cox may belong to a different club (academic or otherwise). Any crew of students not meeting the above criteria may enter Club. Crews which are eligible for Sch/Junior should enter that and not Academic.

SCHOOL/JUNIOR: Open to crews where all sculling/rowing members were born after 4 November 2004 and meet the requirements of the British Rowing Rules of Racing 4-3c. Composites are NOT permitted. Please note that under our conditions of entry all coxes must be J17 or older. Coxes of junior crews do not need to be junior themselves.

The Fours Head reserves the right to limit the total junior entries to a third of our overall entry and to a maximum of four crews per event per institution. This applies across the Sch/Jun and Championship events.

How to enter

Entries for the Fours Head 2023 will operate as follows.

Entries will open at 12 noon on Monday, 2 October 2023 and remain open for ten days until 12 noon on Thursday, 12 October at which point entries will be suspended. During this period, no entries received will be marked ‘Accepted’ on BROE and there will be no advantage to making an early entry – i.e. there will be no fastest finger first; the order in which we receive entries will have no longer have any bearing on which crews are accepted.

The official close of entries is 12 noon on Friday, 20 October 2023.

When entering a crew, clubs and coaches should:

  1. Check whether the crew is required to enter a Championship event (see qualifying criteria above) and if it does they must enter as Championship and state which members of the crew meet which Championship criteria.
  2. Consider whether the crew would like to race as Championship, even though they do not meet the qualifying criteria to require them to do so. In this case they must provide relevant information to support this request, including its racing experience, relevant achievements of its members, and highlight whether the CRI as shown on BROE correctly reflects the experience of the crew (e.g. overseas, internationals, etc.).
  3. Visiting crew must nominate a preferred host club. Please do not contact the host club directly before entering as the Fours Head will co-ordinate the allocation of crews to host clubs but will endeavour to respect your preference.
  4. Ensure that each entry is complete (with no placeholders) and is fully PAID.

After this initial 10 day period, complete, paid entries will be accepted as follows:

  1. Championship qualifying crews (i.e. those required to race as Championship according to qualifying criteria, see below).
  2. All other entries1 in CRI order, highest CRI first2. Open and Women will be ranked separately and accepted in approximate proportion to the overall entry3. NB The CRI used for this purpose will be the CRI in BROE2 at the point when entries are suspended.
  3. School/Junior entries will also be separately ranked (O and W as above) and subject to an overall limit of a maximum of one third of the total entry. 
  4. Where this approach results in an event with fewer than 10 entries, that event will not run and any clubs who have entered will be given the opportunity to move their crews to an alternative event or to receive a refund4.
  5. A maximum of 450 entries (plus up to ~5% to allow for scratchings) will be accepted. If fewer than 450 entries have been received/accepted at this point then BROE will re-open for entries.
  6. Separate waiting lists will be maintained for Senior Open, Senior Women’s, Sch/Jun Open and S/J Women’s crews and as accepted entries withdraw, crews will be accepted from the appropriate waiting list.
  7. No further entries will be accepted after the close of entries.
  8. Unaccepted entries will be refunded promptly after the close of entries or if clubs withdraw crews, whichever is the earlier.

Notes on the entry process

  1. If necessary the Fours Head reserves the right to prioritise entries from Tideway host clubs and those other local clubs which support us, in order to ensure that those clubs have the opportunity to take part in a competition which could not take place without their support.
  2. Crews with very low CRI may not be accepted without further justification.
  3. Our aspiration is to have equal numbers of Open and Women’s crews, but we will accept a variance of +/- 5% according to the actual entries received.
  4. Based on recent entry data this means that the Academic 4x (Open and Women) and Academic 4- (Open and Women) events are very unlikely to run. If this is the case, the Club and Academic events in each affected boat class will be combined. 

Crew changes and substitutions

We recognise that this approach may introduce a risk of clubs attempting to “game” the system by initially entering a high-pointed or Championship qualifying crew that they have no intention of actually racing, and then substituting the ”real” crew after the entry has been accepted. 

Any crew changes made prior to the official close of entries (at noon on 20 October) that change the crew’s Championship-qualifying status or CRI will result in that crew being “reset” in the acceptance process and reconsidered based on their new status.

Non-medical substitutions made after the close of entries that change the status of a Championship-qualifying crew to non-qualifying will result in the crew being moved to the appropriate position in the start order. 

Non-medical substitutions made after the close of entries that materially change the CRI of a crew may result in the crew being moved to the appropriate position in the start order. 

Further notes

  1. The start order for crews in each event will be based on the crew CRI as at close of entries. Additionally we may review their club’s result in the same event the last time the race was run. Clubs should indicate on their entry where the crew CRI/prior results may not be representative and this will be considered.
  2. Entry fees (£80 per crew) should be made either via BROE, or by direct payment into our bank account (see event notes in Online Entry system for account details). Payment will be treated as being received when it shows in our bank account.
  3. Refunds: Entry fees will be fully refunded for crews that are withdrawn before the close of entries or that we do not accept. Entry fees will not be refunded for crews scratched after the close of entries or if the event is cancelled.
  4. Visiting crews must nominate their preferred host club on their entry, as per point 3 in the How to Enter section above. Once all entries have been accepted, we will work with host clubs to allocate crews to clubs. We will contact crews for whom there is insufficient capacity at their preferred host regarding an alternative. Please note that this is a change in process from previous years.
  5. Owing to limited space for trailers, visiting clubs who would like to boat from Putney should separately contact entries@fourshead.org when they make their entry to explain their trailer plan. Trailer/boating permission will be granted (until the maximum is reached), to clubs who meet at least one of the following criteria AFTER we have accepted entries following suspension of entries on 12 October:
    1. Your trailer has at least five boats FOR OUR RACE on it.
    2. You are not bringing a trailer because you are borrowing boats from a Putney club.
    3. Your boats will have been left with a Putney club before race day and will be collected at a later date, so you will have no trailer on Putney Embankment on race day.
    4. Your boats are coming on someone else’s trailer (give us the other club’s name).
    Additionally we may give Putney boating/trailer access permission for a trailer with fewer than five of your boats for our race, with a definite, credible commitment to give trailer space to other club/s you know.
  6. All crews in a particular event (e.g. Women’s Championship Quads) will be placed together in the start order. The six Championship events will start first.
  7. We have no categories for masters crews (although the Veteran Fours Head, which takes place the same weekend, does), coxed quads, mixed crews or J16 crews.

Contingency for reducing number of entries

In the event that the number of entries needs to be reduced after the close of entries, whether due to forecast conditions (including weather and stream) or for any other reason, the following process will be followed.

  1. The number of entries to be reduced will be agreed by the committee.
  2. Crew CRI as at Close of Entries will be used as the basis for the reduction.
  3. We will eliminate crews from non-Championship events, starting with the lowest ranked crews and working up until the required number of crews have been identified for exclusion. this will be done proportionately according to the number of accepted crews at the close of entries across each of Senior Open, Senior Women, Sch/Jun Open and Sch/Jun Women (i.e. the reverse of the process used to accept crews).
  4. Clubs may propose an alternative crew for elimination from any of their entries if they feel that eliminating that alternate crew would better meet the Competition’s objectives of ensuring the most capable crews race.

Conditions of entry

  • The race is held under British Rowing’s Rules of Racing, Code of Conduct and Row Safe; the Instructions to Crews; and any other instructions issued by the Committee.
  • In the event of a serious transgression either before, during or after the race (e.g. undeclared substitutions, unsafe behaviour, or behaviour deemed to be unsportsmanlike) the Committee may disqualify not just the crew involved but all crews from the Club it represents and refuse entries in future years.
  • The Committee does not accept any liability for crews or their equipment.
  • No crew or competitor may compete in more than one event.
  • The committee reserves the right to reject crews entered if there is concern that a crew may cause danger to itself or others. All crew members entered should be capable of completing a ten mile outing and being on the water for up to three hours.
  • All coxes must be J17 or older i.e. have been born on or before 31 August 2006. Younger coxes may be accepted if evidence of their competence and experience is sent to the Entries Secretary entries@fourshead.org.
  • If a substitution made after the close of entries causes a crew in Club or Academic to meet the criteria for Championship, it will no longer be eligible to win the Club or Academic event although it will be eligible to win the Championship event.
  • Crews given permission to race for Time Only will be given a time but will not be awarded a finish position in the published results.

How to make substitutions

All substitutions MUST be made at least 1 hour before the race starts. Any crew subsequently found to contain undeclared substitutes will be disqualified.

  • Until the close of entries, you can make any number of substitutions in BROE2.
  • Between the close of entries and an hour before the race starts, you can substitute up to 50% of the rowing/sculling members of the crew plus the cox in BROE2.
  • If you cannot access BROE2 on race day, call the Entries Secretary on TBC (from 7am).
  • If you need to substitute more than 50% of the rowers/scullers after the close of entries, you may request to race for Time Only. As it is not possible to make these subs on BROE2, contact the Entries Secretary on entries@fourshead.org.

Got a question?

Please contact the Entries Secretary entries@fourshead.org.

NEXT RACE: Sunday, 24 November 2024 (10.00am)