A near Cambridge clean “sweep”

 

 

As most will already know yesterday, on Saturday the 30th of March the historic Oxford VS Cambridge boat race took place marking the 169th annual race. The race takes place over a treacherous 6.8 kilometre stretch of the famous tideway in London, spanning from Putney to Mortlake in a rowing boat of 8 rowers and a coxswain to compete for the prestigious newton trophy. 

 

Despite much adversity, including disease being found the the course water and countless weeks of rain resulting in flooding and minimal time practising on the water for the Oxford crews, both Oxford and Cambridge met at the start line and raced down the famous course as planned. The racing started on the 29th  of  March  with the men’s and women’s light weight crews with Cambridge claiming a 5.5 length victory over Oxford in the men’s and another strong win for the Cambridge light weight women. The next day saw the heavy weight and reserve races, with Cambridge taking a phenomenal 7 length victory over the Oxford women who held the lead for the first half of the race. Yet another well fought Cambridge victory for the men by 3 and half lengths. Finally, the reserve races saw Cambridges ‘Goldie ‘achieve a 4-length victory over oxfords ‘Isis’. And last but not least oxfords only win of the event claimed by ‘Osiris’ over Cambridges ‘blondie’.

 

In hindsight, Cambridge stayed mostly dominant throughout the event securing 3 out of 4 wins keeping there 7 year winning streak in the women’s race. But will they manage to hold onto the trophy for yet another year? Only time will tell.