With the beginner categories, the results can vary year to year more drastically as rowers inevitably graduate to the more senior categories by the following year. However, it is a great indicator of how much emphasis clubs are putting on recruiting and developing new athletes, which will serve them well when ensuring the depth of their squad come the busy summer season. For many of the athletes involved this will be the biggest event they’ve been to in their rowing careers thus far, so hopefully that excitement will result in some good racing!
Edinburgh University BC
The University of Edinburgh have historically had a strong women’s squad performing well at both BUCS Head and Regatta. Their Women’s Beginner Eight was scratched in 2022, so they’ll be hoping to stamp their authority back on this category one year on. However, they have historically won this event by sizeable margins and if the novice intake is as strong as in previous years they’ll be tough to beat.
Durham University BC
Similarly, Durham University have historically been consistent in this category, with a fourth-place finish one year ago. They’ll be hoping to build on that and a strong season for the club generally by breaking into the top three this year.
University of Surrey BC
It was a University of Surrey crew that took the top spot in the Women’s Beginner Eights category last year and followed it up with a successful regatta season for their development squad, suggesting their development programme is in a really strong place at this time. They’ll be looking to consolidate their place as one of the top university rowing development programmes with another strong performance this year.
University College London BC
As was the case last year, University College London have entered two crews into the Women’s Beginner Eights category, one of only two clubs to do so, with the other being Lancaster University. It’s great to see UCL have such a large beginner squad, and they’ll be hoping to mix it with some of the larger university squads this year and build on their 16th place finish from 2022.
Prediction
The exciting thing about the beginner categories is that crews can surprise us with performances historically not seen by their club in this category. However, one would expect the bigger clubs with a historically strong development focus to be in the mix.
The top three from last year, which were Surrey, Queens University Belfast and Imperial College London, are all sending crews again this year and will want to repeat their good results, while Edinburgh and Durham will all be looking for a more successful set of results this time around.
BUCS Images credit: Drew Smith
Drew Smith Photography
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