Hacker: Scotland's BUCS prospects

The British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Home Nations, formerly the British University Games, return to Edinburgh this year, with hosting duties shared between Heriot-Watt and Edinburgh Universities at their excellent sporting facilities. Despite the re-branding of the events, and some alterations to the competition, the spirit of the Home Nations remains intact in the view of Stew Fowlie.

“We’re hugely excited that the event is returning to Edinburgh, as we consider the spiritual home of the Games to be here in Scotland’s capital. Both the host universities have been massively supportive of the event: we truly could not have pulled it off without them, and our representative sides are going to be better prepared than ever, so we’re looking to wrestle the title away from the English Universities for the first time—hopefully home advantage will help us along with that!”

The Scottish athletes should head into the Home Nations in confident mood, on the back of strong performances across the board. With more clubs, and more teams than ever before entering Scottish and British competitions, the talent pool has never been larger, and many of the Scottish teams have enjoyed tremendous results.

“Edinburgh’s fencers have done brilliantly in getting into the latter stages of the British Championships, while the footballers of Heriot-Watt were really unlucky in going out on penalties against Loughborough in the BUCS Football Championship. Loughborough went on to win the Championship itself, which shows just how good that Heriot-Watt side are.

“Many of our most competitive players haven’t really got into their season just yet, either. We always enjoy a lot of success with the golf, both representing Scottish Universities, and in individual competition.“

As competition and participation in university sport in Scotland continue to grow, so will the opportunities for success in both a national and international context. The Home Nations come to Edinburgh next month, from the 12th to the 15th of April, and The Journal will be on hand to bring you the latest from all the events taking place.

Check out http://www.bucs.org.uk/homenations for details of the events, and keep checking www.journal-online.co.uk for our coverage of the BUCS Home Nations 2010.