It’s an interesting contrast to see where different clubs put their top athletes, the coxed or coxless fours, with both taking place on the same day. The obvious answer would be that clubs split their top eight in half and prioritise one or the other for their own reasons, however it’s not as simple as this with the doubles on the same day, most universities will have handy scullers in their top eights and want to give them a crack in that event instead.
Strategies aside, the Men’s Championship Coxed Four is a fascinating event to follow, not just for BUCS Regatta but for what comes at the end of the summer: the Prince Albert Challenge Cup at Henley Royal. While not all fours entered for BUCS will end up going for the PA and there will certainly be more entries coming into the fray, the results here do give us an idea of who to watch out for. Indeed, removing the top two finishers from Brookes (many of whom ended up in different events at HRR), the PA finalists Newcastle and UL finished top in this event last year.
Oxford Brookes University BC
Without further ado, we begin with last year’s gold and silver medalists. Despite rumours of the Brookes programme running out of steam this year, I doubt that this will be evidenced at student level given many of the athletes who impressed at last year’s BUCS Regatta remain. In what is presumably their ‘A’ boat, Matthew Haywood is listed as the stroke-man, a young but highly talented athlete who is no stranger to success at this regatta having won a slew of medals last year including gold in this same event. Speculating, I think this is the top Brookes boat out of the two fours categories available, as such, I’d expect athletes such as Louis Nares, Toby Lassen and Jack Prior to be backing up Haywood, just to name a few.
Newcastle University BC
Synonymous with BUCS Regatta and represented by their famous Blue Star, Newcastle are always in the hunt for the overall Victor Ludorum and quite often have come away with it. Their entry in the Men’s Championship Coxed Four represents the quality we always expect from this famous club, with the stroke named as Joseph Adamson, a GB international sculler who was part of Newcastle’s PA finalist crew last summer. Adamson will be backed up by Bruce Turnell and Ollie McChesney who were invited to the recent GB final trials where they placed third in the D final of the men’s pair.
University of London BC
Although they placed third at last year’s BUCS Regatta in this category, they were less than a second behind the Brookes ‘B’ boat. Unlike Brookes, the UL crew stayed together from there and went on to win the Prince Albert Challenge Cup, UL’s first victory in the student events at Henley Royal for several years. Under new leadership in the form of Anthony Smith after the recent departure of both Phil Gray and Hugo Gulliver, we will soon see the ‘new’ brand of UL in full force. This will be Smithy’s biggest test so far, and the proof will be in the putting if UL’s crew can back up their successful run last year.
Edinburgh University BC
In a few days’ time the self-styled Baby Blue Army will traipse south with the hopes of dashing the dreams of the English. Theatrics aside, Edinburgh have been a little off the pace on the men’s side in recent years after a couple of very successful years back in 2016 and 2017. Recent results are promising, however, with silver medals won in both the coxed and coxless fours at BUCS Head in February. James Doran recently put on a decent showing at final trials, coming first in the D final with an unfamiliar partner from Thames RC. While they may lack the firepower to mix it with the bigger programmes in the eights, Edinburgh have proved over recent years that they do have the ability to beat them in the small boats. Will we see it happen again?
Prediction
For all my wishing on the contrary I forsee Oxford Brookes once again taking the event by storm. With several returners from the crew who won by over five seconds last year, they will come with more than enough confidence to do the same again. Behind, well, it may be more interesting than last year. My guess is that UL will pick up second place with Newcastle or Brookes ‘B’ in third.
BUCS Images credit: Drew Smith
Drew Smith Photography
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