BUCS Head 2026: The eyes of the student world turn to the Tyne

Hear from Durham University BC, University of Nottingham BC, and University of Birmingham as the first major litmus test of 2026 gets ready to rock and roll in Newcastle

Destination Newcastle. Specifically, Newburn. After a brutally wet winter enveloping the country in a never-ending soggy embrace, the great migration of students to the toon for BUCS Head marks a hopeful turning point as clubs emerge from the gloomy doldrums of the long nights.

Awaiting them will be the tried-and-tested course. Weaving and winding from Scotswood and Blaydon to the well-trodden Newburn straight, passing crucial markers such as Car Crusher and the infamous cross-over at the Stella bend. At this year’s edition, new events will make their debut. Championship Pairs and Championship Double Sculls will take to the water alongside the flotilla of Beginner crews on the second day’s racing. The former will offer BUCS points, in line with its inclusion in the existing small boats programme. The latter will run as a pilot, and subject to its success, will see BUCS points allocated from the 2026–27 season onwards.

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s mouth-watering divisions, Holly Young, Lead Coach at Durham University BC, one of three universities that have made the Tyne their own, said, “After a long winter training block, we as a coaching team are incredibly excited to see the 2026 BUCS racing get underway on our home water.

“The Tyne is a truly special place to train and compete, and it always gives Durham University BC an extra lift on race day. We’re pleased with how the past few months of training have gone. The athletes have stepped up, embraced the challenge, and pushed themselves throughout a demanding preparation period. Their commitment and progress have been great to see. It’s also fantastic that BUCS Head continues to attract such strong and diverse entries from universities across the country. The depth and breadth of participation send a really positive message about the continued growth and development of university rowing.

“We’re especially pleased to see the introduction of the new Championship Pair and Championship Double Scull events this year, creating even more opportunities for athletes to race and engage with the competition. Durham University BC is feeling confident heading into the weekend, and we’re all looking forward to welcoming everyone to the Tyne for what promises to be a brilliant event.

Confident is just the right word to be using for the palatinate armada that will be defending their own turf. Their results on the Tyne in 2026 speak for themselves, and Rutherford Head was no different. Despite receiving a 20-second time penalty, their top Men’s crew breezed past Northern powerhouses Edinburgh University BC and Newcastle University BC. Such was the success back in November, they will be fielding two boats in the Open Championship Eights and whispers on riverbanks suggest two medals are not out of the question as they target their fifth consecutive win in the category.

As has been the case since for every BUCS Head since 2020, Durham University BC, Edinburgh University BC, and Newcastle University BC have dominated Women’s Championship Eights. With seven crews racing this year’s category, this is the largest field for sometime as the University of Birmingham BC have entered for the second year in a row and the University of Bristol get set to put their winter training to the test.

“I always hugely look forward to BUCS Head,” said University of Birmingham Senior Squad Coach, Alex Darby.

“I think Newcastle is a fantastic venue for it, with Tyne United RC, Tyne ARC, and Newcastle University BC being excellent hosts. The River Tyne generally tries to play ball, and I think the venue does bring the art of steering well into play with coxes and steersmen having to get their lines right, whilst also avoiding the dangers of running aground on the shallows.

“I would expect strong showings from our Lightweight women and our women’s scullers in general who set a really high bar last year, and then on the men’s side, they have a coxed 4 medal to defend from last year, and I know they’re keen to do so, and year on year, we are building depth on the men’s side.

Credit: AllMarkOne

“At Birmingham with our Beginners, we’ve been affected by the rain pretty badly this year. Every event we’ve entered has been cancelled on us (other than BUCS indoors), so we come into this a little bit in the dark as to how fast we are, particularly on a river. We’ve been putting a lot of focus into sculling this past term, so we hope that translates into speed in the quads. Unfortunately, we’ve had some injuries on the men’s side, so our Beginner Men have only one boat racing, whereas on the Women’s side, we have five boats entered. The first time Beginner Quads ran was 10 years ago, and that was won by Birmingham on the Women’s side, so we want to have a good crack at getting back into those medals again after picking up some sweep Beginner medals three years ago. We last picked up a Beginner Men’s medal two seasons ago, so it’d be great to get back to that form.

“For me, and I’m sure a lot of clubs, the whole season has been building to this point. The calendar flipped to 2026, but then in the blink of an eye, the BUCS Head-WEHORR-HORR triple header arrives, and it’s all go go go, what a time to be alive!”

12 months ago, Reading University BC had a BUCS Head for the ages, winning Open and Women’s Championship and Intermediate Quads as well as taking gold in the Open Intermediate Lightweight event too. It lit fires for an incredible 2025 domestically, and they’ll be inspired by the new addition of Championship Double Sculls to hopefully add to their silverware.

Some clubs, such as Nottingham University BC, have made important trips to the Tyne, helping athletes familiarise themselves with the course they will be racing this weekend.

Pete Boyes, Nottingham University BC’s Head Women’s Coach, explained, “We had a good run out over the course on the Tyne in November thanks to some training pieces with Durham and Edinburgh, a chance particularly for our steers-people to get some practice in for a key factor in the racing this weekend at BUCS Head.

“Nottingham University BC has a larger squad this year, and we’ve spent more time in a mixture of boats through the winter to see if we can find more performances over a range of boat classes. The time off water with the flooding that impacted most of the country has been spent well in the gym and on the ergs, hopefully this will start paying dividends later in the season beyond this weekend. The introduction of the smaller boats on Sunday will be interesting to see how programmes handle preparing two additional classes in term one and early term two.”

Credit: AllMarkOne

Amongst Nottingham’s delegation will be Ursie Flemming, one of several  GB Performance Development Academy athletes racing this weekend. Ursie, racing in the University of Nottingham BC’s Women’s Championship Quad, will be looking to close the gap on the field after last year’s performance. Representing the Yorkshire GB Performance Development Academy will be British Championship record holder Louise Brookes, who won gold for England in the U23 Single Sculls at last year’s Home International Rowing Regatta. She will be racing alongside Jess Symonds for the University of Leeds BC in the new Women’s Championship Double Scull category. The North West GB Performance Development Academy centre will also be represented with athletes from the Universities of Manchester and Liverpool.

With cancellations aplenty this winter, there will be a large contingent of Beginner crews who may well be racing for the very first time, such as those from the aforementioned Birmingham contingent. The largest of the Beginner entries comes in the Women’s Beginner Coxed Four with 24 boats set to race. The Women’s Eights will see 21 crews taking to the water over the shorter 3000m course, compared to the 5000m track the Intermediate and Championship crews will contest. At last year’s BUCS Head, the difficult decision was made to cancel the Quads and Fours and Queen’s University Belfast BC and Edinburgh University BC, two stalwarts of Beginner rowing, stepped up and won the Open and Women’s categories, respectively.

BUCS Head 2026 takes place 28 Feb – 1 Mar 2026, hosted by Tyne United RC/Tyne Amateur RC/ Newcastle University BC.

All event event information, including results when they are live, is available here.