Boat Race News
Rachel Quarrell
although it will begin to pick up a wee bit now that we are into the last
two weeks before the men's race and the last week before the women's. The
Daily Telegraph (reporter Geoffrey Page) has been subject to a crack-down
by their sports editor, who is not keen to do very much at all on the Boat
Race. The Times (Mike Rosewell) is similar but not quite so restricted
for space, and the Independent (Hugh Matheson) and Guardian (Chris Dodd)
have always been less focussed on the race. Mike Calvin, the Telegraph
features writer, continues to be inexplicably interested in the Tab
heavyweight crew, but is mostly interested in background atmosphere and
the "what it feels like to win/lose" approach. Apparently Dan Topolski,
this year's Oxford Guru-in-Charge and normally the Observer correspondent,
is still booked as a BBC commentator together with the
hideously-Tab-biased Chris Baillieu, who also does Eurosport coverage of
the world champs, so you'll recognise the voice. Expect some fireworks
during the race if the two old rivals are in a prize-fighting mood: Dan
has never forgiven Chris for being made a Henley Steward before him a few
years ago.......
Since I did not want to give Cambridge an advantage by reporting
anything private from this side if I couldn't match it from the Fens, I
agreed long ago only to put public press coverage on the Net. This
normally crops up about once every two weeks through the Jan-March period,
together with some longer feature articles on how strong the boys are and
how hunky they look (which I didn't feel would add to the sum of global
understanding). This time there have been very few reports at all, partly
because the rare public race-fixtures against the main national clubs have
been dogged by injury, rescheduled or turned into training pieces, or
taken place against the second or third crews of the clubs, not the
all-important first crews. The rowing press won't report a fixture which
doesn't give them much useful information.
However, this weekend we had some decent racing, and the report below
is culled from Geoffrey's coverage together with my mole-on-the-spot.
After this you can expect some comment every couple of days from the
nationals on Oxford, who will be on the Tideway for the next two weeks.
Cambridge are spending the first week of the final fortnight at Nottingham
(Holme Pierrepoint) which probably means the only useful reporting on them
will come from Hugh Matheson, who lives nearby and is too lazy to go to
London until he has to. ;)
Saturday 18th March 1995.
Both Varsity crews and their reserves were on show today on the
Tideway, making the most of an incoming tide to do some fast and furious
racing over the Boat Race course. The water was rough and wind-tossed,
more reminiscent of mid-80's Boat Race conditions than the almost perfect
calm of recent years.
Cambridge took on Notts County, in earlier years the home of GB
lightweight rowing, who have recently spread into a strong heavyweight
squad. They raced from the Putney start to Chiswick Steps (about half the
course) with Notts on the Surrey side, making the most of the inside of
the bend. Cambridge were down half a length by the Old Ship, but had just
pushed back ahead when they were steered into a red buoy just at the top
of Chiswick Eyot, and both crews stopped slightly early.
However, I am told that the aggressive course steered by NCRA,
holding Cambridge out of the stream on the outside, was rather unfairly
supported by the unofficial umpire, John Pritchard. Pritch's chequered
Boat Race career includes a seat in the Cambridge crew of 1984 which sank
after hitting a barge during warm-up and then lost the following day in a
rescheduled race, and a seat in the winning Cambridge crew of 1986. Today
he warned the Cambridge crew rather than Notts when they were already
outside the stream (for aficionados, NCRA were so far away from the inside
buttress of Hammersmith Bridge that not even their stroke-side blades were
under the "second lamp-post") with the result that Cambridge will have
been artificially slowed for a couple of minutes and pushed nearer the
Chiswick buoys.
The second row, over the second half of the course from Chiswick Eyot
to the finish at Mortlake (University Post just below Chiswick Bridge) put
this right, with Cambridge crossing the finish line three lengths ahead.
Goldie apparently disposed of the Notts second crew quite
cheerfully: I have no further information.
Oxford meanwhile had taken on the London lightweight crew, including
last year's record-breaking coxless four. They raced a piece from the
start to Hammersmith (about 7 mins) with Oxford on Surrey, and London
finishing 3/4 length ahead. This was repeated with a change of stations,
and Oxford here led by 2/3 length at the Mile although London had nearly
caught them again by Hammersmith. For those unfamiliar with the course,
the Surrey station is unfavoured until past the Milepost, although this
does depend on the steering of the coxes. Oxford have shuffled their crew
slightly to put President Jeremiah McLanahan at 5, with John Kawaja now at
bow. It is possible they may alter again before the race in final
tinkering.
This week:
Cambridge and Goldie at Nottingham
Oxford on the Tideway, outings 9 am and 2:30 pm today boating from Putney.
Isis also from Putney, outing times similar. Outing times will shift by
about an hour each day to take account of the tide.
Next Monday (27th): weigh-in for all four crews, usually shown on
lunch-time news and reported in all papers.
Thursday 30th: umpires rehearsal, when both Blue Boat coxes steer Henley
launches over the course side-by-side in a rehearsal of the race.
This year's umpires: Isis v. Goldie: Jonny Searle (OUBC President 1990)
BOAT RACE: Lynton Richmond (OUBC not sure when)
The Boat Race Committee appoint umpires from Oxford one year and Cambridge
the next in religious alternation.
I hope to be able to put a map of the Boat Race course up on my web page
later this week: it's just a case of improving my current rough drawings
or snitching the office scanner.
I am told that ?ESPN will almost certainly show the Boat Race in the US,
but probably not live. In the UK, the BBC are devoting quite a lot of
time to rowing on April 1st, and should be showing all the women's race
unless it is v. boring with some of the lightweight races too. These are
all taking place next Sunday (March 26th) at Henley-on-Thames, over a
shortened Royal Regatta course downstream.
Rachel.
Oxford.
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"Help! It's a Womble!"