In the past each University gave medals and caps for those who were chosen for Trails. These days each trialist gets a lot of sponsor’s kit.

Tim Koch writes:

The Oxford – Cambridge Boat Race Tideway Trials took place over the full 4 1/4 mile Putney to Mortlake Championship Course on 9 December for the women and on 10 December for the men. These were not contests of Light Blue v Dark Blue, they were intra-university races, Oxford racing Oxford and Cambridge racing Cambridge, where the last sixteen rowers and last two coxswains from each university battle it out in theoretically matched boats, all eighteen hoping to impress the coach who has to make the final selection. This is the only time that the candidates for the Blue Boats will race the full course and the Trials are an important learning experience for athletes and coxes and an intense selection test, especially as it gives some indication of how individuals may cope with race day pressure.

The excellent Boat Race website gives race reports for all four contests, the women are here  and the men here. I managed to follow only the Oxford Women’s race from a launch but I did get some shots of all the other contests from land.

Oxford Women:

Fantasy (Surrey). Bow Caroline Greves, Anastasia Chitty, Abigail Cottingham, Elo Luik, Alice Carrington-Windo, Chris Heemskirk, Ruth Siddorn, Amber De Vere, cox Jennifer Ehr.

Real Life (Middlesex). Bow Maxie Scheske, Lucinda Foote-Short, Katie Davidson, Georgia Daniell, Nadine Gradel Iberg, Emily Reynolds, Maddy Badcott, Lauren Kedar, cox Ayesha Rasheed.

Cambridge Women:

Rise (Surrey). Bow Evelyn Boettcher, Daisy Gomersall, Sarah Gibson, Isabella Vyvyan, Ashton Brown, Caroline Reid, Daphne Martschenko, Fanny Belais, cox Rosemary Ostfeld.

Grind (Middlesex). Bow Holly Game, Valentina Futoryanova, Catherine Foot, Gabriella Johansson, Claire Watkins, Melissa Wilson, Hannah Roberts, Hanna Evans, cox Will McDermott.

Oxford Men:

Per Terram (Middlesex): Bow James Stephenson, James White, Will Geffen, Charles Thurston, James Cook, James O’Connor, Sam O’Connor, Constantine Louloudis, cox William Hakim.

Per Mare (Surrey): Bow Jørgen Tveit, David Grant, Joshua Bugajski, Henry Goodier, James Mountain, Morgan Gerlak, Michael DiSanto, Iain Mandale, cox Sam Collier.

Cambridge Men:

63 (Middlesex): Bow Felix Newman, Chris Snowden, Joseph Carroll, Ali Abbasi, Blake Parsons, Matthew Jackson, Ben Ruble, Luke Juckett, cox Ian Middleton.

Not Out (Surrey): Bow Hal Bradbury, Piers Kasas, Chris Black, Alexander Leichter, Jasper Holst, Clemens Auersperg, Josh Hooper, Henry Hoffstot, cox Arav Gupta.