The Boat Race

Today is the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race day, an event in my emotional calendar alongside the traditional FA cup as it used to be, before the money people began to dictate, at 3 o'clock on a Saturday afternoon. My memories of the massed band and back in the 50s, "Abide With Me" the singing led by a man in a white suite. I remember attending a wedding which was still going on as 3pm approached and the vicar saying, "off you go they haven't started yet".

The excitement of the race today as it always is, was increased by the conditions. The free board on these boats  (the space between the water and the top of the boat) is minimal and as the camera showed the waves and the spray mounting up and the free board getting less and less as the boats sank lower in the water. The scene resembled one of those dramatic sea dramas aa Oxfords boat made for the shelter of the bank as the waves got higher and the conditions were definitely not, boat race conditions.

This was the woman's race and one had tremendous respect for these "Amazons" who had spent the year thrashing their bodies in training whilst finding the time to continue their study at these prestigious universities, trading blows with the river which was in no mood to comply with the occasion.

Would Cambridge make it to the end. The umpire boat appealed to them to make for the shore but these plucky girls were having nothing of it and huddling closer to the shore they made it to the finishing line. 

The men's race is next and ones mind is taken back to the 50s and John Snagge commentating in what was typical 'BBC speak' counting the stroke pattern, all very sotto voce, all very British.

"I can't see who's in the lead but it's either Oxford or Cambridge".

Oxford sank in front of our eyes in 1951. I was watching with my Dad on the 'black and white' television, intrigued,  perhaps a little mystified, from our Yorkshire home, at this elitist event, men who were academic gods living in a world we could only dream about. 

I always favoured Cambridge (the Engineers University) which in recent years has been a hard furrow, with Oxford winning most years these days.

The cox barking his/her directions to the powerhouse in front of him, "pull" one two, "pull" one two motivating the men and setting the rhythm for the race.

His job today made more difficult by having to seek better water, closer to the bank where the shelter was. It didn't seem as bumpy for the men as for the women but as the line is reached and the boats slow to a stop, each boat shows what it means to win and loose. In the adrenaline pumped moment of a win all is worth it, the pain and the agony forgotten. In the losers boat its a very different scene, the pain is all too evident as you crash emotionally and the realisation that a year of effort has been in vain.

One thing which always concerns me is the game, "spot the Pom". In the men's boat, most of the rowers seem to come from all parts of the world and it seems fewer and fewer from the British Isles.  This year the Americans (in the Cambridge boat) predominate. The women's boat was largely British and whilst there is no substantial importance to where the crews come from since its a "University Challenge" and not an individual one but in such a traditional event it would be nice to think we can find 8 rowers for each boat but like, in so many other endeavours, we continue to dilute our heritage