Bedford Regatta is always an exciting event, pitting crews from across the country in intense duels in a knockout-style competition. The coxed four is an interesting one, with a small, varied list of entries featuring school, college and club crews. The racing, as always, should be tight. I’ll do a detailed look at each entry before making a prediction for the final.
Abingdon School
The sole school crew entered here, Abingdon have had a decent start to the season and will be looking to step on with some strong performances at Bedford. The boys are led from the front by Edward Bayfield, who took a fantastic gold in Munich with the GB Junior Team last weekend. Abingdon’s results have been a little mixed thus far: a 12th-placed finish at School’s Head for the first eight will have been disappointing, but fourth-placed finishes at Wallingford Regatta last weekend for both their junior coxless and coxed fours suggest the potential for some good speed, particularly in the smaller boat class. Depending on who exactly is making up this unit, Abingdon certainly have the potential to perform well here.
Lea RC
Lea are a storied club with plenty of experience and depth, though they’ve struggled to match the speed of some of their bigger, more established London-based rivals in recent years. This year, so much event cancellation has left little for us to go on, but a 59th-place performance at HORR for the first eight puts the Lea ahead of the other university and club crews in this category. With that in mind, if the Lea are fielding their top athletes in this boat, this may well be the frontrunner here.
University College, Oxford
Oxford’s college rowing scene took a huge hit this year, with the weather conditions and stream halting all rowing on the Isis for a large chunk of the season. Before Christmas, University College had been looking pretty good, with a fourth-placed finish at Fairbairns in Cambridge for the M1, but by all accounts its been difficult to uphold any momentum training in Oxford. Their performance at HORR in March was probably quite far off where they felt they should be: 154th overall, and 50th in the university category. I think these guys will probably struggle with the pace here, but more time on the river will have benefitted them immensely.
St John’s College, Oxford
With the lack of racing so far this year, it’s really hard to say exactly where these guys will be relative to anyone else in the category. Last year, St John’s had a pretty fantastic year, with their M1 going +5 in Summer Eights (therefore achieving an overbump – an impressive feat for anyone who understands the idiosyncrasies of bumps racing), with the M2 also going up +5. This year, a St John’s crew entered at HORR, finishing 263rd, well off the pace of University College. It’s tricky to know if this is their M1, or indeed who exactly is racing at Bedford. I think it’s probably safe to assume, however, that this is the weaker entry from the Oxford colleges.
Cambridge 99
Cambridge 99 has a strong setup on the Cam, and has produced some really great athletes in recent times – the standouts being Tim Wilkinson and Will Young, both accomplished scullers who won Pairs Head this year in the Open Championship Double Scull. They’re a bit weaker on the sweep side, but their result at HORR was decent – an 87th place finish for the first eight. As with many clubs, depth is the weakness here, so if this coxed four is stacked with the club’s best athletes then they may well be a formidable unit – perhaps with a view towards an entry in the Brit at Henley.
Prediction
There should be some really exciting racing here. I’m going to go with a matchup between the club crews – Lea and Cambridge 99 – in the final, with Lea coming out on top and taking the trophy home.
Best of luck to all crews.
Five Man
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