Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached it. BUCS Regatta is here. All those winter miles, all those early morning sessions, all those weights lifted, this is what it’s all for. Hyperbole aside, with the exception of Henley, BUCS Regatta is the most important single regatta in the university rowing calendar. For many smaller programmes, it is the pinnacle of their year. Local and regional races can only get you so far. At BUCS you face the best that British university rowing has to offer. As with many of the sculling events, the Open Intermediate Quads has a vast amount of entries (with over forty boats and many clubs having multiple entries). And with the emergence onto the scene of new and exciting contenders, this is one of the most wide-open of all the categories in the regatta.
University of Bath
A club that has gone from middling success to a strong contender seemingly within a matter of years, Bath has emerged as a welcome challenger in a discipline that is so often dominated by the usual suspects of Reading and Queens Belfast. To take just one example, in 2021 Bath placed 17th overall in the VL (15th in the men’s and 16th in the Women’s). By 2023, the club had cracked the top ten in the overall VL (seventh in the men’s and 11th in the women’s). Strong overall improvements across the board has seen medals, including last year’s men’s intermediate quad title over Queens and Reading. None of the crew who were in that boat (Jack Norton, Angus Pollock, Luka Halozan-Bayley and Matthew Page) return this year. The Bath hopes are pinned on two quads, the A boat of which contains former British Junior Championship medalist Sam Wickham and original member of Kew House Boat Club, Oscar Ballantyne. Bath didn’t race this boat at BUCS Head, and with the big hitters of yesteryear competing in other events, it’s hard to gauge if Bath has a realistic chance of retaining their title. However, a medal is a distinct possibility even without and with the talent at their disposal Bath should have a good crack at bringing it home.
Reading University
Under Olympic silver medalist Chris Bartley’s careful tutorship, Reading has continued to be among the top two or three sculling universities in Britain. With very few in their league, Reading have performed exceptionally well this season with four golds at BUCS Head at the start of the year (in which the men’s intermediate quad took both the gold and silver medal) and some excellent final trials results with an overall win for Matt Long in the men’s single, a mind-boggling feat considering he is still a first year. With four boats entered (the most of any single university) Reading will be looking to upgrade their bronze from 2023 to a gold this time around. A quick flick through each crew shows the depth of Reading’s programme. In the A crew is recent GB final trialist Robbie Collen, backed up with the horsepower of Australian national medalist Chris Thompson, BUCS Head gold medalist Joe Diver and veteran BUCS Regatta medal winner Joseph Bates. Reading should take home a medal but unlike Bath, I would be very surprised if the colour is not gold given the season they’ve had.
Queen’s University Belfast
When it comes to sculling, not many do it like Queen’s. From Ciaran Purdy to Phillip Doyle, Queens have a knack for not only producing quality scullers but scullers who win. Although their strongest crop arguably has been placed in the championship quad, Queen’s squad depth is like that of Reading, meaning that they are capable of putting out strong crews in every category, and their single entry into this one is no exception. Although slightly off the pace at BUCS Head at the beginning of the year (in which they placed fifth), a training camp in the sweltering conditions of Banyoles and good results in local regattas at the back end of the head season shows that Queen’s still have speed. What’s more, there is still more of it they can find. The crew of Cathal Roarty, Chris Duncan, Jonny Robinson and Scott McIlwaine can return a medal to Queen’s, but exactly what colour and in what manner remains to be seen. Based on programme renown and this results, however, they shouldn’t have too much trouble.
Predictions
It seems this is Reading’s to lose. Having been dominant all season, a slip up now would form an unwelcome blot. Bath seemed to have slipped back since last season (suffering from a proportion of their strongest rowers now racing in Championship events) and whilst I think they can still medal, it would not be a surprise if that medal was bronze as opposed to gold. I’ll go Reading to win, Queen’s to get the silver, and Bath to fight it out with the likes of Durham and Newcastle for the bronze. It really could go either way.
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