This Preview was written prior to the cancellation of Sunday’s racing.
BUCS Head marks the first opportunity for this season’s cohort of student novices to race nationally. They will race over a 3000m course on the Tyne on the outskirts of Newcastle. As ever with beginner events, unpredictability is the only certainty, with results often varying significantly from year to year, which makes predictions rather challenging. There are three events for beginner women: the eight, the coxed four and the quad. As the eight is in a different division, there is the possibility of doubling up, which is particularly common between fours and eights. Therefore, clubs with a good eight are also likely to place highly amongst the fours. Thus, this preview will be split into sweep and sculling.
Beginner Women’s Sweep
When it comes to novice women’s rowing, there is one club which stands out: Edinburgh University Boat Club. They are the back-to-back defending champions in the eight and took a clean sweep of all the beginner events in 2023. They have been impressive at BUCS Regatta, taking multiple wins and other podium positions in recent years. At Henley Women’s Regatta, they won the Frank V Harry Cup for Development Coxed Fours in 2023 and 2024. In addition, two of their ex-novices placed 15th in the pair at the most recent round of GB trials, which is hugely impressive considering that they have only been rowing for about 18 months. Edinburgh are clearly a force to be reckoned with when it comes to beginner rowing and should be looking to continue their dominance this weekend.
Another program that excels in beginner events is the University of Surrey Boat Club. In Edinburgh’s absence, they won the beginner women’s eight in 2022; last year, they won the coxed four by just 0.4 seconds. They also emerged victorious in the eight and coxed four at BUCS regatta in 2024. This year, they have entered two eights and six fours, showcasing an incredible amount of depth. Depth creates competition which brings up the standard within a squad, so I would not be surprised if the Surrey crews are fast.
Queen’s University Belfast Boat Club also has a strong beginner women’s program. In the last three editions of BUCS Head, their top boat has placed no lower than fifth in both the coxed four and eight categories, including a second place in the eight in 2024. They will be looking to go one better this year.
Other programs with multiple top-five finishes in recent years are Durham University Boat Club, University of Birmingham Boat Club, Imperial College Boat Club, Liverpool University Boat Club and the University of East Anglia Boat Club. These universities will be looking to build on these results and take away a win from Surrey and Edinburgh, who are the only universities to have won a sweep event at BUCS Head since the pandemic. Interestingly, despite being one of the closest clubs, Durham University Boat Club is light on entries this year and has only entered one beginner crew – a coxed four.
Beginner Women’s Sculling
The strong sweep programmes also tend to be good at sculling. Queen’s University Belfast Boat Club won the beginner women’s quad in 2022, Edinburgh University Boat Club in 2023, and the University of Leeds Boat Club last year. In the years that Queen’s did not win, they placed second both times, which is remarkably consistent given the unpredictability of novice events. They have also backed this up with two podiums and a fourth-place finish at BUCS Regatta over this time period.
Leeds University Boat Club has had several top-ten finishes across the beginner sweep events at BUCS Head, but it is sculling where they seem to really excel. Alongside their win last year, they placed third and fourth in 2022 and 2023, respectively. They have also made the A-final in this event at the last two editions of BUCS Regatta. Leeds will certainly want to defend their title this weekend.
Nottingham Trent University Boat Club is a program on the rise. In 2022, their quad placed ninth and in 2023, they did not enter a boat in this category. However, last year, they had three boats entered, with their top boat placing third. This crew also made the A-final at BUCS Regatta. This year, they have again entered three boats and will be looking to improve on that placing.
Predictions
Edinburgh University Boat Club, Queen’s University Boat Club and Surrey University Boat Club are the current ‘Big Three’ of beginner women’s rowing and will likely be strong in all three beginner women’s events. Based on their recent form, it is hard to see another university winning a sweep event. The quad would appear to be slightly more open, but, as ever with novice racing, anything could happen.
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