Head of the River and BUSA

Published online 20th February 2006

Letter dated 12 February 2006

Dear Rowing Service

Further to the mention of HORR on the rowing service dated 11 February, I write to set out the background to the changes to the HORR's university-related prizes.

During November I heard via a third party that BUSA were taking back the University prizes from both WEHORR and HORR. As has always been specified on our entry instructions, it was the case that HORR hosted the inter-university competition on behalf of BUSA - it was necessary to be affiliated to BUSA to be allowed to compete, and we were acting as little more than agents for them. If BUSA wished to re-arrange their events (including changing the rules, as well as moving the venues) that was entirely their prerogative.

Given the need to post the Race information on the website, that left us with - literally - 10 days to decide if we wanted to put in place a university prize of some sort (or defer all discussion until we were looking at the 2007 Race), and if so what form it should take. Our first decision was that we should have something, albeit perhaps on an experimental or provisional basis pending a fuller review. After that, our main thoughts were that :
a) there seemed little point in offering a "best university crew" prize, as it would simply be replicating the BUSA event a few weeks beforehand.
b) we ought to try to retain the general university entry, given that some athletic unions would presumably fund a trip to the BUSA Head but not necessarily HORR any more.
c) without questions of BUSA-eligibility, it would be possible to allow in all tertiary-academic clubs, some of whom (e.g. colleges) have been excluded in the past and whose intricacies have been a significant drag on the Secretary for many years.

A prize limited to those university clubs which could only offer Senior 2 crews and no higher appealed to the Committee - I re-worked the 2005 results on this basis, and the finish order in that would have had UWE and Glasgow (both senior 3 crews) ahead of Nottingham, Newcastle, Manchester, Bath, Loughborough and Bristol - all these in the top 100 finishers and covered by less than 47 seconds.

Needless to say we were also mindful of the apparent abandonment of the more senior university and university-based clubs. We felt able to do so on the combined basis that
i) they will be able to take part in the BUSA Head to compete for the "best University" title
ii) they can still compete at HORR for the status prizes, an assortment of which they have regularly won over the last few years.
iii) this arrangement is for 2006 only, and is open to adjustment or abandonment in the light of this year's results and comments.

Indeed, in relation to iii), we have already had an informal indication from Durham UBC that they plan to reclaim the pot for the BUSA second crew event which they presented to HORR some years ago, and re-present it to HORR for a suitable second-crew event in 2007. This raises the possibility of - say - a Senior I and a Senior III university event or perhaps something age-related ? but there are many possibilities although we would probably not wish to just replicate the BUSA Head. Accordingly, the new event is simply called the "University Prize" and not "Top University Prize" or "First University Prize".

The Fairbairn Trophy has been around for many years - at least 40, I am sure - and has always "gone" to the first place crew. I use inverted commas as the Trophy is about 8ft tall and weighs an awful lot (it lives at London RC). The Vernon started in 1954, the Page in 1982 and the Jackson was "inherited" from the NARA at the time of the merger in the 1950's. I have always understood that the reason the academic clubs were excluded from these was to keep "ordinary" clubs involved - bearing in mind, of course, that the BUSA events were available.

As a part of the general review after this year's Race, the HORR Committee will be considering eligibility for the various awards in light of what comes out of the experimental University event and the BUSA Head results.

Andrew Ruddle, Secretary, HORR.