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The Boat Race is a s. Members of both teams are traditionally known as '' Blues '' and each boat as a " Blue Boat ", with Cambridge in light blue and Oxford dark blue. COURSE The course is 4 ') has the advantage of the first and last bends, and the south, ' Surrey ', station the longer middle bend. The race is rowed would be cancelled, but the Boat Race has a tradition of proceeding even in potential sinking conditions. The race is for heavyweight eights (i.e., for eight rowers with a Cox steering, and no restrictions on weight). Female coxes are permitted, the first to appear in the Boat Race being Sue Brown for Oxford in 1981 (before female coxes were permitted for international mens' crews). In fact female rowers would be permitted in the men's boat race, though the reverse is not true. During the race the coxes compete for the fastest current, which lies at the deepest part of the river, frequently leading to clashes of Blades and warnings from the Umpire . A crew that gets a lead of more than a boat's length can cut in front of their opponent, making it extremely difficult for the losing crew to overtake back. For this reason the tactics of the race are generally to go fast early on, and few races have a change of the lead after half-way (though this happened in 2003 and again in 2007). The course for the main part of the races' history has been from Putney to Mortlake, but there have been a few other courses:
In addition, there were four unofficial boat races held during World War II away from London — 1940 (Henley-on-Thames), 1943 ( Sandford-on-Thames ), 1944 ( River Great Ouse , Ely ), and 1945. As none of those competing were awarded blues, these races are not included in the official list. HISTORY The tradition was started in 1829 by Charles Merivale , a student at Cambridge, and his schoolfriend Charles Wordsworth who was at Oxford. Cambridge challenged Oxford to a race, and the challenge was repeated the next year. The tradition continues, with the loser challenging the winner to a re-match annually. The race in 1877 was declared a dead heat. Legend in Oxford has it that the judge, "Honest John" Phelps, was asleep under a bush as the crews came by leading him to announce the result as a "dead heat to Oxford by four feet", but this is not borne out by contemporary reports. '' The Times '' said: :"Oxford, partially disabled, were making effort after effort to hold their rapidly waning lead, while Cambridge, who, curiously enough, had settled together again, and were rowing almost as one man, were putting on a magnificent spurt at 40 strokes to the minute, with a view of catching their opponents before reaching the winning-post. Thus struggling over the remaining portion of the course, the two eights raced past the flag alongside one another, and the gun fired amid a scene of excitement rarely equalled and never exceeded. Cheers for one crew were succeeded by counter-cheers for the other, and it was impossible to tell what the result was until the Press boat backed down to the Judge and inquired the issue. John Phelps, the waterman, who officiated, replied that the noses of the boats passed the post strictly level, and that the result was a dead heat." The event is now a British national institution, and is Televised live each year. As of the 2005 race, the BBC handed over broadcasting rights to ITV , after 66 years. The current score in all races is Cambridge 79 wins, Oxford 73, and one dead heat. THE COMPETITORS Although the contest is strictly between amateurs and the competitors must be students of the university for whom they race, the training schedules each team undertakes are very gruelling. Typically each team trains for six days a week for six months before the event. Such is the competitive spirit between the universities it is common for Olympic standard rowers to compete, notably including four times Olympic gold medallist Matthew Pinsent who rowed for Oxford in 1990, 1991, and 1993. Olympic Gold medallists from 2000 - Tim Foster (Oxford 1997), Luka Grubor (Oxford 1997), and Kieran West (Cambridge 1999, 2001, 2006) - and 2004 - Ed Coode (Oxford 1998) have also raced for their university. Academic Status There are no sporting scholarships at Oxford or Cambridge, so in theory every student must obtain a place at their university on their academic merits, but there have been unproven accusations that these students are admitted to the universities for their rowing skill without meeting the normal academic standards. From 1978 to 1983 the race was won every year by Oxford crews that included Boris Rankov , who was then a graduate student at Oxford and recognised as a powerhouse of the crews. Although Rankov was a ''bona fide'' student (and is now a professor at the University of London), this led to the establishment of an informal rule ('The Rankov Rule'), to which the teams have adhered ever since, that no rower may compete in the boat race more than four times as an undergraduate, and four times as a graduate.http://www.rhul.ac.uk/For-Staff/on-campus/people/apptsApr03.html#rankovhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2003/02/26/sorow26.xml In order to protect the status of the race as a competition between genuine students, the Boat Race organising committee in July 2007 refused to award a blue to 2006 and 2007 Cambridge oarsman Thorsten Engelmann , as he did not complete his academic course and instead returned to the German national rowing team to prepare for the Beijing Olympics.http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/rowing/6903124.stm Engelmann punished for early exit It was reported that Oxford asked for the 2007 race to be awarded to them, or declared void, as Englemann was so important to the crew and appeared not to have been a genuine student.http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/mihirbose/2007/07/choppy_waters_ahead_for_boat_r.html Choppy waters ahead for Boat Race Evidence suggests that participants in the boat race are indeed academically capable: the 2005 Cambridge crew, for example, contained four Ph.D students, including a fully qualified medical doctor and a veterinarian. Standard of the Crews The question whether the Boat Race crews are up to the standard of international crews is difficult to judge, since the Boat Race crews train for a long-distance race early in the season, so their training schedule is quite different for crews training for international regattas that take place over 2000 metres later in the year. The Boat Race crews do race against selected club and international crews in the build-up to the race, and are competitive against them, but again these matches are over various non-standard distances, against crews that might not have been together as long as the Oxbridge crews. In 2007 Cambridge were entered in the London Head Of The River Race where they should have been measured directly against the best crews in Britain and beyond. However, the event was called off after several crews were sunk or swamped in rough conditions. Cambridge were fastest of the few crews who did manage to complete the course.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=A1YourView&xml=/sport/2007/04/01/soboat01.xml Sponsorship The Boat Race has been sponsored since 1976, with the money spent mainly on equipment and travel during the training period and some being passed to the Womens' And Lightweight Rowing Clubs . The sponsors do not have their logos on the boats or kit during the race, but provide branded training gear and have some naming rights. Boat Race sponsors have included Ladbrokes , Beefeater Gin , Aberdeen Asset Management and Xchanging , the current (2007) sponsorshttp://www.theboatrace.org/article/introduction/history. OXFORD MUTINY In 1987, a disagreement arose amongst the Oxford team which became known as the "Oxford mutiny."http://sport.independent.co.uk/general/article2411303.ece (Account of the 'mutiny') A number of top class American oarsmen refused to row when a fellow American was dropped in preference for the Scottish President, Donald Macdonald. They became embroiled in a conflict with Macdonald and with coach Dan Topolski over his training and selection methods. This eventually led most of the Americans to protest what they perceived to be the president's abuse of power, by withdrawing six weeks before the race was due to start. As Gavin Stewart , the stroke and mainstay of the winning Oxford eight, stated: :"As for the Americans starting the 'mutiny', well they didn't. The 'mutiny' happened because the squad had lost respect for Donald Macdonald as president, not least because he made it clear that he had a guaranteed seat... The spark was the decision to set aside the result of a trial between Macdonald and one of the Americans (which Macdonald lost), giving them both seats and dropping another (British) rower. The Americans began by supporting British rowers, not the other way round." To the surprise of many, Oxford, with a crew partially composed of oarsmen from the reserve team, went on to win the race. One aspect of the race was Topolski's tactic, communicated to the cox while the crews were on the start, for Oxford to take shelter from the rough water in the middle of the river at the start of the race, ignoring conventional wisdom that centre stream is fastest even if rowing conditions are poor. A further surprise was that the captains of the Oxford college boat clubs, who had voted in support of Macdonald and Topolski and precipitated the Americans' withdrawal during the mutiny, voted one of those Americans, Chris Penney, as OUBC president for 1988, a break with the tradition that the president is a returning Blue (the other candidate being Tom Cadoux-Hudson , who was a British member of the 1987 winning crew). Topolski wrote a book entitled '''' on the incident. A movie based on the book, '' True Blue '', was released in 1996. Topolski's account was seen by some as one-sided, and Ali Gill, who had been a member of the university womens' Boat Club at the time of the mutiny, wrote a book "The Yanks at Oxford" to put the other side of the story. Reported facts of the "mutiny" still differ greatly depending on the source, and with the historians having been personally involved in the events or the small community in which they occurred, a definitive, unbiased version has never been agreed upon. Macdonald and the Americans have refused to contribute to any debate on the event, including a 2007 BBC radio programme to mark the 20th anniversary. RECENT YEARS Recent years have seen especially dramatic races. In 2002, the favoured Cambridge crew led with only a few hundred metres to go, when a Cambridge oarsman collapsed from exhaustion and Oxford rowed through to win by three-quarters of a length. They did so on the outside of the last river bend, a feat last accomplished in 1952. Few observers expected the 2003 race to match the 2002 for excitement. Cambridge were substantially heavier and appeared to be the favourites. Two days prior to the race, however, the Cambridge crew suffered a collision on the river in which oarsman in south west London. Cambridge gained revenge in 2004 in a race marred by dramatic clashes of oars in the early stages, and the unseating of Oxford's bowman. The 2006 race was won by Oxford, with some attributing their victory to a pump that was getting rid of excess water from their boat. However, this is not against the rules, and it remains unclear as to why Cambridge did not also use a pump: Cambridge had in fact introduced pumps as early as 1987 (the year of the Oxford mutiny, and a day of rough conditions). In 2007 Cambridge were strong favourites based on the team members' individual successes, and 9 lb heavier per man on average. The Cambridge crew had 5 returning blues compared to Oxford's one. Furthermore, the international achievement of Cambridge's rowers far exceeded that of Oxford's: the World Champion stern pair of Germans Thorsten Engelmann (the heaviest ever boat race oarsman at 110.4 kg) and Sebastian Schulte ; Olympic Gold medallist Kieran West MBE and GB medal winner Tom James . Although Oxford rowed strongly as underdogs at the beginning, the light blues showed their class by holding Oxford while they had the advantage, and pushing on with tidier rowing from Chiswick steps. They rowed on to win by a length and a quarter in a time of 17 minutes and 49 seconds. The heavily-fancied Cambridge crew did not win by the margin expected by many, thanks in part to a strong row from Oxford, and the sagging stern containing the heaviest Cambridge oarsmen. It was speculated by 2006 Oxford winning president Barney Williams that the race was won by Cambridge while Oxford still had their lead. Around Hammersmith Bridge the Cambridge crew (with their backs to Oxford) had no view of their rivals and the calm orders delivered from Cambridge cox Rebecca Dowbiggin "they're throwing the kitchen sink at this boys", and "keep loose, loose, loose..." ensured that they stayed in contention despite a push from Oxford going into Hammersmith. Beyond this point the advantage of the Surrey station to Oxford had been lost and the race was Cambridge's. OTHER OXFORD/CAMBRIDGE BOAT RACES Although the heavyweight men's eights are the main draw, the two universities compete in other rowing boat races. The main boat race is preceded by a race between the two reserve crews (called ''Isis'' for Oxford and ''Goldie'' for Cambridge), which in 2007 was won by Goldie. The women's eights, women's reserve eights, men's lightweight eights, men's lightweight reserve eights, and women's lightweight eights race in the Henley Boat Races a week before the men's heavyweight races. BUILD-UP Training for the boat race officially begins in September, before the start of term. The first tests are in November at the British Indoor Rowing Championships where each university sends around 20 rowers to compete. Everyone races 2 km on an Indoor Rower with the club presidents using adjacent machines. Both universities also send crews to the Head Of The River Fours race in London which is raced over the reverse Boat Race course, that is to say the Championship course from Mortlake to Putney. In December, the coaches put out ''Trial Eights'' where two crews from the same university race each other over the full boat race course. These crews are given names such as ''Kara'' and ''Whakamanawa'' ( Māori words for strength and honour, Cambridge 2004) or ''Cowboys'' and ''Indians'' (Oxford 2004). Over the Christmas period the squads go on training camps abroad, where final places for the blue boats are decided. After the final blue boat crews have been decided they race against the top crews from the UK and abroad (e.g. in recent years they have raced Leander , Molesey , and the German international crew). These races are only over part of the course (from Putney to Chiswick Eyot ). In case of injury or illness, each university has ten extra rowers, eight in the reserve boats Isis and Goldie, and two as the spare pair. Isis and Goldie race 30 mins before the Blue Boat event over the same course. As for the spare pair, in the week before the main event they race each other from the mile post to university stone (i.e. from a point one mile into the Championship Course back to the Boat Race start). In the final week, there is also an official weigh in and the average crew weights announced. TRIVIA
RESULTS Overall Race Wins
Reserve Race
Unofficial wartime races Full Results by Year STATISTICS
SEE ALSO
NOTES AND REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS |
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