Masters of the Boat Race

The start. As in all rowing race pictures taken from the side and astern, the parallax error produces a false picture of the relative positions.

Tim Koch writes:

Recently, rowing in Britain has seen an attempt to change the title ‘veteran’ to ‘master’. This has given rise to some rude and wry comments, but if any group of older rowers deserve to be called ‘masters’, it is the participants in the 19th Oxford - Cambridge Veterans’ Race held on a course from Putney to (just beyond) Hammersmith Bridge on Saturday, 5 April. The minimum age for these Old Blues is 35 with an average crew age of not less than 42. This year, the Cambridge crew contained five Olympians while Oxford boated three including medallists Kieran West, Marc Weber and Barney Williams.

Cambridge Vets. Collective noun: ‘A Tab’. 

Oxford Vets. Collective noun: ‘An Oxonian’.

This is the most relaxed and informal of all the Oxford - Cambridge boat races, either on the Tideway or at Henley, and this is especially evident in the gentlemanly rule that ‘any verdict within six feet shall be declared a dead heat’.

A plot is hatched?

If you don’t know by now.....

Oxford went off the free start high and hard, perhaps a couple of pips higher than the opposition, and quickly got a lead of a couple of seats. Settling well, the Dark Blues increased this to perhaps half a length by the time they passed the OUBC base at Westminster School boathouse. Though Oxford got the first warning off the start, Cambridge got most of umpire Simon Harris’s attention after that. Some put this down to aggressive steering from cox Sarah Smart though she blamed (or maybe thanked) the cross wind.

Approaching Thames RC.

By the end of Putney Embankment there was only slight overlap. Smart later said that when a crew is in this situation, a cox can call for a big push or say ‘just stick in your rhythm, you will come through them, they will break...’ Bravely, she chose the latter. Opposite the football ground there were several clashes, which, in at least one according to umpire Harris, ‘Cambridge lost out’. It looked like the race was effectively over, but things were about to change. Oxford’s ‘high and hard’ start is a dangerous one for a crew not in training and they started to lose pace.

At the Mile Post.

Cambridge kept their rhythm and past the Mile Post they were only a few feet down. Around this point, in the words of cox Smart, ‘we got the sniff and hit our rhythm really strongly...’ The crews drew level just before Harrods and the Light Blues rapidly went a quarter of a length up. Approaching Hammersmith Bridge, Smart said that ‘... just before we were about to break clear, we had stern four clashing and our bow four just put in a massive push and got us clear and once we were clear it was just clean rowing... all the way’.

Nearing the new Harrods development, things started to change.

Cambridge were up by the original Harrods Depository.

Approaching Hammersmith Bridge.

The finish.

Cambridge won by 1 1/4 lengths and the score now stands at thirteen wins to them and six to Oxford. A final thought – with the women racing on the Tideway from 2015, how long before there is a veteran women’s race?

Times:
The Mile Post: Oxford 3m 55s, Cambridge 3m 56s
Hammersmith Bridge: Cambridge 6m 59s, Oxford 7m 03s
Finish: Cambridge 7m 30s, Oxford 7m 35s

Cambridge:
Bow: Tom Middleton
2: Lukas Hirst
3: Paul Wright
4: Kieran West
5: Guy Pooley
6: Dave Gillard
7: Sebastian Schulte
Stroke: Marc Weber
Cox: Sarah Smart

Oxford:
Bow: Nick Holland
2: Donald Macdonald
3: Kingsley Poole
4: Andrew Landon-Green
5: Roberto Blanda
6: Toby Ayer
7: Gerritjan Eggenkamp
Stroke: Barney Williams
Cox: Katie Apfelbaum

Photography © Tim Koch

Cambridge Wins The Retro Boat Race

The Cambridge Crew

HTBS’s Tim Koch reports from London,

After the Oxford clean sweep at the Henley Boat Races last week, Light Blue pride was salvaged a little in the 18th Oxford - Cambridge Veterans’ Boat Race held on Saturday, 30 March. Cambridge won by four lengths on the ‘short’ course, Putney to Hammersmith. A full race report is here. The crew list was published a few days earlier but I spotted at least one change with Jonny Searle replacing Ben Kent in the Oxford boat.

The Oxford Crew

This event is the most informal of all the Oxford - Cambridge clashes with very little pre-race training and a lot of reliance on ‘residual fitness’. Perhaps Cambridge has taken the event a little more seriously than Oxford in recent years, something reflected in past results with the Tabs leading the series twelve wins to six.

Cambridge has a clear lead over Oxford as the 18th Veterans’ (Masters’) Race approaches Hammersmith Bridge.

The Final Day Of Practice At Putney

Oxford at Hammersmith

HTBS's Tim Koch reports from Oxford's and Cambridge's light paddle earlier today:

Friday, 6 April saw the final preparations for the 158th Oxford - Cambridge Boat Race. The entire course was strewn with BBC outside broadcast engineers laying cables over everything that did not move. On the water, Oxford went out at 7.30 and Cambridge at 12.30 for a final gentle paddle, I suspect more for the benefit of the press photographers than for themselves.

Oxford, the defending champions, are the favourites and certainly Coach Sean Bowden’s record of 2 out of 3 wins when he was with Cambridge and 8 out of 13 wins since he has been with Oxford does give the Dark Blue camp an air of confidence.

OUBC at the Crabtree

Oxford - Are you ready

Cambridge, losers last year and with only three wins in the last ten races, are the underdogs but some ‘old hands’ in the press launch were very impressed with their power on the short pieces that they saw. Coach Steve Trapmore lost in his first year in charge in 2011, but it would be very foolish to write him or his crew off.

CUBC at Harrods

CUBC bow six

CUBC Barn Elms

Back on land, I visited my old crew mate, CUBC Boatman Chris Smith at King’s College School Boathouse, the Cambridge base at Putney. The Tabs are again using a Canadian made Hudson boat. One of the people from the Hudson company told me that sales have increased considerably since the endorsement by Cambridge. The boat is named after 2008 Light Blue reserve rower Bartosz Szczyrba, who died of lymphoma last July at the age of twenty-nine.

CUBC Boatman Chris Smith guards his baby.

CUBC the big 6 seat. The hose is attached to the water pump.

CUBC cox seat. 'Eject' switch works the water pump.

There are, it may surprise you to know, seven ‘Oxford - Cambridge Boat Races’. On 25 March at Henley, the Heavyweight Women’s Race and Lightweight Men’s Race were won by
Cambridge while Oxford’s Lightweight Women and Heavyweight Reserve
 Women were victorious in their events. The ‘main event’ on 7 April will see the heavyweight men and the reserve heavyweight men race but on Friday 6 the most informal of these challenges took place - the Veterans’ (Masters’) Race. Martin Gough followed it on the Putney to Hammersmith course:

Cambridge went off at a slightly higher rate, gradually opening up a length’s lead by Barn Elms. At that point, cox Rebecca Dowbiggin moved across Oxford’s line, forcing them to row in the light-blue puddles and gaining another length. There were warnings but Cambridge were soon well in front of a clearly-less-fit Oxford and cruised away to win by three lengths in 7’47.

Visiting Old Blue (Dark)

Visiting Old Blue (Light)

Vets Race

(Photographs & copyright: Tim Koch)

Oxford Won The Masters

Oxford's veterans Jonny Searle on 7-seat and Matthew Pinsent on 6-seat.

HTBS correspondent: London, Friday 25th March, 2011, 16.30: Oxford has won. This might surprise you as you may have thought that the Oxford–Cambridge Boat Race was starting 24 hours later. Correct – this was the 16th Oxford–Cambridge Veterans’ (Masters) Boat Race. It is run on a short course, Putney to just beyond Hammersmith Bridge. The rules say that the crews must be selected from full graduates of the University or from full Rowing Blues without that qualification. The average age of the crew must not be less than 42. This year, for the first time, two Olympic Gold Medallists took part (Jonny Searle and Matthew Pinsent) though seven of the contestants competed at the Atlanta Games in 1996. Olympians are in bold type.

Cambridge: Neil West (Bow), Sean Gorvy, Peter Jacobs, Guy Pooley, Graham Smith, Matt Parish, Richard Smith, Marc Weber (Stroke), Kevin Whyman (Cox).

Oxford: Hugh Pelham (Bow), Joe Michels, Kingsley Poole, Daniel Johnson, Matthew Pinsent, Jonny Searle, Rupert Obholzer (Stroke), Martin Watts (Cox).

The crews were level until the end of Putney Embankment when Oxford (losers for the last seven races) started to take the lead. Umpire Boris Rankov was kept busy and there was some clashing around the Mile Post (which Oxford reached in 3 minutes 47 seconds). The Dark Blue lead opened out and resulted in a four length victory in 7 minutes 24 seconds. The Cambridge cox appealed over the clash but six times Boat Race winner Rankov held that the Light Blues were at fault. Some would suggest that the coxes’ interpretation of Tideway navigation rules put them both at fault - but that would be churlish. The score now stands at Oxford 6, Cambridge 10.

Cambridge passing the Mile Post.

Earlier in the day, I had followed the Cambridge morning outing from the Press Launch. If the Boat Race was a ‘paddling light’ competition, they would be that easy winners. However, the distinguished rowing historian and journalist, Chris Dodd, holds that this is almost always the case (a Cambridge friend once told me that rowing was better at the University because there was nothing else to do). Chris would not predict a result but Patrick Kidd of The Times newspaper says ‘Cambridge in under two lengths’. Perhaps the most predictable thing about race day is that the lovely weather we have been enjoying for the last few days will turn for the worst. It’s an English tradition even older than the Boat Race.

Cambridge's bow Mike Thorp is not hiding a secret but carrying a spare kit.

Cambridge passing Harrods.

Tim Koch