After an exciting few months of head races, the long-awaited regatta season is finally upon us, bringing with it the chance for old and new rivals alike to go head-to-head over shorter distances. To kick things off we have BUCS Regatta, which, being limited to student-athletes only, allows university crews to race directly against one another over the 2km course in Nottingham. With it being two months since WEHoRR, the last major head race of the season for many women’s crews, most clubs will already have their regatta training programmes up and running, and as such BUCS will be a good opportunity to test their efficacy.
While we do not have confirmed entry lists, we can be pretty sure that the Women’s Championship Eights event will be dominated by the big names in UK university rowing, with these speculated entries being discussed in the preview below.
Oxford Brookes University BC
As one of the top university rowing programmes in Europe, Brookes have certainly been living up to their reputation this year. Alongside comfortably beating both Oxford and Cambridge at fixtures prior to The Boat Race, they also placed an impressive third at WEHoRR, making them the fastest university crew of the day after only losing out to two Leander boats.
As last year’s winners of this event at BUCS, Brookes will be looking to keep hold of the championship title, and, given their success across the board throughout the head season, it looks exceedingly likely that they will.
Edinburgh University BC
The women at Edinburgh have had an undeniably strong season of head racing. Looking back to December, they put in an exceptional performance at Rutherford Head, winning Band 1 of both the Women’s Eight and Coxless Four categories, and coming away with second in the Coxed Four. Just a couple of months ago, they placed second at BUCS Head, only four seconds behind Durham. Despite this, they then went on to beat their northern rivals at WEHoRR, finishing with a time that would have placed them eighth overall and the third fastest university crew, but after a ten-second time penalty they officially ended up in tenth, less than one second behind Cambridge.
Given their performances over the year, they should be one of the favourites going into this weekend.
Durham University BC
After placing first at BUCS Head earlier this year, Durham will be looking to follow this up with a strong performance at the corresponding regatta. They had a promising result at WEHoRR, coming 12th overall, and excelled at the April trials, where their Women’s Pair of Philippa Emery and Evelyna Davies finished as the fastest U23 pair. Throughout the year it seems that their closest rivals have been Edinburgh, and so it will be exciting to see how they perform in a side-by-side race.
Newcastle University BC
Another strong contender from the north, Newcastle has a history of training up strong, high-performance athletes. With a third at BUCS Head in February, and after placing fifth in the Women’s Championship Eights at BUCS Regatta last year, they will be aiming to progress on these achievements this weekend with the help of an intense Easter training camp.
University of London BC
As expected, UL have had some outstanding performances in the season so far. Looking back to Quintin Head in January, they were the second fastest women’s championship crew, a result that they emulated at WEHoRR, where they finished fifth overall, but were the second fastest university crew behind Brookes. They also put in a huge shift at the April trials, with one of their women’s pairs placing second in the B-final. With their numerous impressive achievements this year, this UL crew will be one to keep an eye on.
Prediction
Realistically, I think we can expect to see another victory for Brookes this weekend, with a probable fight for second place between Edinburgh and Durham. However, I predict the race to be an incredibly tight and exciting one, with all crews vying to establish themselves as the favourites for the upcoming regattas.
BUCS Images credit: Drew Smith
Drew Smith Photography
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