21 November 2023

By Tim Koch

Not asking the questions, Tim Koch.

Winter in the UK is a cold and dark time for those both on and off the water, but the season has an annual event that I see as the warming and illuminating light at the end of a long tunnel. The occasion in question is the Oxford – Cambridge Boat Race Presidents’ Challenge, when those University Boat Club Presidents whose crew lost the last Boat Race officially challenge their opposite numbers to a rematch. 

On 16 November, athletes, alumni and special guests were invited to a venue in Central London to witness the Challenges for 2024 and to celebrate this first public event in the Boat Race season. 

In 2023, Oxford’s men and women both came second so it was up to the Dark Blues to challenge 

their Light Blue counterparts: 

On behalf of Oxford University Boat Club, I hereby challenge Cambridge University Boat Club to an eight-oared race over The Championship Course on Saturday 30 March 2024.

For the record, both challenges were accepted so Boat Race Day 2024 will go ahead. It will mark the 169th Men’s Boat Race and the 78th Women’s Boat Race. Cambridge currently lead Oxford in both the men’s and women’s races (47-30 for the women and 86-81 for the men plus one dead heat in 1877).

Some random statistics and attitudes compiled from surveys completed by all members of the squads:

Number of nationalities represented: 25.

Average age: 23.

Total number of universities attended prior to Oxford or Cambridge: 38 (The top two were Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley. The top two British universities were Durham and Edinburgh).

Top choice of words of squad members to describe themselves: Friendly, Consistent, Funny and Analytical.

On describing the four phases of the stroke (catch, drive, finish and recovery) most had very similar ideas except for that on the finish, specifically whether you pause hands there or not. The Oxford women in particular were in favour of the hands not stopping.

On qualities needed for the Boat Race, Cambridge men and women and Oxford women had similar top three views – power, endurance and strength. Oxford men put forward another quality, that of tactical awareness.

More findings from the surveys will later be released on Boat Race social media.

With the Cambridge women on a six-year winning streak, the Oxford women are naturally desperate to do something different. Allan French has been appointed as their new Head Coach and the men’s and women’s openweight and lightweight clubs have amalgamated into one OUBC. What was most notable in looking at the half-dozen members of the Dark Blues’ women’s squad present was that they all seem to have a more obvious rowing physique than many of their recent Blue Boat predecessors. Notably, Annie Sharp is over 6 foot 4 inches (194 cms) tall.

Changes in the Cambridge women’s camp include Autumn Mantell leaving the programme and being replaced as Assistant Coach by GB Olympic cox, Matilda Horn. Paddy Ryan remains as Women’s Head Coach.

In all the men’s races held in this century, no one club has been dominant for too long. The longest runs have been three continuous wins (Oxford 2013, 2014, 2015 and Cambridge 2018, 2019, 2021). For those of us with no allegiance except to the race itself, this is a very satisfactory state of affairs.

The Oxford men claim that so-called “Tactical Awareness” is the lesson that they have learnt from the 2023 race (though there is always the danger of preparing for the last war) and that, like the Oxford women, they have had a good recruiting campaign. 

On the Cambridge side, the men have an intimidating six Blues returning from last year’s winning boat – though not cox Jasper Parish or his brother Ollie (who, at 7, performed an impressive double act with undergraduate stroke and returning Blue, Luca Ferraro). 

As last year, the men’s coaches are Sean Bowden for Oxford and Rob Baker for Cambridge. As last year, the result is unpredictable as ever.

*For US readers, University Challenge is the British version of College Bowl.