Another year, another round of BUCS Head – an important stepping stone for university crews as they prepare to face each other at the bigger, London-based Head of the River next month, and then in the regatta season beyond. The Championship Coxed Fours category is on the small side this year, with only five crews entered, but all come with significant pedigree and will be furiously hunting the top spot on the Tyne.
As the entry list is small, I’m going to be previewing each crew individually before offering a finish-order prediction at the end. It’s worth mentioning here that the combinations are largely unknown, so an accurate prediction will be tricky – I’ll be relying pretty heavily on the overall strength of the programme at this point in the season, rather than the individuals making up these units.
Newcastle University Boat Club
Newcastle won the Victor Ludorum here last year, and will be keen to stay on top this time around. The men’s side at Newcastle have had a rocky few years – ample talent, fostered and honed by a notoriously brutal training regime, but that has yet to yield the results that they might hope for (a Newcastle men’s crew hasn’t made a Henley final since 2021, when they lost to the University of London in the Prince Albert Challenge Cup). Their bronze-medal performance at BUCS Regatta in the Championship Eight last year was certainly a step in the right direction, but early indicators put the Blue Star a little off the pace this season; they were handily beaten by rivals Durham and Edinburgh at Rutherford Head this year (in fact, Durham managed to put two eights ahead of Newcastle’s first eight). The Newcastle boys will no doubt be smarting from that result, and will be fighting back at BUCS Head.
This crew is entered under Edward Ridley, who is right at the top of Newcastle’s squad. He and crewmate Gwilym Johnson placed second at the November Trials in 2025, and before that, he sat in the GB Men’s Eight at FISU alongside two other Newcastle athletes (Ben Brockway, now at Leander, and Lucas Bowes, still at Newcastle). If this is a top line-up from the Blue Star, they undoubtedly have the potential to win. It’s worth mentioning that before their performance in the eight at Rutherford Head, a Newcastle combination did take the win in Open Coxed Fours, so there is a good pedigree in this boat class. Who knows – perhaps this is the start of a serious challenge for the Prince Albert this summer.
University of Bristol Boat Club
Perhaps the dark horse of this category, Bristol are entered here without the weight of expectation, but with some exciting fresh talent that could take the up-and-coming programme to the next level. Bristol have enjoyed a rapid rise for the past couple of years, culminating in an A-final finish at last year’s BUCS Regatta. There is a sense that the club has genuine momentum, and that will be bolstered by the introduction of Abdelrahman Farag, who is named in this four, and Antoni Robinski. Farag is an ex-Grange School sculler, who rowed at the Coupe de la Jeunesse in 2024, winning a bronze in the GB quad. Robinski is a Polish U23 international, having rowed in Poland’s BM4- at U23s last summer. Together, Farag and Robinski took a very respectable tenth place overall at the GB November Trials, and fifth-fastest full U23 combination. With these guys pushing the standard on, I think Bristol could be on for a really good year, and I’m fascinated to see how this four fares at BUCS.
Durham University Boat Club
The powerhouse of the North, Durham enter here as favourites after a very strong performance from two of their eights at Rutherford Head. Durham have been there-or-thereabouts for a good few years now, routinely challenging for the top spots at BUCS Regatta but often falling short to Oxford Brookes (they earned a silver behind Brookes at last year’s regatta), and generally performing towards the top-end of the university field. The Henley records show a bit of a different story: Durham’s Temple eight has only made the weekend once – in 2022, where they were beaten by a strong University of Washington crew on the Saturday. In the Prince Albert, Durham have fared slightly better over the years, with Saturday appearances in 2006, 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017 – but never a Sunday. In a year where Brookes’ domination over the university circuit looks desperately fragile (replaced, perhaps, by the ascendant Light Blues of Cambridge), there has never been a better time for Durham to finally take the step towards Henley glory.
Can the Palatinate do it this year? BUCS Head certainly won’t answer that question, but it should provide good insight into whether a Henley win is actually possible this year (and, of course, whether that win is more likely in the coxed four than in the eight). Given the performance at Rutherford Head, the squad certainly looks strong. The sole named member of this crew is Roman Smigiel, a former Drexel Dragon who has been running largely in Durham’s second eight. Given his placement in the squad, I would hazard a guess that this isn’t Durham’s top small boat lineup, which certainly opens the door to the other programmes in the field. However, given the Palatinate’s pedigree, they are certainly ones to watch.
Imperial College Boat Club
Imperial are back on the map. After a few years of poor performances, the storied programme is showing clear signs of life under the new programme manager, alumnus Dave Loveday. These include a win in the Open Senior Academic coxless four at Fours Head, fifth in the Open Senior Academic coxed four at the same event, and second at Teddington Head in the Open Eight. There have also been some strong GB Trials performances: Henry Barham and Kit Gordon-Brown were eighth overall at the GB November Trials, and third full U23 pair. Gordon-Brown is the named athlete in this crew, with Barham listed in the coxless counterpart, so it’s tough to say whether this is a top boat or if the top athletes are evenly divided across categories. Whatever the case, I think Imperial are on for a good year, and that will start with a strong performance here.
Edinburgh University Boat Club
The Scottish powerhouse, Edinburgh, enters here as another programme that has come desperately close to Henley glory, but has just fallen short; last year, they were finalists in the Prince Albert, losing out to a ferocious University of London outfit. Edinburgh will no doubt take the pain of that loss into this season and use it as a powerful motivator, and they are off to a good start: a second-place finish behind Durham at Rutherford Head proves that they are certainly in the fight. The athlete listed here is Benjamin Nussey, who was part of the Temple lineup that made the Friday at Henley. He was the senior men’s captain of the Scottish team at The Home International Rowing Regatta last year, so comes with significant leadership experience that will be vital for Edinburgh’s development this year. The rest of the crew remains unknown, so, again, tricky to say where the cards will fall – but this will be yet another strong combination in a field with seemingly no weak links.
Prediction
It feels a bit churlish to offer a finish order prediction with so little information as to the actual makeup of these crews, but I’m still going to brazenly tip Newcastle for the win here. Something tells me that this will be a very fast combination with Ridley at the helm. Behind them, I’m going with Imperial, with Edinburgh in third. I think Durham will suffer simply from not stacking their lineup, though I am ready to be proven completely wrong. Bristol could absolutely contend for a medal, but I think they might just lack the experience of these other crews; I would, however, love to see the Bristol boys on the podium.
Good luck to all crews.
Five Man
