Oxford vs Cambridge Boatrace 2009

For those of you who don't know and most of you should know about it, its the biggest amateur sport and draws millions and millions of viewers - its the rowing race on the river Thames in London stretching just over 6.5km. It draws some elite oarsman to race against each other who start training on the 1st September for the one race.

A friend of mine, Sam Pearson, was in the Goldie Crew in 2006. This Goldie crew is Cambridge's 2nd eight that races against Oxford's 2nd VIII just before the main race. Just to make this crew is no small matter.



Currently a friend of mine from Rhodes, Andrew Craig, who won the Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University has been in the Oxford squad for this years race. Unfortunately he didn't make the B crew (Isis) due to injury and joining the squad late but he has been there back up and here is an email I just received from him:

Three days to go and you can all imagine that the pressure is mounting. Last week there was an injury in the Isis boat, so I spent the whole week filling in in the two seat. It was excellent experience and we were able to make some good progress, and clock some fast times, in spite of having to reshuffle the order a bit. Justin is now fit and ready to go, and from here on in we are all holding thumbs that everyone stays healthy until the race.

There has often been a informal spare pairs race, which, when it takes place, sees crews race from the Mile Post to the start a few days before the main event. Because I had been in the eight the whole of last week, our coach decided that we shouldn't race this year, as he felt that having not spent enough time in the boat, it made no sense to go out and hack around in a unprepared combination. A little disappointing not to race, but at the same time, it probably wouldn't have been that much fun anyway.

For some reason, people involved in the Boat Race have an absolute fascination with the weights of the crews. Even in 1829 they had the vision to work out the average weight (in stone and pounds, naturally), so that 180 years later some statistician could get busy and throw all sorts of numbers at people who follow the race. I think the figures say that roughly two-thirds of all the races have been won by the heavier crew.

This year's weigh-in saw Oxford break the record for the heaviest crew ever, lining up with an average of 99.7kg a man. Cambridge tipped the scales at 96.1kg a man, which is the heaviest Light Blue crew in history. The lightest men in each crew make a bit of a mockery of the weigh-in hype. Colin Smith, at 87kg for Oxford, is an Olympic silver medallist, while Rob Weitemeyer, the bow of the Cambridge eight, just 79kg, won a bronze medal at World Champs in the M4- for Canada in 2005. So there you go, the number crunchers are happy that they have some new figures to play with, but at the end of the day it will all depend on who makes their boat go faster (as is always the case in rowing).

Conditions on the river have been pretty appalling most of this week, with some seriously rough water being served up. All of the crews have pumps fitted to their boats in case of bad conditions. The worst of the water usually comes just after Hammersmith Bridge. Predictions so far are for sunshine on Sunday, with some light wind, so I wouldn't take the bookies' long odds on a sinking.

Dan Topolski (the coach in 1987, the year of True Blue) is still involved with the Oxford squad. His official role is coxing coach, and so he is down on the Thames whenever we come to London to help the coxes learn as much as possible about the river. They are looking to take the shortest line around the bends, but also to stay in the stream as much as possible. I'll be surprised if the commentators don't mention the "second lamppost from the left" that is the supposed best line under Hammersmith Bridge.

The basic recipe for the race is that the crew on Middlesex (on your right if you were umpiring the race) has the first bend in their favour. The Surrey crew then gets a long bend that begins before Hammersmith Bridge and carries on to around Chiswick Steps. After that the advantage swings back to the crew on the Middlesex station.

http://www.theboatrace.org/article/image/243/full.jpg

The last two races have been won by crews on Middlesex, by managing to keep in contact until the end of the Surrey bend and then moving away. Even though last year Oxford won by more than six lengths, they were still half a length down after more than ten minutes of racing.

This year's race will be umpired by Boris Rankov. He won six consecutive races for Oxford from 1978-83. He also rowed in one losing and one winning Isis crew. His eight appearances led to the so-called "Rankov rule", that no oarsman shall row more than four races as an undergrad, and four as a post grad. People say that he has forgotten more about the Boat Race than most people will ever know.

http://www.theboatrace.org/article/introduction/featurejanuary07/umpiring

Last weekend our squad went to Henley to support the women, lightweight men and lightweight women in their fixtures against Cambridge. Here the crews race the Henley regatta course in reverse, a shorter race, but still the focus of their year's training. Oxford won both the women and lightweight women's races, but lost the lightweight men's event; the first time since 2001.

The broadcast in SA is on Supersport 1 from 6-7:30pm (delayed for some reason).

Cheers,

Andrew

Here is a video clip of last years race:




Good luck to the guys racing, I'm not quite sure who I support anymore - used to support Oxford but then Sam rowed for Cambridge so met quite a few of the guys there and supported them and now Andrew is at Oxford... think I'll support Cambridge as Oxford won last year!