The Boat Race

The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race is a competition between teams of eight from the two oldest universities in England and takes place every year in late March or early April.
Oxford row in Dark Blues and Cambridge in Light Blues
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The Oxford Cambridge Boat race or the Varsity Boat Race, started life of as a simple challenge between two college friends Charles Merivale, who was studying at Cambridge, and his schoolfriend Charles Wordsworth from Oxford. If you think Charles’s name sound familiar you are right, he was the nephew of William Wordsworth the famous English poet.
This race took place in June 1829 at Henley on Thames and this first race was won by Oxford. In 1839 the race was moved to London, and took place between Westminster and Putney. The original race was so popular that the people of Henley decided to hold their own event and that is now known as the Henley Royal Regatta.

The race continued to be held at Westminster until 1845 when it was moved to the current location, which is Westminster to Putney. This race has continued every year since then with the exception of war years.

The race was pretty evenly won by both teams until 1861, when Oxford started a long run of wins that was to last nine years. The longest winning streak was by Cambridge and they were the champions for 13 years between 1924 and 1936.
The Boat Race is said to be the toughest Eight Boat race in the world and is much tougher than Olympic races. The reasons for this are that it is over a longer distance four and a quarter miles as opposed to Olympic course at a third of that. Another reason for its legendary toughness is that it is on open water in any kind of weather that London wishes to throw at it.
There has been some cases of one or other of the boats sinking due to the heavy waves coming in to the boat. In 1912 both boats sank due to heavy waves and the race was restarted the following day with Oxford winning the rerun.
The war years were to interrupt the running of the race and it was not held between 1912 and 1919 for the First World War and 1940 and 1945 for the Second War.

The race was to be a male dominated sport until 1981 when Oxford named Sue Brown as the first ever female cox.
There was even a film made of the Boar race and this was named “True Blue”. This film came about as a result of a controversy in 1987 when some of the Oxford crew mutinied against the then Selection president over the policy of selection. Despite this problem Oxford still beat Cambridge in that years race.
Over the years there has been numerous “Clashes” between the two universities. A “Clash” is when the oars of both boats hit each other. In 2001 an Oarsman lost his oar due to a clash and the race had to be re-started.

Last year the race was won by three and a half lengths over Cambridge.
How the race is run!
The race starts from two stake boats moored so that the competitors' bows are in line with the University Stone on the south bank. The winner of the toss has the choice of station.

The 2010 Boat Race starts at 16.30pm BST on the 3rd April. Watch this page for Race news and results.

If this information has whet your appetite and you want to learn more please use the following links.
The Boat Race Official Site
Wikipedia The_Boat_Race

In a truly epic battle on the Tideway, Cambridge confounded the bookies by coming from behind to win the 156th Boat Race. Their victory denied Oxford the hat-trick, and increased the Light Blues overall advantage in the series - Cambridge have now won 80 races against Oxford’s 75.

Oxford won the toss and chose the Surrey station - always the safer bet when the forecasts promised squally showers with the wind swinging round to the south west. Off the start their stroke, Charlie Burkitt, took the crew off at 47 strokes a minute against Cambridge at 45, and along the boat houses Oxford begand to eke out a small advantage. But as the crews settled at 37 and got into their race pace beyond Beverley Brook, Cambridge - on the inside of the Middlesex bend - had drawn level.

Oxford now moved into a solid rhythm which gave them a canvas advantage by the time the crews reached Barn Elms. Despite being warned for their steering by umpire Simon Harris, they reached the Mile Post a second ahead of Cambridge, with both crews now rating 35.

Oxford were now determined to maximise the advantage of the inside of the Hammersmith bend and, despite a slight push from the Light Blues, went half a length clear at Harrods, and maintained the edge at Hammersmith Bridge, where there was a margin of two seconds between the crews.

As Cambridge now dug deep on the outside of the curve to prevent the opposition moving away. Maintaining the higher rate past St Paul’s boathouse they began to close the gap, and Oxford upped their own rate to 36 to stave off the attack. As the forecast choppy conditions prevailed down Corney Reach, so the pressure from Cambridge proved relentless - they continued to close past Chiswick Eyot and narrowed the Oxford lead to just 0.5sec at Chiswick Steps.

Cambridge went for another push at the Crossing, which proved the crucial point in the race and this time the Dark Blues could not respond. For the first time Cambridge took the lead, finding new reserves of power in their confident stroke, while an air of desperation crept in to the Oxford boat.

Cambridge reached Barnes Bridge two seconds up and the Dark Blues faced the monumental task of moving round the outside of the final bend to recapture the lead. In a final push they upped the rate to 36 and began to close, but a confident response from Cambridge put the result in no doubt. The Light Blues pushed the rate back up to 38 to move away and cross the line four seconds clear in 17 mins 35 secs.

Robert Treharne Jones