As storm Bert seems to be in our rear sights, we can turn our attention to Rutherford Head of the River Race and hope for more favourable weather conditions during this event. The lineup for this year’s band one eights is much the same as last year, minus crews submitted from Star Boat Club and Molesey Boat Club. This repeat of events will allow crews to improve from previous finishing times and challenge the reigning champions, Newcastle University Boat Club.
Newcastle University Boat Club
One of British Rowing’s high-performance centres, Newcastle University Boat Club (NUBC), are notorious for dominating any events they attend. With a top-class training programme and Head coach, Angelo Savarino, who previously coached the junior and senior women’s Italian national crews, winning five silvers and one bronze at the World Rowing Championships in 2003 and 2004, NUBC has the resources needed to push their club to new heights and preserve the club’s excellent reputation.
This summer at Henley Royal Regatta, the men’s squad sent four crews to attempt qualification for The Temple Challenge Cup, showing NUBC’s depth and breadth of athletes. With one crew making it through to side-by-side racing, Princeton University snubbed their chances of victory, taking them out of contention during Wednesday’s racing.
The NUBC men will make every effort to push themselves this head season, starting with winning this event as they did last year. However, as many of this year’s lineup also raced this event last year, rival crews will be aiming to put pressure on NUBC.
Edinburgh University Boat Club
Edinburgh University Boat Club (EUBC) is another high-performance university boat club entering two crews, stacking this event with the best British University men’s eights. EUBC has set and maintained high rowing standards for Scottish athletes and is a familiar sight at significant head races and regattas throughout the UK. Qualifying 54 athletes across seven boats, EUBC had a record-breaking year at Henley Royal Regatta. The men’s squad qualified two crews for both The Prince Albert Challenge Cup and The Temple Challenge Cup, so they will be keen to build upon this success again this season.
At last year’s Rutherford Head, the crews finished behind Molesey Boat Club in third place in this category. This year’s challenge will be to improve on that. By entering two crews and bringing the fighting spirit that EUBC brings to every event, they have put themselves in the best position to achieve this goal.
Starting their season at the Inverness Head on the Caledonian Canal, EUBC made an imposing start by collecting fourteen wins across their men’s and women’s squads. This will undoubtedly fuel their engines coming into this event and hopefully result in more wins for this highly achieving boat club.
Durham University Boat Club
Continuing the trend of elite academic boat clubs, Durham University Boat Club (DUBC) also enters this event with two crews. The DUBC men are coming into this season from strong performances at BUCS Regatta and Henley Royal Regatta, which saw them claim a bronze medal in Championship Eights and make it to the Friday of The Temple Challenge Cup.
Rutherford Head will be their second time racing on these waters this season, as they attended the Tyne Long Distance Sculls and Tyne United Small Boats Head earlier in October. Medals came for their men’s quad and double, who both won gold, and their second men’s double, taking bronze for the long-distance sculls, and six more golds from the small boat’s component, with the men’s and women’s quad and coxed fours taking golds too. The squad are also likely to have eyes on claiming an early season win over their local rival, Newcastle University Boat Club. The title of overall winner of The Boat Race of The North has fallen to Newcastle in most recent years, so an early season win over The Blue Star would bode well for their efforts to stop Newcastle’s winning streak.
Tyne Amateur Rowing Club
Situated in the north-east of England, Tyne Amateur Rowing Club has some glorious waters to row on, making it a perfect setting for a head race.
As hosts of this event, there is always extra pressure to defend your home water; however, with the band one men’s eights being dominated by some of the UK’s best men’s university boat clubs, Tyne has their work cut out. With last year’s crew finishing in twelfth place, it will take all crew member’s grit and determination to improve on this result.
This year at Henley Royal Regatta, Tyne made history by prequalifying eighteen athletes, showing the strength and success of their season before Henley Royal Regatta. Qualifying crews for The Wyfold Challenge Cup, The Wargrave Challenge Cup and The Thames Challenge Cup- Tyne is a high-calibre club with the power to dominate this category. History was also recreated as their crew racing in the Wyfold Challenge Cup successfully secured themselves a spot in the Semifinals (as they did in 2023) but were unfortunately knocked out of the competition by Marlow Rowing Club.
Tyne will be giving this season their all to emulate and surpass the successes they achieved last season. A strong finish time in this event will set them up perfectly to do this.
Prediction
For this particular event, all crews enter with their own motivations and an unwavering determination to be champions and nothing else. With all the university crews entering two boats each, there will be an interclub battle and a battle vying to be champions of this event. With Newcastle University Boat Club already holding the title, it would be fair to say that their crew will do everything in their power to retain this, but with the strength of Durham University Boat Club and Edinburgh University Boat Club, this might be easier said than done.
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