With twenty-two crews entered into this year’s University Pennant at Women’s Eights Head of the River Race, it’s set to be an exciting race. This season has been interesting to watch unfold as many clubs have altered their racing schedule in favour of racing events that are closer to home, for example Brookes and UL not attending BUCS Head. The result of this is that we haven’t seen many of the main competitors come face-to-face with one another. However, WEHoRR 2022 will act as a remedy to this issue, with a wide variety of crews entered, amongst which, spectator favourites return for seven kilometres of intense racing.
Edinburgh University BC
Edinburgh have once again demonstrated their dominance by their impressive performance at BUCS Head last month, winning the Women’s Championship Eights among other divisions. I’m particularly interested to see how Edinburgh compare to Oxford Brookes, as neither club have met despite the former racing at BUCS and Rutherford and the latter racing at Quintin.
Durham University BC
It’s clear that Durham has no shortage of talented athletes that could pose as a threat to the field of competitors, having finished third at BUCS Head in the Women’s Championship Eights and first in the Women’s Intermediate Eights. It’s likely that Durham will feature alongside the top boats in the division, likely amongst the top five crews.
Newcastle University BC
Much like Edinburgh, Newcastle performed incredibly well at BUCS, taking second place behind Edinburgh by only four seconds. It will be really interested to see these two clubs, obviously well matched in speed and skill, going head-to-head once again to see whether the outcome at BUCS will be repeated or if Newcastle’s gritty determination will allow them to come out on top.
Oxford Brookes University BC
Noticeably missing from BUCS Head, Oxford Brookes University are a major contender yet to come into the fold. Although they are yet to lay down a result of note this season, under the new leadership of Hugo Gulliver the Brookes women are sure to be in the fight. Having recently raced the Cambridge and Oxford Universities on the Tideway in The Boat Race fixtures, they will have some vital experience on the notorious Championship Course.
Prediction
Overall, I truly believe that this division is incredibly hard to predict who will win. All the clubs entered have demonstrated their ability throughout the last season, with many of the crews repeatedly coming only seconds apart from one another. It’s likely that we’ll see stand out performances from Oxford Brookes alongside Edinburgh and Newcastle, potentially placing in that very order. One thing is for certain – this is definitely going to be an exciting race to watch.
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