Saturday 22nd March and Sunday 23rd March 2003, Tideway, London
OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE PRE-BOAT RACE FIXTURES
Term ended early relative to the Boat Race this year - at least for the Oxford and Cambridge crews and their coaches. While the women and lightweights moved camp to Henley ready for their own Blues match on Sunday 30th March, the more famous heavyweight men chose to pit themselves against crews of international calibre in their last serious fixture before the Boat Race on Sunday 6th April.
As those involved will know, the real reason why there is so much press coverage of this one race (and not even the accompanying reserve crews) is down to a mixture of money, sensation and habit. The advent, mid-Eighties, of LoadsaMoney big company sponsorship paved the way for fixtures involving press carried in big fat Henley launches. This was not enough alone: the massive headline-grabbing controversy which followed in 1987 during the Oxford Mutiny ensured the revival of the Boat Race as an event the papers liked to report on, and they remembered their traditional early-1900's coverage, resuming in spades. Nowadays football makes sure that rowing is confined to brief paragraphs here and there until the week of the race itself, but just in case a big story breaks, the papers continue to send reporters along, and everything each Blue does in the final fortnight is potential news.
So following dozens of bog-standard Tideway outings from local clubs, several just happening to feature world and Olympic champions, Saturday and Sunday this weekend then turned into a ridiculous Blues-fest which most native Tidewayians did their best to blatantly ignore.
The interesting thing is that the two crews preparing to fight it out in the centre of the publicity spotlight are having to cope with bigger pressures even than most of those racing in the Head or national trials. For each oarsman, their place is continually under threat (people have been binned in the last fortnight), they row in an air of unreality which increases every time they are interviewed, and they have no accurate way of judging the form of the crew they face. Oldtimers like Oxford President Matt Smith give it the world-weary "can't you think of something else to ask" face when badgered by journalists, while newcomers to the squads are either hugely excited by the attention or think it completely bizarre. It doesn't usually make sense until they've done the race: they are representatives of the sporting world so many of us are part of. Through the tales of their year, couch-sporties get to live vicariously the roller-coaster thrill of attempting to reach the athletic heights.
Hemmed in by these pressures, it's pretty impressive what the two crews achieve. Chief coaches Sean Bowden and Robin Williams have learnt that they can set their eights up against top-quality opposition in the final days and not always come away humbled. This year there are few stars in either camp, and yet they held their own (after a fashion) against some very big pullers.
Enough witter - what happened? First off were Oxford, who raced Leander's top Head crew (Cracknell, Garbett, Pinsent, West and mates) from the start to Chiswick Steps on Saturday. The next day Cambridge raced Croatia (here for the Head) start-Chiswick Eyot and Eyot-Chiswick Bridge. Umpire for both fixtures was Boris Rankov, who will referee the race itself, and as it turned out both universities drew (chose?) the Middlesex station. This might not be an entire accident: the close nature of recent races has led both chief coaches to suggest that Middlesex might be a better choice nowadays than was thoought in the 1990's. It can also be difficult to steer, so perhaps they were giving their coxes more practice.
Oxford set off like bats out of hell. Very high in their initial wind, they settled slowly, staying around 40 for not far off a minute, which gave them a third of a length straight away. As both crews settled to 36-7, it was obvious that Oxford were still moving, having clearly decided to take on Leander's powerhouses with as strong a start as possible. At 2:10 minutes gone they were 2/3 length up and pushing their Fulham-corner advantage to the limit when, just after Rankov's flag flourished to Middlesex, the two crews collided. Later, Rankov, who had the best view of the incident, would refuse to discuss it in public, but the Oxford coaches were told that he was happy that cox Acer Nethercott had moved when warned, and so saw the clash as happening in neutral water. Both crews were certainly keen to grab the centre-stream as blades overlapped. Whatever happened, Leander got the best of it, restarting so quickly that they immediately caught back the deficit and by the time Oxford were under way, the two crews were back to level. However, hidden from most observers was a break in the Oxford six-rigger, the back-stay being cracked completely through in the collision, causing a boat-stopping crab. David Livingston, newly moved towards the stern, recovered quickly and did his best, but after the damage the crew rhythm could not be regained, and Leander steadily moved out to around four lengths by the end. A great shame, since it had begun to look like a well-matched contest. Leander had not been slow off the start, and were just beginning to push back, while Oxford were also making a move, when the clash happened.
Cambridge had a more useful outing on Sunday against a full crew of internationals, several of whom have bronze Olympic or world medals, although the umpire was once again busier than he would like. American Jim Omartian put his shell in the centre of the stream off the start, and displayed better Tideway knowledge than the visiting Croatian cox, keeping Croatia firmly out of the deep water for most of the first mile, allowing the Light Blues to push out around a length lead. They didn't quite manage to get clear, though, and better positioning for Croatia past the Milepost let the visitors back in before Harrods, where they launched a cruise missile of an assault. Taking the inside corner around Hammersmith with great energy, Croatia shoved back to level, but Cambridge responded with spirit, moved away again, and continued to dominate the stream to the finish at the Eyot, where they ended a canvas short of a length to the good.
For the second piece the two crews remained on station, and began at the Eyot, though with a little less speed than in the first match. By the corner after the Steps both were down to rating 35 and then 33-4 as a hefty head-crosswind began to slow things down. Cambridge once again took control of the steering, and led by 3/4 at two minutes gone, but both crews dug in hard around Barnes Bridge, and Croatia pushed back into the better water. With a minute to go the margin was 1/2 L to the Light Blues, but although they took most of the final bend well to Middlesex, bizarrely they bore the brunt of the warnings. Croatia have a great sprint, but didn't seem to know where the finish line was, and Cambridge held off the first push, finishing 2/3 L up by Chiswick Bridge.
Both Boat Race crews demonstrated presence of mind they will need when they face each other, and there was no shortage of dogged determination on either side. If neither manages to get an early lead, it should once again be a very tough, hard-fought contest.
The Rowing Service is planning to do online live commentary of the main Boat Race on Sunday April 6th: check on the news page that weekend to find the link.