Exeter University Rowing Club has an unsurprising location (the River Exe), but a consistent ranking in the top 10 of all British institutions for rowing in the BUCS table. The club has been developing nicely despite the hiatus from racing, with 60 competing members and new coach Mike Partridge, who has coached over 30 students for GB and Australian selection.
Speaking of which, the club has had numerous successes in the past few seasons: coming 32nd at HORR, their best result in 40 years; qualifying two crews for Henley Royal, with the Prince Albert 4+ making it through to Friday; 4 crews qualifying for Henley Women’s; and the women’s intermediate eight qualifying for the A final at the BUCS regatta in 2019, to name a few.
The club is well loved by its members. When interviewed for the club’s social media, senior men’s crew rower Josh said ‘EUBC has a great sense of community that has played a huge part in my social life at university’. Rosie, who rows in the senior women’s squad, corroborated this stating her reason for staying at the club was ‘the whole club atmosphere. I’ve met some truly awesome people at EUBC’. James, a senior men’s squad rower, attributed some of their success to the fact that ‘no matter what the weather we can always get out on the canal’, which sounds like an advantage over clubs in areas more likely to flood.
Finally, the support stretches to the coxes too — Laura, one of the coxes, said the club ‘provides great opportunities to compete with amazing athletes at high level competitions and constantly try to push myself onto better things’ — nothing but encouraging.
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