The Championship Coxless Four always provides an excellent showcase of the best of British university rowing – a deft balancing of power and technique that always produces some tight competition. Often entries are formed from Championship Eights splitting down into two fours for the second day of racing. While there’s been little in the way of form guides for this event in such a heavily restricted year – only the Metropolitan Regatta and Marlow Regatta to go off – there are some familiar faces in this year’s event, if the BUCS website crew listings are to be believed, and certainly an overall high calibre of athletes. This event should certainly be one to watch for some fierce racing.
Oxford Brookes
At this point, Brookes really need no introduction. An absolute powerhouse of university, club and elite-level rowing, they combine a ferocious race mentality with intricate technical precision that maximises the effective length of every stroke. They’re fit, strong, and always ready to race – and I’m sure their coxless four will prove no different. We’ve already seen how successful the Brookes eights have been at the Metropolitan Regatta and Marlow, but they’re no strangers to success in the coxless four too. At Marlow, Brookes took first and third in the Championship Coxless Four – (granted, their top four also happened to be the four that rowed at the Senior World Cup III…), and first and second in the Championship Coxed Four (another Senior World Cup four). The line-up has changed for BUCS due to student eligibility, though Matthew Heywood remains from the Marlow crew. He’s joined by Dylan Mitchell, who rowed at the European Championships in 2019, Phil Nesom, and Oli Ayres, who’s been in the circuit for many years and rowed at Junior Worlds back in 2016. This is a powerful unit, and will no doubt go into the regatta as the crew to beat.
Cambridge
A successful regular season for Cambridge has no doubt given them great confidence as they enter the wider summer racing season, and results have been promising so far. A third place finish at the Metropolitan Regatta in the coxless four, bolstered by a strong second place in the pair for Drew Taylor and Callum Sullivan, certainly shows that they can mix in with the stronger club crews on the UK circuit. This coxless four line-up certainly has some strength. The aforementioned Drew Taylor certainly proved himself to be a rather talismanic stroke man during the Boat Race, and was captain at Stanford during his undergraduate career. Garth Holden rowed at Yale and represented South Africa at Junior and U23 level. James Bernard rowed at Wisconsin as an undergrad, representing the USA at U23s in the eight in 2017, before rowing in the Blue Boat for the cancelled 2020 Boat Race. Finally, Hugo Durward has rowed – and won – the Goldie/Isis reserve race since 2017. This will be a dynamic and tenacious crew, and could push Brookes.
Newcastle & Edinburgh
The Newcastle crew seems to be made up of guys from their Championship Eight. Thus far, they’ve showed some promising speed in the bigger boat, coming a few seconds behind Brookes ‘B’ (though this does appear to be the Brookes 4V), but crucially coming out in front of other universities – Edinburgh, UL and Imperial. Newcastle are always technically very proficient, and often pull out some great performances when it counts, so this will certainly be a boat to watch. Edinburgh have also shown some good speed at this point in the season, finishing just behind Newcastle in the eight, and putting two matched coxed fours into the A Final at Marlow, finishing fifth and sixth. There are some strong athletes in this boat, including Henry Pooley, who rowed at Junior Worlds in 2019 in the pair. Edinburgh may well be a crew to watch out for.
UL & Imperial
While results haven’t been necessarily up to standard in the eight for Imperial thus far, this four, seemingly the top four athletes at Imperial, should provide a better showing for the London university. Led by Casper Woods – 2017 Junior Worlds winner, 2019 U23 Worlds silver medallist and 2018 Prince Albert Challenge Cup winner – this unit should definitely be pushing for the medals. UL will definitely have something to say about that, though; the UL and Imperial eights were separated by just half a second at Marlow, and UL has already shown some decent speed with a sixth place finish at the Metropolitan Regatta in the coxless four. With athletes like Danylo Gorenkin, who has been on the scene for many years, they won’t be short on experience and might well give Imperial a good run.
Bristol, Hartpury, Durham & Nottingham
There’s not a huge amount to review in terms of past performances from these boats, but look out for Hartpury, who have two gold medallists from the 2019 Gent International Spring Regatta in Alex Astbury and Tom Jenkinson. Durham often produce some decent fours and have some history of success in the event. At Marlow, Durham had a pretty strong showing in the coxed four, fourth behind two Brookes boats and Newcastle, seemingly with the athletes that will move into the coxless four for BUCS. Bristol showed some really promising speed at the Met Regatta in the eight, and seem to have their best athletes in the coxless four for BUCS. While Nottingham haven’t produced any notable results thus far this season, they have some strong athletes, some of whom have competed at the Home International Regatta, so definitely will be right in the mix.
This event promises to be characteristically exciting, with a lot of world-class athletes eager to test their speed against quality opposition. I would predict another Brookes victory, with Cambridge hot on their heels. Fighting it out for the bronze could be any number of crews, though if I had to make a prediction, I might go out on a limb and suggest Edinburgh could show some really good speed when it counts. Don’t discount anyone though, and never forget that steering will also be a factor here…
Good luck to all crews.
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