We win!

2015-04-11 19.18.57

Good race, too, at least for the first half. Oxford up a few seats off an untidy Cambridge start, then they pull back, and I thought we'd lose it round the bend but no. Got very tense, boats close together. And then suddenly just after Hammersmith: whoompf and they're through, and Cambridge can eat our puddles. Cambridge seemed to make a meal of the headwind: lots of water flying around off their blades but not off Oxford.

And the women won too.

Cambridge it finding rough going after Hammersmith. At this point Oxford are about to get clear water, but haven't yet moved over. Five strokes later they have half a length of clear water and are directly in front of Cambridge.

wave

[Update: interesting and perhaps more informed comment from the Cambridge rowing messageboards: "CUBC went out harder to stay with OUBC and ran out of steam after half way - this is how a slower crew HAS to race it - if you are side by side with another crew you can capitalise on mistakes/force the other cox to think harder about steering etc." That's also consistent with what I saw, and with the end: Cambridge were just out of puff.]

Refs

* Official race report.
* Youtube, but its in Foreign.
* A somewhat less prestigious victory from 2009, in a category I'm happy to say I'm no longer eligible for.
* Support Continental Movement!

More like this

What do you mean "we", white man? :-)

[I am forever Oxford :-)

Tiny anecdote: that joke was one of my first usenet experiences, back in the very old days. Someone made it, on sci.env. And someone else misunderstood it, and the inevitable flame war ensued -W]

By James Annan (not verified) on 11 Apr 2015 #permalink

Well done Oxford!

Cheering from South Africa.

[u12302296]

By Kagiso Mpya (not verified) on 12 Apr 2015 #permalink

I was also rather confused by the "We win!" title. But I'd forgotten that you had a PhD from Oxford :-)

[I'm sorry, but I really can't tolerate that kind of rudeness... -W]

By ...and Then Th… (not verified) on 12 Apr 2015 #permalink

Didn't you have a job in Cambridge? And you live somewhere nearby? No conflict of interests?

[I've had a job in Cambridge for the last 25 years, and lived just nearby for the last 20. But I was at Oxford for six years first, and those are the ones that matter -W]

By Fergus Brown (not verified) on 12 Apr 2015 #permalink

Apologies, DPhil. Keep forgetting :-)

[:-) -W]

By ...and Then Th… (not verified) on 12 Apr 2015 #permalink

We're a week off from San Francisco Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race Dinner, and my wife rowed some at Cambridge, the titke if this post cheered me until i read a few sentences and was reminded OF WMC's loyalties.
Sigh. My wife is displeased, although not as much as last year. On the other hand, even if she wishes Cambridge women had won, she likes fact that these schools have at least entered the 20th century by letting women race.
Of course, she still claims that on that stretch of Thames, her other school (Imperial) would usually beat either. I have no opinion on that.

[Women have been racing for quite a while now, but at Henley. And of course, women have been racing on the tideway for yonks, as WeHoRR shows. I'm not sure you can trust the WeHoRR results to grade the Cambridge blues, though: that's not them -W]

By John Mashey (not verified) on 12 Apr 2015 #permalink

Congratulation for a great victory "Oxford"...really needed such an amusement after a long day I just had! (15142672)

By Thabang Stone (not verified) on 13 Apr 2015 #permalink

Congrats from the other Cantab, where the snow on the north face of Weld boathouse has finally melted.

By Russell Seitz (not verified) on 14 Apr 2015 #permalink

Shouldn't that be "What do you mean we, paleface?"

And obviously Oxford only won because they had the lucky boat.

Nobody wins when everyone is rowing sweep.

By Chase Stoudt (not verified) on 28 May 2015 #permalink