BUCS Regatta 2023

​BUCS Regatta 27th-29th May
The club travelled down to Holme Pierrepont for BUCS regatta and had an impressive 22 entries in 14 categories across the 3 days of racing. The racing started early with the first entry in the regattas first race, the M Lwt 1x, followed shortly by the W Beg 1x. Unfortunately, no final for William in the M Lwt 1x but there was improvement on last year's time showing results for the hard work throughout the year, and there was success for Lizzie placing 3rd in the B final and for Cameron placing 4th in the D Final of W Beg 1x. The beginners placed 2nd in the C final of the M Beg 4x having been neck and neck with UCL down the course providing a very pleasing start to their weekend of racing. The M Int 8+ also made one of the last finals of the day placing 5th in the F final in what was a close race across all the lanes, showing great resilience through what can only be described as lashing rain!

Sunday saw 4 of our beginners racing in the M Beg 1x, 3 of which was their first time racing in a single. Mael placed 3rd in the C final, Charlie making the D final and Glenn placing 3rd in the F final. Our Womens Beginner 4x were able to overcome the issues with equipment in the time trial to secure 1st in the D final, with a confident lead of 20 seconds. Our women’s squad also had 2 entries in the W Int 1x category, with Emily and Eve, racing for Edinburgh Napier, both competing and narrowly missing out on a final. There were 2 entries in the M Int 2x, with Ross and Andrew placing 6th in the E final and Ben and Eddie not having qualified. The last race of the day was the E final for the M Int 4+. The crew faced a broken backstay in the warmup on the way to the starting blocks, and were kindly helped by another crew on their way to race. This however didn’t stop the four from giving their all, having been behind Exeter from the start, and a length down going into the last 500m the crew were able to surge ahead in a final sprint to catch up with the leaders to require a photo finish. The judges ruled that Exeter had won by 0.04 of a second, although this was still a pleasing result in such a highly competitive race.

The last day of BUCS began with the M Beg 2x, with both crews making a final, Charlie and Mark finishing 5th in the D final, and Mael and Sam finishing 4th in the E final. The D final of M Int 2- had 2 Heriot Watt crews, Josh and Nathaniel, Will and Chris. Josh and Nathaniel came in a close second place behind Exeter and Will and Chris came 5th in the final. The M Int 4x was the penultimate final of the day, with a battle between the crew and Lee in lane 1. Somewhat a game of leapfrog occurred down the course but in the last 500m were able to push ahead to secure 5th in the end. The last race of the weekend was the W Beg 2x placing 6th in the D final before packing the boats up and heading home.