Frequently Asked Questions

Our races: Bedford Rowing Club hosts three Head races – racing a number of crews against the clock one after another – throughout the year. Each February the Head is for eights, fours and quads only. We also run Heads for fours, quads and small boats (pairs, doubles and single sculls) in April and October. All competitions are affiliated to British Rowing and run under their Rules of Racing and RowSafe. They are advertised on British Rowing’s Competitions calendar.

The Events sub-committee of Bedford Rowing Club organises and runs the Head races. A list of the Events committee members can be found on our Meet the Team page. On race day, a team of volunteers drawn from Club members and Umpires from the Eastern region and beyond perform a host of roles from marshalling, registration, timing, and tech support.

Bedford Rowing Club runs a dedicated website for our rowing competitions at www.bedfordrowingevents.co.uk where details of our next Head, future competition dates and results from previous events dating back into the last century can be found. On race days, results are updated after the completion of each division, displayed on the large screen at Bedford Rowing Club bar and uploaded to the RowStats website.

We are looking to live stream our Head races on YouTube. Technical trials are underway; further details will be released nearer to each event if this becomes a reality. In the meantime, check out our fledgling YouTube channel @rowstream for some initial information content. Subscribe there and hit the ‘notification’ button to receive more updates as they occur.

Our competitors love seeing their efforts captured in photos and we are regularly asked about photographers who attend our races. We’re happy to share links to your album(s) of racing, so please drop our Comms officer a line at communications@bedfordrowing.co.uk so that we can set this up. Likewise use this address for general media enquiries, or events@bedfordrowing.co.uk if you have a query about a specific crew or event.

We have a large and dedicated band of volunteers that make our Head races the friendly and well-organised competitions that we pride ourselves on running, many of whom have been helping for many years. We are always interested to hear from anyone that would be interested in joining us on race day, whether that be for a bankside duty, safety boat crewing, registration desk, timing team, parking marshalling or even the really essential roles such as making sure the portaloos are kept stocked with supplies of loo roll!

We’d be delighted to host visiting umpires to join our teams on the day with a range of umpiring, course monitoring and crew marshalling jobs. All our volunteers get looked after with food and drink in thanks for their essential contribution to our races! Please contact us at helpers@bedfordrowing.co.uk.

Unlike many competitions, we offer a system of open divisions rather than fixing certain events in each division, so you can race at whatever time you like. While this may mean that there may be some differences in weather conditions between two crews racing in the same event at either end of the day, the benefits of crews being able to choose when to compete and which events to double up in outweighs this. Competitions held on some tidal rivers, for example, have much greater disparity than you would find at Bedford.

For a short course, we have our fair share of bridges. Some of these are single span, offering good spectating opportunities (see our section for Spectators below), others have central piers that all coxes and crews need to know about in advance and treat with suitable respect during the journey to the start marshalling area and while racing.

See our Information page for links to our course map and safety documentation, plus links to course videos that cover the journey to the start and the full head race course for further details.

All entries, crew changes, changes of division (before entries close), withdrawals and substitutions (after entries close) must be made through British Rowing’s BROE system. You will not be able to change divisions after entries close; any requests to change division after this time must be for a compelling reason and made to entries@bedfordrowing.co.uk.

For entries made in senior events with large disparities between the Crew Ranking Index (CRI) of scullers/crews, we will endeavour to create banded events so that crews are racing against opposition of a comparable CRI. Due to the way British Rowing’s ranking index system works, this may not split events perfectly, but it’s the only way that we can think of to attempt a draw that is fair. A full explanation of the Ranking Index system can be found here

Junior and masters events are not banded, but sorted by age range.

Absolutely. Recognising that our divisional format is ideal for seat racing purposes, competitors may compete more than once in the same event. HOWEVER, the same crew cannot race for a time more than once, at least one crew member must be altered for a crew to race again in the same event. Changing the cox or simply swapping seat positions does NOT count as a different crew.

If there are other events at a higher class than yours (i.e. higher banded event, higher junior age, younger masters age) then the same crew could race again in the higher-class event. If this is not an option (e.g. you are already in the top banded event) then you have the option to row for a “Time Only” row. This will be noted as “Time Only” on the draw and results; your time will be recorded and published but a Time Only crew is not eligible for a prize if they win their event. Such crews will be allocated their first row as their formal timed row, with the later row as “Time Only”, unless clubs specifically request on BROE otherwise.

Masters events will run in their single age category wherever possible, but if there are insufficient entries to make this viable then the British Rowing masters handicap system will be used. We will endeavour to keep the age spread within a Masters handicap event as low as possible, but there may need to be a wider-than-ideal spread for some categories to give as many people as possible the opportunity to race.

Note that under British Rowing Rules of Racing, the handicapping time can only be applied once the last crew overall in your boat category has raced; in most cases this will be the last division of the day. We will not be able to issue masters prizes until this has happened so that the correct handicaps can be applied to race times. There will be some flexibility in this at the Registration desk if a crew has a definite clear margin from first to second place that will not credibly be beaten by a crew rowing in later divisions.

We can only physically fit a limited number of crews on the river, so regrettably may need to close entries or limit entries to certain events before the published closing date. Enter early for a better chance of keeping your place in the draw, though note that entry date is only one of a number of criteria that we use should we need to reduce the number of crews going through to the draw.

Divisions may be suspended on BROE once full, though may be reopened if crews scratch before the close of entries. Late entries may be reallocated if their preferred division is full.

All entry fees are payable by card through BROE or by BACS bank transfer. Our banking details are:

Account name: Bedford Rowing Club
Sort code and account number: 40-10-02 51846671
Reference: Please quote your BR clubcode and surname of your BROE entry contact as payment reference, e.g. BED-Dods

A refund of entry fees in full will be made for any crews withdrawn on BROE before the published closing date of entries, also to any crews that we reject at the time of the draw.

In common with most other competitions, no refunds will be made for any entries scratched after entries have closed.

In the event of a full or partial cancellation of a Head due to flood conditions, strong stream, inclement weather or other unforeseen circumstances, we aim to refund as much of each crew’s entry fees as possible. We have great relationships with our suppliers so are able to keep costs to a minimum in the event of a cancellation, but we will look to recover a proportion of incurred costs. By way of example, after the cancellation at short notice of the Eights & Fours Head in February 2026, we were able to refund 88% of the entry fee to clubs.

Please see our information page for parking information. Most non-Bedford clubs will boat from Longholme, the section of river at the finish end of the course. Check the information page for any specific information about the use of Longholme island (adjacent to the schools’ boathouse) for your Head as this is often not possible due to flooding or poor ground conditions. Trailers and minibuses only should be parked along the Embankment alongside the finish straight, as this is premium space that has to be shared by many clubs. Our advice is to always aim for your trailer to arrive early to secure a space.

Limited alternative boating may be available from Bedford Rowing Club and Star Club, but this should be negotiated with the respective club captain in plenty of time before the Head date.

Crews are responsible for getting themselves to the start in time for each division to start at its published time, taking into account where they are boating from, crew ability, stream conditions, congestion in the boating area, congestion on the river approaching the start area etc. We therefore don’t quote specific times apart from the hard rule that any crew not upstream of Star Club ten minutes before a division’s published start time risks being sent back to the boating area.

For guidance, crews should be ready to boat facing upstream towards the start as soon as the last crew from the previous division has passed. Boats must not be put on the water at schools’ boathouse or along Longholme until the last race of the previous division has passed.

Crews should aim to be boated at least half an hour before race time, the very fastest crews and those starting at the top end of the division may be able to get away 15-20 minutes before the division, but are then taking the risk of hitting traffic and not making the 10 minute cutoff at Star Club.

Soon after each division has finished, records of race times recorded from the start and finish positions are manually double-checked and then displayed on the screen in the bar at Bedford Rowing Club. For many divisions we will have the results on display before the last crews have come off the water each division. They are then updated on to the RowStats website.

Winning crews must present themselves to the Registration desk on the first floor of Bedford Rowing Club for ID checks of competitors against the BROE entry, prizes are then awarded.

We pride ourselves in getting results calculated, checked and published before the last crews from a division are off the water, so ask that crews check our results online and come to the Registration desk on the first floor at Bedford Rowing Club to collect your prizes before you leave. However, we recognise that some crews need to depart before the last crews in your event have raced. We can make arrangements for prizes to be collected at subsequent head races, other competitions that our umpires are visiting or even by post (after payment of a small fee to cover tracked postage and packing). Please use the use this online form to specify your choice.

Please see our information page for parking information. Most non-Bedford clubs will boat from Longholme, the section of river at the finish end of the course, but there is NO SPECTATOR PARKING in this area. There is unlikely to be any space for spectator parking at Bedford Rowing Club or Star Club, but as our races are held on Sundays there is ample street and multi-storey parking within short walking distance of the course.

Bedford is widely considered one of the finest river spectator venues in the UK. The River Great Ouse features a wide, slow-moving, and unusually straight 2km stretch right through the town centre, lined by tree-filled parks that create a natural viewing amphitheatre. Unusually for river rowing courses, the course along the Great Ouse through Bedford is accessible by public footpath for the whole length of the course on the north bank and a large proportion of the southern bank, it offers numerous unique vantage points: