With a record entry year yet again, BUCS Regatta continues to be the pinnacle of the rowing calendar for university athletes. Every year we see some of our brightest rowing talent take to the water at Nottingham, and often the championship categories are a chance for high-calibre athletes to come home and race for their academic institution. These races show some of the best of the best, and this championship pair draw is no exception.
University of Edinburgh BC
Ben Dickens was a part of the Men’s Intermediate Pair that rowed away with the bronze medal in 2022, so his progression to championship is only natural. As we saw last year, Edinburgh absolutely has what it takes to control the field at BUCS Regatta, but the pressure is on. Dickens medalled last year, and was part of the most successful university overall, can this pair replicate that strong performance against this stacked field and in a step above intermediate?
Durham University BC
Nestled in between Bristol and Edinburgh last year on the Men’s Intermediate Pair medal podium (or rather, pontoon) was the pair from Durham. While it is not clear if the line up is consistent, what is for sure is that this result shows the potential Durham has to perform as the programme has been going from strength to strength in recent years.
University of Bristol BC
University of Bristol stormed back onto the scene last year at BUCS, most memorably snatching that Men’s Intermediate Eight win, along with both the four and the pair, with some of those same athletes. I bring this up to state the obvious, Bristol has managed to capture that magic that many universities strive towards, they have a programme that is churning out very talented rowers who have what it takes to cross that finish line first. I expect good things from this particular pair coming into this race.
Cambridge University BC
If we’re speaking of universities with top-class programmes, it seems only fair to mention the light blues next. Notably Seb Benzecry is dusting off his Cambridge colours after being a part of the historic clean sweep, where he was the four seat in the winning men’s boat. One half of his competition and fellow Cambridge pair is Luke Beever, who was the seven seat in Goldie. As always, these rowers will be strong, and fresh off a very successful Boat Race season. It is difficult to see a medal podium without at least one of these crews on it, the question is, will they be able to make it two out of three?
Prediction
It goes without saying that you don’t make it into a championship category without having some serious talent behind you, and all these pair’s will be top quality. The remaining universities that make up the rest of the field are Newcastle (who have two boats entered) Imperial and UL. Tom Cross of the UL boat was part of the silver medalling Men’s Championship Eight from last year and Aidan Wilson and Benjamin Brockway were in the eighth placing Men’s Intermediate Eight for Newcastle.
This is a difficult boat to master, and an even more difficult category to win. My predictions are a battle for gold fought out between Cambridge and Bristol (who I hope to see convert their intermediate wins to championship wins), closely followed down the track by Edinburgh and UL.
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