I'm always amazed that an arcane sport contested between two institutions with which 95% of the population has no connection proves so popular. I don't mean the Boat Race, which is a bit of fun, but the Varsity Rugby match.
Last time I was at the boat race there were a bunch of people in tracksuiterie/stash from other university boat clubs. I assumed they had got lost or got the wrong race.
Ummmm. Boat Race is a very old event. Format was what they came up with at the time. Rowing since then has developed and now tends to concentrate on things like 2000 m sprints in segregated lanes on lakes.
Rowing upriver with an unpredictable tide and currents and clashing blades just isn't part of it. Nor is a four-mile+ distance.
So not sure at all that other uni crews could beat the OUBC or CUBC at the Boat Race - they just train for different things. Most of them would not have the endurance. Absoutely agree that they could beat them anytime at a 2000-metre sprint.
And of course ALL uni boat clubs in the UK are full of postgraduates and also septic postgraduates. It takes years and years after you are full grown to get to peak boatiedom.
TBF Heads of River races in which most crews will compete during the course of the year are over greater distances than the usual 2k. That said they are time trials rather than side by side racing.
[i]Genuinely interested about these comments that other universities would beat Oxford or Cambridge.
How true is that and what are people basing it on?[/i]
Me too. The same thing gets trotted out every year, but nothing to back it up.
I rowed for the (at the time) fourth best college boat at Cambridge with no blues in it. We qualified for Henley and beat the Army boat and Warwick (who are not admittedly anything like as good as Imperial/Brookes, but still not to bad)
I always assumed that O and C ensured they had the best "student" rowers by offering scholarships or low grade entrance requirements to the best talent who could be convinced to enter study.
A subject for much tedious debate. Kind of a yes and no. I don’t think either Oxford or Cambridge lower requirements on normal courses. Which is why a lot of the Oxford Blues do DPhils (I think) and Cambridge Blues do Land Management. Queue much teding on about how Cambridge then has the advantage as DPhils are a 1 year course versus 3 for Land Management so Cambridge’s programme for ringers is inherently better.
Neither have the facilities or doss degrees of say a Loughborough for truly attracting the best ringers.
DPhil's are a minumn of three years at Oxbridge , miniumn .
I thought to do a Masters like Cracknell you had to have a 1st in your undergrad degree, no exceptions?
Knew loads of people who wanted to do Masters at Oxbridge but were told you have to have a first, even those who got 2.1s witha final grade of 69% were declined
As part of the Boat RaceS ( note, plural) nowadays they get other top crews to race the Blue boats pin the weeks prior to the race. It is in no way any sort of knock out competition, the Boat Race is always Oxford and Canbridge, but gives a taster of how the crews are shaping up.
Generally Brookes get involved, as do Leander, Imperial, and, this year, the Dutch national development crew. I can remember how they all fared and not every crew raced against all the others anyway, but these races are what allow people to say which other uni crews are fastest.
the Head of the River ( within last fortnight) had loads of university crews competing, you can look up the results.
so no, there is no assumption that the Blues are always the best, far from it, except in the Daily Mail etc, but if you actually watch the race You can clearly see these are very hard core athletes racing an unusually gruelling course.
Finally, many of our brightest students now study in American universities, several of which have world class rowing programmes. For example, St Pauls School put out what is regarded as one of if not the best ever schoolboy eights last year and all but one of that crew is now studying in USA so not Boat Race eligible.
Going down a river backwards is a magnet for those looking for a relatively easy route to becoming an international sportsman. I have never met a boatie who wasn’t a complete four letter word beginning with C.
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I forgot it was on. Who won?
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Huh
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Brookes beat both of them ( not for the first time), I think
Still, great spectacle and I always enjoy it. First televised rowing of the year.
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Same with the Twickenham varsity rugby match, which hardly anyone attends these days.
Who can I name here? Exeter, Birmingham, Loughborough universities. They'd beat either of them too.
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Well the BBC says Cambridge won, so I'll go with that.
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I'm always amazed that an arcane sport contested between two institutions with which 95% of the population has no connection proves so popular. I don't mean the Boat Race, which is a bit of fun, but the Varsity Rugby match.
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Can’t believe Cambridge had to bring in an Olympian to help them win
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He was 46 m8. Each boat has about 4 future Olympians every year. The amateur ethos went years ago.
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Last time I was at the boat race there were a bunch of people in tracksuiterie/stash from other university boat clubs. I assumed they had got lost or got the wrong race.
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future Olympians are fine. if they go up for an undergraduate degree and then take it further, then well done them.
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Yeah they just happen to be really clever, right?
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Constantine louloudis got a first
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"Constantine louloudis"
heh
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is today "laugh at the greek sounding name" day?
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I like the boat race but the irony of it “being the most prestigious “ according to the BBC is not lost on me .
As a university rowing side they would get hammered by about 5 or so other teams .
previously the first team were rarely allowed to race in other university competitions for fear of them being publicly humiliated
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It is a silly name you humourless tit.
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Some of the TV commentators on that boat race were American or Canadian.
Reminded me of American university sports. Some star high school football player gets offered a place at a prestige place like Stanford.
They're not really studying anything there, maybe remedial English language.
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*alan partridge shrug gif*
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Ummmm. Boat Race is a very old event. Format was what they came up with at the time. Rowing since then has developed and now tends to concentrate on things like 2000 m sprints in segregated lanes on lakes.
Rowing upriver with an unpredictable tide and currents and clashing blades just isn't part of it. Nor is a four-mile+ distance.
So not sure at all that other uni crews could beat the OUBC or CUBC at the Boat Race - they just train for different things. Most of them would not have the endurance. Absoutely agree that they could beat them anytime at a 2000-metre sprint.
And of course ALL uni boat clubs in the UK are full of postgraduates and also septic postgraduates. It takes years and years after you are full grown to get to peak boatiedom.
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TBF Heads of River races in which most crews will compete during the course of the year are over greater distances than the usual 2k. That said they are time trials rather than side by side racing.
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[i]Genuinely interested about these comments that other universities would beat Oxford or Cambridge.
How true is that and what are people basing it on?[/i]
Me too. The same thing gets trotted out every year, but nothing to back it up.
I rowed for the (at the time) fourth best college boat at Cambridge with no blues in it. We qualified for Henley and beat the Army boat and Warwick (who are not admittedly anything like as good as Imperial/Brookes, but still not to bad)
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A subject for much tedious debate. Kind of a yes and no. I don’t think either Oxford or Cambridge lower requirements on normal courses. Which is why a lot of the Oxford Blues do DPhils (I think) and Cambridge Blues do Land Management. Queue much teding on about how Cambridge then has the advantage as DPhils are a 1 year course versus 3 for Land Management so Cambridge’s programme for ringers is inherently better.
Neither have the facilities or doss degrees of say a Loughborough for truly attracting the best ringers.
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Anyone who can do a DPhil in a year while messing around in boats must be a flaming genius.
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DPhil's are a minumn of three years at Oxbridge , miniumn .
I thought to do a Masters like Cracknell you had to have a 1st in your undergrad degree, no exceptions?
Knew loads of people who wanted to do Masters at Oxbridge but were told you have to have a first, even those who got 2.1s witha final grade of 69% were declined
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No one does DPhil in a year.
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Sorry not DPhil but DipSoc I think is the one I’m looking for. Some bloke at Keeble I think pioneered the programme.
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As part of the Boat RaceS ( note, plural) nowadays they get other top crews to race the Blue boats pin the weeks prior to the race. It is in no way any sort of knock out competition, the Boat Race is always Oxford and Canbridge, but gives a taster of how the crews are shaping up.
Generally Brookes get involved, as do Leander, Imperial, and, this year, the Dutch national development crew. I can remember how they all fared and not every crew raced against all the others anyway, but these races are what allow people to say which other uni crews are fastest.
the Head of the River ( within last fortnight) had loads of university crews competing, you can look up the results.
so no, there is no assumption that the Blues are always the best, far from it, except in the Daily Mail etc, but if you actually watch the race You can clearly see these are very hard core athletes racing an unusually gruelling course.
Finally, many of our brightest students now study in American universities, several of which have world class rowing programmes. For example, St Pauls School put out what is regarded as one of if not the best ever schoolboy eights last year and all but one of that crew is now studying in USA so not Boat Race eligible.
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Going down a river backwards is a magnet for those looking for a relatively easy route to becoming an international sportsman. I have never met a boatie who wasn’t a complete four letter word beginning with C.
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