The Boat Race

[Sibling DavidH]

Tomorrow, 3rd April at 4:30 pm the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race will take place on the Thames near London.  It is I think the 175th such race since they began in 1829.
A good overview is to be had  here.

I would like to give my non-British siblings an non-partisan, unbiased account of what is unquestionably the most significant sporting event of the year.  Some would claim it is the only  sporting event of the year, but I shall not be so narrow-minded; after all there is also the Oxford-Cambridge cricket match.

Briefly, there are just two crews to choose from:
1) Oxford, England's first and greatest University.
2) A joke entry from some lunatics in Cambridge who claim to represent some kind of technical college there.

My siblings will decide which to put their shirts on.

   DOMINVS ILLVMINATIO MEA

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Are the losers subjected to ritual sacrifice as in the Mayan ball game?

[beagle]

Ahem

1) Cambridge, England (and Europe's) best university. Home of Newton, Darwin, Turing, evolution, the splitting of the atom and discovery of DNA.

2) Oxford (aka Thames Valley Poly), England's third best university. Home of hobbits.

 HINC LVCEM ET POCVLA SACRA

Are the losers subjected to ritual sacrifice as in the Mayan ball game?

Actually, as both sides pack their crews with the heftiest boaties they can import from anywhere in the World it's hard to take quite that seriously.

[Swatopluk]

Are the losers subjected to ritual sacrifice as in the Mayan ball game?

According to some traditions it was the winners that got sacrificed (why should the gods only get the second-rates?)

[Sibling DavidH]

Actually, as both sides pack their crews with the heftiest boaties they can import from anywhere in the World it's hard to take quite that seriously.

This is true.  It's just like any top European soccer club, they're packed with people of about 12 different nations who had never even heard of the town before its club bought them.

According to some traditions it was the winners that got sacrificed (why should the gods only get the second-rates?)

Ok, let's split the difference.  In the unlikely event that Cambridge win (after all, it is a theoretical possibity), we sacrifice them.  If not, we sacrifice the losers.

[ivor]

I was watching the submarine races at LaKe Texoma the other day...  Kinda boring...

[Griffin NoName]

Declaring for Cambridge

{unfortunately Oxford are the favourite this year; very odd}

I live near one of the bridges and have always meant to wander down there but have never been well enough. They seem to manage without me.

Ooo the boats are just coming out........................

why all these men from Hughes Hall and St Edmunds?

[Sibling DavidH]

Good declaration, Griffin.

       

_{we lost}

[beagle]

My siblings will decide which to put their shirts on.

It would of course be ungentlemanly to gloat, but any siblings who felt convinced by DavidH's sporting prognostications might find this useful.

Anyway, hearty congratulations on achieving second place.

I was watching the submarine races at LaKe Texoma the other day...  Kinda boring...

Destroyer versus submarine might be more interesting.

[Sibling DavidH]

Your crew rowed brilliantly, fair play to them, but I think a lot of it was down to our cox's tactics - he didn't try to pull ahead when he had the advantage of the inside bend.  Anyway, it was a cracking race.  Well done.

[beagle]

Dash it! Your good grace in defeat takes all the fun out of winning (even vicariously*). I was hoping for something more Daffy Duck.

* The vicar was rowing?

[Griffin NoName]

My son skyped me at Barnes Bridge so I didn't get the whole flavour of the win. It's hard to cheer when Oxford looked so dejected.

[beagle]

Yep.  Cheering and laughing at the same time can be tricky.

[Bluenose]

Call that a boat race?



Now this is a boat race!

[Griffin NoName]

Yep.  Cheering and laughing at the same time can be tricky.

Now this is a boat race!

Talking of Henley, I went to the regatta once but all I can remember is getting lost afterwards.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Now this is a boat race!

Are they rowing on sand?

[beagle]

Now this is a boat race!

Are they rowing on sand?

All the water in Australia has alligators in it. Some Aussies have never touched the stuff. Even if that is better than what the Thames has in it.

[Swatopluk]

Terry Pratchett had it in The Lost Continent too, where it gets spoiled by water unexpectedly interfering.

[Bluenose]

Are they rowing on sand?

Well, rowing is probably not quite the right word!

All the water in Australia has alligators in it. Some Aussies have never touched the stuff. Even if that is better than what the Thames has in it.

This is after all the land where "rivers run dry or ten feet high".  Anyway, water is filthy stuff, you never know what fish may have been doing in it.  Better by far to stick to beer.  BTW, they're crocodiles, not wimpy little aligators...

Terry Pratchett had it in The Lost Continent too, where it gets spoiled by water unexpectedly interfering.

Indeed, since its inception , Henley on Todd has only ever been cancelled on those few occasions when the Todd River had water in it. 

[Sibling DavidH]

We lost again today, having won last year.  But OMFSM, what a way to lose!
We were strong favourites and were barely ahead around the halfway mark, when some clown swam in front of the boats and stopped the race.  The umpire took about half an hour to organise a restart.  Next the two boats came so close together that they clashed and an Oxford oar was broken.  The cox appealed but the umpire refused to stop the race and so with only seven oars, we lost by a huge margin.  Then after the finish one of our crew collapsed and was taken to hospital.

Cambridge were held to have officially won but there were no celebrations and no presentation.

The umpire claims Oxford were off-station and were warned twice before the clash (true) but note that he is a Cambridge man who rowed in three losing Cambridge crews.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rowing/17645929

[Roland Deschain]

^ Sore loser? Seriously though, I didn't watch it, but from what you describe there, it sounds as if it was one of the weirdest years. I keep meaning to pop down to Chiswick one year and find a nice pub to watch from, but I never do. It's a shame it doesn't come as far as Kew Bridge, as there's a lovely little pub right by the river there.

[Griffin NoName]

What a fiasco. Quite ashamed of winning

[Sibling DavidH]

2013

Oxford won in a classic race.  Very little pushing and shoving went on after last year's disaster.  Before last year it had been getting nastier and nastier, but this was a fair race and Cambridge rowed gallantly  despite never being in front at any stage.