14 December 2024

By Tim Koch

Tim Koch on the first public signs of the 2025 Boat Race.

On 16 December it will be 117 days before Boat Race Day 2025. However, Monday 16th and Wednesday 18th December will see previews (of sorts) take place over the famous Championship Course when the Trail Eights are raced, those for Cambridge on the 16th followed by those for Oxford on the 18th.

The Trials are not contests of Light Blue v Dark Blue, they are men’s and women’s intra-university races, Oxford v Oxford and Cambridge v Cambridge, where the last sixteen rowers and last two coxswains from each squad in battle it out, usually in theoretically matched boats, all hoping to impress the coach who has to pick their final crew.

The Trials are an important learning experience for rowers and coxes as well as an intense selection test as they are usually held over the full 4 1/4-mile course. The races give the coaches the opportunity to see how their athletes fare in side-by-side racing in the unique and unpredictable conditions produced by the Thames Tideway.

Live streaming of the open weight men’s and women’s races starts at 11.50 on Monday, 16 December for Cambridge and 13.20 on Wednesday, 18 December for Oxford. We are promised “a crack team of commentators and pundits led by Martin Cross and Camilla Hadland-Horrocks, and including special guests, features and exclusive interviews.”