Boat Race Day!

Saturday 11 April 2015 is The Boat Race, the annual competition between Oxford and Cambridge on the Thames.  In the world of rowing, not to mention Oxbridge rivalry, it is as big as the Olympics.  And after last year's drubbing by Oxford, Cambridge has something to prove.

You can watch the Boat Race - or, rather, Races, since the men and women are rowing on the same day this year - online, courtesy of the BBC.  The women's race is at 16:50 (London time) and the men at 17:50.

To get in the mood, you might consider watching True Blue, a film based on the 1987 "Oxford Mutiny" and the Boat Race of that year.

Top Five (slightly obscure) Sporting Events I'd Like to See

No. 5: The Eton Field Game. This is not a single event, but a highly specialized sport all its own. The Eton Field Game is two parts soccer, and one part rugby, with a huge dose of preppy. Played only at Eton College, the game has been going on since at least 1815 and is played by virtually all the boys at the school. But the Field Game comes in only at no. 5 both because it is not a single event and because better things await us at Eton...

No. 4: King's Cup Elephant Polo. Believe it or not, elephant polo is a real sport, complete with its own world governing body. Details of the international elephant polo scene are hard to come by, but the game is played in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the UK. If at times a little, um, lumbering... the game can also be quite dangerous. In any case, the King of Thailand hosts a tournament each year, which I need to see one of these days.

No. 3: The Boat Race. This is the least obscure of any of these. Watched by tens of millions of people around the world each year, the annual rowing competition between Oxford and Cambridge down the River Thames is arguably the biggest event for the sport, even bigger than the Olympics. The race was first held in 1829 and has been held every year - with the exception of the World Wars - since 1856. The race has been highly competitive over the years, with Oxford winning 75 and Cambridge 80. The course, 4 miles and 374 yards long, is quite lengthy (three times the length of the World Rowing Championship race), exhausting for the participants. Moreover, the race is carried out close enough to the mouth of the Thames that not only the current and wind but also the tide are factors; thus, teams compete for the best position on the river, often clashing blades before the umpire warns them apart. Lest you think this is just a boat race, let me recommend you watch True Blue, a film about the 1987 race. Oh, and the rowers: they're students too. Some of them even complete degrees including PhDs in Mathematics, or Bioinformatics or an MD in Clinical Neurology.

No. 2: The St. John's - Naval Academy Croquet Match. Yes, you read that right: St. John's College, that stronghold of classical education and extreme nerdery, plays the US Naval Academy in croquet each year. Apparently the students of St. John's once discovered that the midshipmen's code prevents them from turning down an official challenge to their honor. So the geeks of St. John's put their heads together and thought of a contest they might just win. The event - featuring outrageous clothing on the part of the St. John's team and fans - has continued for nearly three decades now.

No. 1: The Eton Wall Game. I promised more Eton, didn't I? Every year on St. Andrew's Day, the Collegers (students on scholarship) play the Oppidans (everyone else) in another unique game similar to rugby or soccer. The field is 5 meters wide and 110 meters long. And bordered on one side by a slightly curved wall. Which means the side of the scrum (called a 'Bully') is always brushing up against the wall, on top of which fans - in their coats and tails, of course - sit. To the uninitiated the game simply looks like a lot of pushing, but in fact it requires a high degree of skill and a great deal of stamina. In spite of there being only 70 Collegers and about 1250 Oppidans, the Collegers have managed to hold their own over the years. And there have been plenty of years, with the first recorded game coming in 1844. His Royal Highness Prince Henry participated in the Wall Game and did rather well for himself. Here is a little clip from the 1921 game, for your viewing pleasure:

The Boat Race

This coming Sunday will be the 155th Boat Race. If you find yourself asking, "Which boat race?" please click here. The rest of you know that it is simply the Boat Race, the competition between Oxford and Cambridge, first held in 1829 and annually since 1856 (with the exception of the World Wars), down four and a quarter miles of the River Thames, from the Putney Bridge to the Chiswick Bridge. Cambridge has won 79 of the races, Oxford 74, with one declared a dead heat.

This past weekend the Financial Times had an excellent article on Rebecca Dowbiggin, the Cambridge coxswain. This year's race will be at 3:40pm (British Standard Time), so I might still be at mass while the actual race is happening, but I look forward to watching it online shortly thereafter.

To be honest, I don't really have a dog in this fight. I will, however, be wearing my Caius College tie, in honor of Silas Stafford, a native of Santa Rosa, California, who is studying for an MPhil in Geography at Gonville & Caius and will be rowing stroke for the Cambridge team. I wore that tie the day Caius won their fifth consecutive Lent Bumps, earning them the right to put a bell tower on their boat house, so maybe the tie is lucky. Then again, 1st & 3rd Trinity have won that race every year since then, so maybe it's not.

Below you'll find a video about the Trial Eights, the trial run each school conducts in December.



Special thanks to Barry Arthur Stephen Harding McCain, who gave me the Caius tie.