Rutherford Head returns this coming weekend. It’s a classic winter head race, a gruelling 4.5km piece through Newcastle, where racing is characteristically tight at the top end.
The Open Coxless Four category this year plays host to some big names in university rowing. Crews from Durham, Edinburgh, Newcastle and UL will do battle over the course, competing for bragging rights amongst northern universities and a further indication of relative speeds going into the new year.
It’s difficult to know the personnel within each boat as crew lists haven’t been posted and each of these universities are fielding an eight in the morning – meaning that if these fours are top boats, athletes will be doubling up – so these predictions should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Durham University BC
Durham have a single entry here under Pearson. I’m assuming that this is a four from their first eight, as Ollie Pearson is one of their top guys at the moment – stroke of Durham’s excellent Henley eight this year, and an England rower from the Home International Regatta.
Durham have opened their season really strongly this year, proving that last year wasn’t a flash in the pan and that this new, invigorated Durham squad is effectively reshaping the boat club into a winning programme. Most recently, Durham competed in a series of private fixtures against Newcastle, Tyne and Edinburgh, where the Durham first eight won the initial time trial by 19 seconds over Edinburgh, putting a full minute into Newcastle – surely the biggest margin Durham has had over Newcastle in recent memory. In the side-by-side pieces that followed, Durham once again handily beat the other universities.
The results set Durham up very well for the eights, but fours are of course a different story, and my hunch is that Durham’s depth is excellent relative to its top end. With this in mind, I’m not sure we’ll see a Durham top four completely outgun a Newcastle top four; Newcastle’s top end currently is a relative strength over its depth. I would suggest, though, that the tantalising possibility of a win in the eight and in the four is certainly on the cards for Durham, and if they can pull it off, they’ll be putting themselves in a very strong position moving forward.
Edinburgh University BC
Like Durham, Edinburgh also has a single entry here, and it looks to be a four from their first eight. Also like Durham, Edinburgh has been enjoying a great deal of relative success since the start of last season. Often seen as a programme defined by a stellar top end but little depth, leading to a lack of pace in the bigger boats, Edinburgh has been effectively changing its reputation with a wealth of solid athletes throughout the squad producing some great results. Edinburgh has, like Durham, moved towards the top of British university rowing – ahead of northern rivals Newcastle, and London-based clubs like Imperial.
Some of Edinburgh’s best results last season included a fourth-place finish in Championship Eights at BUCS Regatta, ahead of Durham, and a third place finish in the Championship Coxed Four – just behind Brookes and UL. Whether they are going to be able to match last season’s successes remains to be seen. They failed to match Durham’s pace recent private fixtures, but they’ll hope to have learned some lessons and will come out here with a point to prove. I reckon it will be a fight between this boat and Durham’s for the top spot.
Newcastle University BC
Newcastle are a club that’s come off the boil in the last year. For years Newcastle has been regarded as a formidable university programme that, on its day, can absolutely compete for the top spot at any regatta. Recently, with a talented group of guys graduating, they’ve struggled to find the same speed across the entire programme. That trend appears to be continuing if the results of the recent private fixtures are anything to go by.
That being said, Newcastle are a club that should never be discounted or undervalued. They’re a group of exceptionally hardworking athletes, characterized by an absolute dogged determination that permeates into each Newcastle performance. They undoubtedly still have significant talent at the top end, too.
At Henley 2022, Newcastle produced a great showing in the Prince Albert to reach day four, going out to eventual finalists, University of California, in a close-run race. At the recent GB November Trials, there were a host of Newcastle pairs – some pretty young – that were all pretty tightly clustered in the rankings, suggesting a pretty flat squad with good depth all the way through: a fantastic recipe for competitive selection that will drive the standard at Newcastle up and up.
The club has three boats entered in this category, and it’s really tricky to know where each sits in the internal squad rankings, but I would expect at least one of these boats to be made up of Newcastle’s top guys, and whichever four that is will be looking to try and challenge for the win here, bringing some much-needed momentum to Newcastle’s season.
University of London BC
This looks to be a lower-ranked boat within the UL squad, so I’d imagine that these guys won’t have the pace to keep up with the top Edinburgh, Durham and Newcastle boats. That being said, UL are a really strong programme all the way through at the moment, with some great results at Fours Head just over a week ago. They’re fierce racers and will be making the trip up north with a great deal of purpose.
Tyne ARC
Tyne ARC target Rutherford Head as a season opener, and will be very comfortable on home waters, so this crew may well be one to watch. Not a huge amount to go off here in terms of relative speed, though Tyne also took part in the recent private fixtures with Durham, Edinburgh and Newcastle and fell to the university crews. They’ll no doubt be looking to right some wrongs here, proving that they can mix with some of the country’s best university crews. A good result here would be a fantastic way to kick off the season and would put the club on sure footing looking towards HORR, and Henley beyond that.
Prediction
Without knowing the exact personnel and internal rankings of each crew here, it’s difficult to make an accurate prediction, but based off the results so far this year from each squad, I’ll have to go with Durham for the win, with Edinburgh behind and Newcastle in third. That being said, I expect at least one of the Newcastle crews to come out with a vengeance, potentially unseating Edinburgh or Durham.
As always, good luck to all crews.
Five Man
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