15 June 2014

By Tim Koch

News from the Boat Race Company:

On Sunday, 13th April 2025, Oxford and Cambridge will return to the famous Championship Course, stretching over 4.25 miles of tidal Thames in west London between Putney and Mortlake, for The Boat Race 2025. 

Thus, on 16 June the 2025 Oxford – Cambridge Boat Races will be 300 days away. While it is a little soon to begin the countdown, let alone announce that the 79th Women’s Race will take place at 13:21 and the 170th Men’s Race will take place at 14:21, Oxford will clearly be desperate to reverse their form of the last few years. In the twenty Tideway Blue and Reserve races held since 2018, Oxford have only won two, the 2022 openweight and reserve men. The historic records currently stand as 87-81 in the favour of Cambridge Men and 48-30 in the favour of Cambridge Women. 

Like all squads on a losing run, the Oxonians are looking to try different things. One major change that Oxford hoped would improve matters came in September 2023 when they announced that for the 2024 Boat races and beyond, Oxford would run as one club, OUBC, a home to the men’s and women’s openweights and lightweights. This followed a similar and apparently successful change at Cambridge in August 2020 when the three separate rowing clubs of the university – Cambridge University Boat Club, Cambridge University Women’s Boat Club, and Cambridge University Lightweight Rowing Club – became one new club, CUBC. 

Following the Oxford amalgamations I wrote that:

I can appreciate that the Dark Blues would probably not want to admit that the Tabs may have had a good idea, but it was against the zeitgeist for Oxford University BC (founded in 1839), Oxford University Women’s BC (1927), Oxford University Lightweight RC (1975) and Oxford University Women’s Lightweight RC (1984) to continue as separate entities. 

After the last Boat Race I noted:

(The) Oxford women were the best for a long time, and I trust that their new coach, Allan French, will be back next year. Sean Bowden has been the men’s coach since 1997 and Oxford have won thirteen of the twenty-seven races held since then – though only one of the last six. What will next year bring?

At the end of April it was announced that Bowden was to step down and, three months later, his successor has just been announced: 

Oxford University Boat Club (has appointed) Mark Fangen-Hall as the new Men’s Head Coach. Mark will transition from his current role at Eton College to join Oxford in time for the 2025 Boat Race season. At Eton College, Mark has been the Coach of the Eight and a key member of the coaching team for the successful Great Britain’s Under 23 programme. Mark brings a wealth of experience from an impressive coaching career that spans the globe. His previous roles include coaching at Cambridge University Boat Club in 2005, Queen’s University Belfast, and Mercantile Rowing Club in Australia. While in Australia, he advanced to Senior Coach for Rowing Australia in Canberra, where he contributed significantly to the women’s programmes. Notably, he coached the Australian Women’s Eight at the Rio Olympic Games.

Also, OUBC has announced the appointment of Harry Brightmore as Assistant Coach across both the men’s and women’s programmes:

Harry brings a wealth of experience as a double European and World Champion cox of the British men’s eight, six-time Henley Royal Regatta winner and five-time Head of the River Race winner. Harry joins the OUBC following eleven years within high performance programmes at GB Rowing and Oxford Brookes University and he will be using this experience as a coach across all of our open, lightweight and development crews.

In more OUBC news, OUBC has said that the new Presidents for the 2025 Boat Race campaign will be Annie Anezakis for the women and Tom Mackintosh for the men:

Annie rowed for St Catherine’s School and Mercantile Rowing Club in Australia before studying at Princeton University. Annie was a member of the 2022 and 2024 Women’s Blue Boat. She is currently on the Graduate-Entry Medicine course which provides an accelerated pathway for graduates to pursue a career in medicine.

Tom will be studying on the Said Business School MBA programme after he has competed at the Paris Olympics. Tom is an Olympic Champion from the New Zealand men’s eight in Tokyo and World Championship bronze medalist in the single scull in 2023.

Whoever wins in 2025, Instagram has a few pictorial reminders of why Boat Race Day is so special.