BUCS Head 2022

After two years, the boat club returned to Newcastle to race BUCS Head 2022 on the Tyne. With storm’s Dudley and Eunice keeping the club off the Trent for the last two weeks, everyone was very excited to get back on the water and benchmark ourselves against the rest of the country.

The Saturday saw the Performance and Intermediate squads racing. With 15 crews racing over the two divisions, there were many success stories across the day. Some of the highlights included the two men’s lightweight quads, placing 3^rd and 4^th in their category showing depth in the lightweight squad. The men’s coxless had a good race placing 4^th and winning BUCS points for the heavyweight men for the first time in at least four years in a highly competitive class: a great place to be in at this early stage of the season. On the women’s side, the Women’s eight having had to make a last-minute sub due to injury, beat Glasgow University in their morning race before moving into the 4- in the afternoon where they had a great smooth row to win Gold by a huge margin having pushed out top tier crews form Durham, Bath and Imperial for the top spot. A fantastic achievement for these four girls (Katie Kearsey, Grace Johnson, Charlotte Sanders, Georgie Thorpe) who have been training hard over the winter and it has paid off.

From our intermediate squad, the men’s eight have moved on a long way since Wallingford Head in November. They attacked every moment of their race, managing to overtake Lancaster’s top eight and beating local rivals Nottingham Trent by over fifty seconds. The women’s 4x raced as the lightweight 4x in the morning well, but, with only one crew member changing for the open weight category in division 2, they found their rhythm together and had a powerful row against their heavyweight opposition.

On Sunday, the Novice squad, having spent Saturday learning the course, were out for their first ever race. In the morning, the men’s 8 used their height and power to full effect placing 9^th in a tight category after catching a crab 200m before the finish line. They are looking forward to the rest of the season with the A-final at BUCS Regatta well in reach.

The afternoon division saw the two women’s eights. With the wind picking up and some white horses on the final straight, the first boat had a hard race holding off Queen’s University Belfast and stayed rowing together well despite the pressure of the other crews. The second boat recovered well from an early crab and settles into a strong rhythm when their rigger came loose and fell off with around 2000m to go! The other seven crew members did not give up and pushed on all the way to the line and with some stories to tell for their first ever racing experience. The men’s 4+ was a crew only recently put together and with limited experience, were looking forward to taking on the Tyne and had a decent row in a difficult category. We are all looking forward to our next events, finishing the head season with Women’s Head of the River Race (12^th March) and Men’s Head of the River Race (26^th March) before moving into BUCS Regatta prep and Easter camp.

Summary of Results