Just four crews are contesting the women’s championship coxed fours but there are no prizes for guessing which of the big hitters this will be. The triad of northern powerhouses (Edinburgh, Durham, and Newcastle) will face off against Imperial on the Tyne. The women will race in the eights in the first division, meaning that, for many, this will be their second crack at the course. With BUCS Head’s championship and intermediate crews racing just one day rather than three at BUCS Regatta, deciding who races in a quad or a four becomes somewhat of a jigsaw puzzle but a win in the championship coxed fours demonstrates significant depth in a programme.
We have to cast our eyes back to Rutherford Head to find the last time these clubs, excluding Imperial, raced in coxed fours. Ironically, they were all beaten on the day by the University of Glasgow who have instead decided to enter two fours into the intermediate event, but that’s a whole other preview…
Rutherford Head is a pretty good place to pick through some results. Newcastle University’s women were the fastest student Eight, won Band 1 Coxless Fours and also triumphed in Band 2 Coxed Fours. Meanwhile, the University of Edinburgh placed second behind Glasgow in the Band 1 event by 4.5s and second in the Band 2 event, just 0.6s behind the aforementioned Newcastle.
Durham University won Band 1 and 2 Coxed Fours at Tyne United New Year’s Head, but it’s worth noting that neither Newcastle or Edinburgh chose to enter this event. That being said, Daisy Jackson is the name associated with Durham’s entry for BUCS Head and she’s fresh off the back of finishing 15th overall and seventh-fastest U23 pair at February Trials with clubmate Izzie Kennedy.
Speaking of triallists, Edinburgh have one of their own provisionally in this crew. Josephine Briggs raced the women’s single down in Boston where she left with a 29th place finish which meant she was 20th U23.
The talk of the towpath is that Edinburgh’s crew is the lower end of their first VIII while Newcastle, stroked by Aoife Chapman, is due to be filled with a mixture of the first and second VIII rowers which should provide a tasty race down the Tyne.
As for Imperial College London, they’ve managed to do even less racing than their northern counterparts. They will have a crew racing in this event and the champ coxless four, suggesting this will be their first VIII split into two crews. It’s a little disappointing to see Imperial are only bringing one women’s eight and don’t have an intermediate offering, something that will hopefully be rectified come the summer. Despite a lack of depth in recent years, IC have always managed to maintain some decent top-end speed. The Imperial eight that raced at Quintin Head came fifth in the women’s championship category.
My prediction…Bear with me, this is a long-winded prediction. Newcastle, Durham, and Edinburgh are shaping up to once again have three fantastic squads this season, as Rutherford Head showed. My gut tells me that Edinburgh’s history of success over the years in coxed and coxless fours will stand firm this weekend. Newcastle will take silver, and Durham will claim the bronze medal.
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