The Metropolitan Regatta is the second of the pre-Henley trio of international regattas held at Dorney – the first being Wallingford, and the third Marlow. These races are hugely important parts of ongoing preparations for Henley Royal, as clubs hone and test their units. Metropolitan sees a huge field of eights, mixing student, club and junior crews, do a single time trial before splitting into finals. This means that the clubs entered in the Academic category will still race the Championship and Club crews, making the racing incredibly exciting across the entire event.
This year, there are two notable absences: Leander and Brookes. The Academic field won’t feel the absence of Leander, but the lack of any Brookes boats certainly opens up the field somewhat. Generally speaking, the Academic category is formed of second VIIIs from some of the bigger university programs, some top boats from smaller squads, and some junior crews for good measure. There look to be some fast units entered here, however, and the top end of the Academic category could well push the top of the entire eights category – including Championship.
As ever, I’ll preview in detail the crews that I think will be the main ‘ones to watch’, before offering a finish order prediction.
Cambridge University BC
This Cambridge crew certainly looks to be the standout of the Academic field. Entered under Matthew Edge – the stroke seat of the winning Blue Boat this year and two-time Boat Race winner – this boat looks to be formed of guys from this year’s Blue Boat and Goldie, both of which delivered massive winning margins over favoured Oxford crews at the Boat Race.
Often, Oxbridge crews that continue post-Boat Race into the summer are a bit lacklustre, particularly relative to the wider domestic field that builds a huge amount of speed after the end of the head season. Cambridge this year look to be trying to buck that trend. This eight seems to be formed of the two top CUBC fours that raced at BUCS Regatta a couple of weeks ago. In Nottingham, the CUBC championship coxless four won gold narrowly over a fast Brookes combination, denying Brookes the win that would have meant a clean sweep of all the eights and fours events. The coxed four won a bronze behind two Brookes boats, but tracked them all the way, losing out by less than a length. There’s some real speed here, and if CUBC can translate that to the bigger boat (which I’m sure they will have no problem doing) this could be a formidable unit. Under the exceptional coaching of Rob Baker, this eight should really be one to watch looking ahead towards the Met, and Henley beyond that.
Bristol University BC
Bristol have their first, second and third VIIIs entered here, and their first eight will certainly be one to watch. A fantastic performance at HORR back in March saw Bristol come home as sixth-fastest university crew, taking some pretty significant scalps along the way. For a club that has long struggled to match the pace of the top end of British university rowing, this was a pretty big step in the right direction, and laid some fantastic groundwork for the season ahead.
BUCS Regatta would have been disappointing for Bristol. Aside from the two Brookes boats way out ahead, racing was pretty tight across the championship eight field, and Bristol found themselves on the wrong side of a very tight margin with Edinburgh in the repechage, losing out on a place in the A-final by 0.09 seconds (and therefore being eliminated from the competition). It was presumably a bitter pill to swallow, but Bristol’s proximity to Edinburgh – and the UL boat that won the rep – will still have been encouraging. Medals won in the intermediate pair and coxed four the following day will have been some consolation for Bristol, but they will no doubt feel they have unfinished business in the eight. Frankly, aside from Cambridge, I can’t see anyone else beating Bristol in the Academic field this coming weekend.
Imperial College BC
Imperial have had a bit of a difficult time so far this season. With a number of their strongest athletes from the past few years having graduated, the club lacks the top end to push the standard on, and as a result Imperial has fallen somewhat from where they once were. The Prince Albert Cup-winning season of 2018 feels a very long time ago indeed. Their elimination in the repechage at BUCS – well off the pace of Newcastle, who took the second qualifying spot – will have been a huge disappointment.
There is speed to unlock here, however, and Head Coach Peter Hardcastle is no stranger to developing underdog crews into fast units. The Imperial boys will be buoyed, perhaps, by their recent performance at the Sveti Duje International Regatta in Split, Croatia – an event frequented by Oxbridge and Imperial as well as a host of universities from across Europe. Imperial earned a bronze behind Cambridge and Estonian EUSA Champions, University of Tartu, in a feisty race that saw the Tideway boys edge out an Oxford crew formed of Blue Boat and Isis athletes. If nothing else, the result will give Imperial a boost of confidence going into the Metropolitan, and they will likely be eyeing a potential showdown with Bristol.
Newcastle University BC
Newcastle have their 2nd VIII entered here (their 1st VIII is in the Championship category), and they will be looking for a strong finish. Of all the 2nd VIIIs entered here, Newcastle were the highest-finishing in the Intermediate 8+ category at BUCS: they came home 4th behind three strong Brookes eights. Newcastle have good depth this year, and assuming they prioritise an entry in the Temple at Henley, four of the guys in this Academic entry will likely be competing in the Prince Albert, so there’s plenty to be building towards. Despite the presence of Cambridge and Bristol, I would expect this Newcastle boat to be coming in with big ambitions here.
Durham University BC
Newcastle’s northern rivals, Durham also have their 2nd VIII entered here, and it will be interesting to see a repeat of the Newcastle-Durham showdown in the Int 8+ at BUCS. In Nottingham, Durham came out ahead of Newcastle in the time trial but ended up finishing some distance behind the Blue Star in the A Final. They’ll be looking to overturn that result at Met – a point of pride more than anything else. Half of this eight will also likely have a view towards entering the Prince Albert, so motivation to put out good performances here will be very high.
Queen’s University Belfast BC
This entry from Queen’s University is an interesting one. The Irish club is on good form right now, and had a cracking set of races at BUCS to come away with a 5th-place overall finish in the Victor Ludorum. Led by some fantastic athletes like Ciaran Purdy, who won the lightweight single, the senior squad at Queen’s seems particularly adept when it comes to sculling. A silver medal in the Open Championship 2X and in the Open Championship 4X shows some real speed against a very strong field of university scullers.
It remains to be seen exactly what the makeup of this Queen’s eight is – whether it will feature their top senior athletes, the majority of whom seem to prefer sculling – or whether it will draw more from their novice squad who did race an eight at BUCS. If this is all the top Queen’s athletes together in an eight, they may well be a dark horse here. This is the only men’s entry for the university at Met, so it does seem pretty plausible that this is a top eight. Not only will these guys be looking to make their mark on the Academic field, but they’ll also have an eye on the Championship field too – particularly given the strong contingent of Irish university crews there.
Prediction
While there are a host of other universities entered in Academic, I think the top performers will come from the group listed above. In terms of a finish order, I can’t really see anyone getting past Cambridge University, though they are a bit of an unknown quantity at this time of year. I think second will be Bristol, and I’m going to go with Queen’s Belfast in third.
Best of luck to all crews.
Five Man
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