University rowing in the United Kingdom

A 2016 article identified six university clubs which "dominate rowing among higher education institutions": Oxford Brookes, Imperial College, London, Newcastle, Durham and Reading.

With the exception of Reading, these are all designated by British Rowing as High Performance Programmes, a scheme that also involves Edinburgh as well as three non-university clubs.

In the UK the 'Championship' Programmes are: Brookes, Bristol, Durham, Edinburgh, Imperial, Newcastle and UL(London).

For non-indoor events, boats are separated into Championship (where "BUCS points" are available), Intermediate and Beginner (for students in their first year of the sport).

The event was introduced in 2006 and first held on the Trent in Nottingham, small boats having previously competed in the BUSA Championship Head.

[17] The 2007 event, held in December, saw 4s included in the Small Boats Head and Durham compete for the first time, dominating the medal table.

[18] In 2008 the event was again held in October but moved to the Witham in Boston, Lincolnshire,[19] where it now runs in conjunction with the GB Rowing Team 1st Senior/U23 Assessment.

[20] The 2012 head saw Durham's dominance finally broken as, with only the double sculls racing, Imperial topped the medal table with a single gold, a silver and a bronze.

[17][37] It was held on the River Trent in Nottingham until 2009, when the decision was made to move the event to the River Nene in Peterborough, and to split the competition into 2 separate days, with Beginners racing over a shorter 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) course on one day, and Seniors racing on the longer course on the other.

However, due to flooding, the event was moved to Boston that year,[39] with Newcastle topping the medal table.

[40] The 2014 event was cancelled due to bad weather,[41] It was held in Boston again in 2015, with racing on Saturday only for the intermediate and championship crews.

[49] The 2020 event was shortened due to bad weather, with only the intermediate and championship races taking place.

The University of London won the 2016 women's trophy on gold medal count, having finished equal on points with Exeter.

Results[75] The Head of the River Race for men's eights, rowed on the Championship Course on the Tideway, awarded the Ortner Shield (named after Reading University coach Frank Ortner) to the fastest University Athletics Union (UAU) crew (later BUSA crew) from 1961 to 2005.