20 June 2018
On Saturday the school first eight raced at Reading Amateur Regatta. Having waited most of the day for the race the organisers informed us that it would be a straight final due to the withdrawal of a number of other crews. The eight of Jude Parris, Sam Machin, Lukas Haitzmann, Josh Bisdee, Joe Anidjah, Ed Tritton, Tom Bateman, Louis Kibble and Henry Stone took to the water against a crew from Kings College School Wimbledon. In their only previous meeting at the Schools Head of the River the crew from Wimbledon beat the school first eight by over two minutes. Off the start both crews got away cleanly with The Oratory getting into a powerful rhythm which was just too fast for the Kings College crew to handle, the Oratory streaked away to win by over two lengths. This shows the huge amount of improvement since the Schools Head of the River and the eight now goes into the important last two weeks of term with a huge amount of confidence.
