the Boat Race

[shiato storm]

Having not seen a post about it yet I thought I'd add my comment on the MOST IMPORTANT SPORTING EVENT of the past week...
well, not quite the rivetting experience we were all hoping for now was it. mind you I'm not sure oxford would have faired much better had they not clashed seeing as cambridge were pulling away from them at a considerably lower rate later on in the race! i suspect once they were out in front they relaxed and let the other crew work themselves into the ground...as it often works out.
not sure about the umpire's calls though and his perhaps ineptitude to call the race to a halt as it was last time a clash - with similar consequences - occured. and to watch within 3 minutes of the race on the first bend one cox almost get his head chopped off was entertainingly worrying to say the least. I speak from experience in that its not especially fun to have some one else's blade flash in your face, for those of you unfamiliar with it think of someone repeatedly kicking a football at you but only just missing...35 times a minute!...of course it doesn't last as long as that, you'd hope.
I did wonder what the umpire was playing at when it took so long for him to answer the appeal at the finish line by oxford's cox...I'm not sure he [the umpire] was in control at that point in time and appeared a bit flustered when the cox appealed. think of it like this; crews clash - twice, oxford come off the worse. umpire was at cambridge. what do you do? accept the appeal? then what? disqualify a crew that pulled away from the other one once they were out in front, and making it look easy i might add. Or do you deny the appeal and search for the right words to make it look as though you're not being bias towards your old university...? In my opinion he didn't provide an adequate excuse for his action on the appeal...he could have simply said that cambridge pulled away with apparent ease through-out the race and clearly were the faster crew but no...oh well.
but its good to see cambridge back on top. nicely done too.

[Punky]

i watched this whilst slightly drunk with my grandparents. was exciting stuff, especially when they clashed. i did suspect foul play, but the refs know better than me so fair enuff.
gotto love the Cambridge's (i think) Cox yellin "we gotto f*ck em" live on daytime tv, haha. quality.
i just wish i was fit enough to do that stuff, inspired me to slim off a bit now.
peace.

[Bunjiweb]

haha yeh i noticed that bit aswell Punky... but was a rubbish race and i never see what all the fuss is about.. its just a bloody boat race.....im not one for "tradition".

Ben

[Zathras]

I'm still fuming. I know most of the Oxford guys and a friend of mine is best mates with Acer (Oxford cox). Oxford caned Cambridge off the start and rightly took the best water. The Cambridge cox appeared to have just drifted out to the outside of the first bend but really he knew that if he didn't close Oxford off they were gone and would have romped the race. The clashes came off to Cambridge's advantage as it was Henry the seven man who almost had to stop rowing in the Oxford boat, cf the two man of the Tabs. Any rower will tell you it's far more important to have your seven man rowing in time than your two man. The umpire then called Acer to move across, despite making it very clear that any boat steering into the other would be penalised so Cambridge should've been flagged. The umpire virtually admitted had he been warning Cambridge at the time the race would have been stopped and Cambridge maybe DQ'd. Rupert Oberholzer stopped the race three years back after warning Oxford when the Cambridge two man dropped his blade - nothing to do with a clash, yet the Cambridge umpire lets Cambridge off with far far more. Anyway, Acer was forced to rudder out back across the stream and out of the bend, which resulted in Cambridge gaining a length. The next clash resulted in the Oxford bowman to come off his seat and knock it off the slide, and after that Oxford had no chance as Cambridge had clear water and another rower advantage for at least the next 300m. After that and moving ahead of Oxford to muddy their water it was easy for Cambridge and not really surprising Oxford dropped back. I don't think Cambridge rowed particularly amazing, nor do I think the result a fair reflection, nor do I accept Cambridge were clearly the faster crew. Oxford were much quicker in all of the warmup matches, including trouncing Leander and an IC boat full of world championship rowers and gold medallists, whereas Cambridge were thrashed by a (relatively) average Moseley boat. In fact, it's a rather hollow victory for Cambridge compared with the two extremely well-fought Oxford victories of the two previous years. Anyway, we won Isis-Goldie, OULRC-CULRC, OUWBC-CUWBC, Osiris-Blondie, OUWLRC-CUWLRC and Nephthys-Granta, so I guess you could say Oxford 'lost' with the score 6-1 to us! It's sad that one desperate move by a losing cox can alter such a widely-anticipated race but until the umpiring improves it's pretty much always going to be the case.

BTW: Kenelm wasn't the only one to use the F-word. Acer got some in right off the start too. Got to blame the Beeb for giving live cox-feeds - rather like putting a mike on Fergie and then wondering why he's swearing when the ref sends one of his players off!

[laura]

I see the point of oxford wanting to dispute the result, as after a clash like that your concentration does take a bit of a battering (First had experience but my boat had a big bit of cloth on it!) But, overall the cambridge crew was clearly more prepared/relaxed, the cambridge boat moved gracefully, unlike the oxford crew who looked very messy/panic-y.

Also thought the race in the traditional boats was pretty good. However I definately wouldn't like to do it - bum ache or what..?

[shiato storm]

i'd agree with zathras - Obholzer was in a trick situation when the accident occured but he did the right thing by stopping the race when he did, and then the better crew went on to win but the recent lack of judgement by the umpire this time underlines the need perhaps of a more official judge rather than an ex-oxbridge gaffer who would be seen to be bias one way or the other. being an old boy of my boatclub (UL) we were luck enough to get a bit of info about the incident from Obholzer and he felt a bit stitched by the incident but felt he had done the right thing by stopping the race - in favour of cambridge since they had lost their bow-man's blade...and that once the race re-started the better crew won it...if I'm right in recalling it was Colin Swainson that lost his blade, went to my school and he did the same thing half way down a 2000meter race and got ejected out of the boat!
this years was a bit of a disgrase as so pointed out by Acer. that little twerp from cambridge knew he was out coxed but all the same the umpire was far less forgiving towards the more experienced cox and rejected his valid appeal. a shame it happened the way it did.

[TeePee]

Three years ago Cambridge just dropped an oar, the race shouldn't have been stopped for that!
Mind you, these races have a history of being badly umpired. Everyone knows about the race which was declared a dead heat... Well, that was because the umpire was drunk and didn't see the finish. Maybe something similar happened this year?

[Slick]

oxford are bad losers tbh, if they'd won after the clash they wouldn't be complaining

[shiato storm]

no but the clash did severely affect their rowing and were right to logde an appeal even if it was rejected.

[Gubs]

Hmm, not seeing much Cambridge love here, better redress the balance

The clashes came off to Cambridge's advantage as it was Henry the seven man who almost had to stop rowing in the Oxford boat, cf the two man of the Tabs.

The first clash, yes. And that wasn't much of a clash compared to most years. In the second clash the situation was reversed, as Cambridge had taken the lead. Even then, a clash giving a crew an advantage doesn't mean that that same crew caused the clash.

Granted, the BBC coverage this year was pretty abysmal, and we couldn't see who was in whose water, or who the umpire was warning, so we can only really go on what people said afterwards. What I saw was the umpire saying he was warning Oxford at the time, and Acer admitting he was in Cambridge's water and being warned. The BBC have got some piccies too though - clicky.

The umpire virtually admitted had he been warning Cambridge at the time the race would have been stopped and Cambridge maybe DQ'd. Rupert Oberholzer stopped the race three years back after warning Oxford when the Cambridge two man dropped his blade - nothing to do with a clash, yet the Cambridge umpire lets Cambridge off with far far more.

It's obviously going to depend who's being warned - the two years are quite different situations. Obholzer was warning Oxford and Cambridge came off badly, so he chose to restart the race rather than risk Cambridge appealing afterwards (which would have meant an automatic disqualification for Oxford). This year, Oxford were being warned and Oxford came off badly, so in effect they paid the price for their own mistake. Yes, it's a shame it happened, and makes for poor TV, but them's the rules.

I don't think Cambridge rowed particularly amazing, nor do I think the result a fair reflection, nor do I accept Cambridge were clearly the faster crew.

Cambridge had barely a length of clear water by the time Oxford were rowing together again, and they won by what, 6 lengths? Yes, it's easier when you're in front, but IMO, Oxford seemed to panic after the clash, slamming up and down the slide and not getting anywhere.

BTW: Kenelm wasn't the only one to use the F-word. Acer got some in right off the start too. Got to blame the Beeb for giving live cox-feeds - rather like putting a mike on Fergie and then wondering why he's swearing when the ref sends one of his players off!

The BBC didn't transmit live cox feeds a couple of years ago for exactly this reason. Wonder why they had them this year?

[Zathras]

The pictures are totally inaccurate, at least for the first clash - the one that mattered! Watch the feed from the beeb, Oxford had at least 3/4 of a length and started to move across with the bend. Just how was it the seven man of Oxford clashing with the two man from Cambridge unless Oxford had such a lead? This is where Acer was forced to rudder hard and Kenelm 'drifted' towards the outside of the bend forcing Acer further apart. It's easy to see why Oxford suddenly 'lost' a length just because of this enforced ruddering. I don't really accept that it was Oxford's 'mistake' either - the umpire was very clear in the pre-race brief that any boat making a move towards another boat would be penalised, no matter where the boats were on the river. Tideway racing is not like side-by-side or regatta racing in that the line is all important and Oxford took advantage of the quick start to gain the better line. Cambridge moved across onto them and took advantage of being on the inside of the bend to drift wider and it ended up with Acer being warned, which both he and others were extremely annoyed about.

As for the one length to six lengths, well the bow man of Oxford wasn't properly on his seat until after Hammersmith, losing yet more ground, and when you've rowed with seven men for so long trying to hold on it's not surprising the guys were knackered. Being ahead gives a huge psychological advantage as well as being able to wash the other boat down.

[shiato storm]

i think what happened was cambridge steered the bend too early and oxford jumped in to the open gap, once cambridge realised the error and moved back into the stream, oxford were occupying their place. so in the first instance it was the fault of cambridge who relinquished their water too early on the approach to the bent and not on it. further to this oxford were warned and then moved. cambridge, having regained their water forcably pushed oxford out of the stream. its sort of complicated to explain but imagine cambridge cutting the corner a bit - coming out of the ideal race line, oxford moved over into it and sat there - then both crews met again after the apex of the corner that had effectively been cut, oxford were on cambridge's side of this ideal race-line side (because of taking it too soon)...hope you're still following me. thus because cambridge chose to move too soon and then correct their course it appears that oxford are in error but, as I see it, cambridge were in error due to streering too soon - which Acer picked up on being a more experienced cox. being on the water myself most days where the race takes place I think the inexperience of cambridge's cox came through fairly vividly in his racing line and poor judgement but its been over looked by their apparent victory...