26 April 2025

By Tim Koch

Good rowing writing is rare so it is worth reading Tom Ransley and Rachel Quarrell’s take on the 2025 Boat Races on Row360. 

As I wrote on my recent piece that was critical of some Boat Race coverage in The Times newspaper:

…The Times in common with most of the British press including the other serious and in-depth “broadsheet” newspapers have long dispensed with having specialist rowing journalists on their staff, seemingly so they can put all their sports resources into reporting on a very small number of popular games and races, notably football. As print media declines, all newspapers require their remaining writers to be “expert” on many things. 

Ransley and Quarrell’s piece has many examples of the sort of insight and analysis that is lost when specialist writers are not used. Here is one from the women’s race:

The rot had set in straight away as both (women’s) crews veered too far to Middlesex along the Putney Embankment, a habit most of the Blue Boats have repeatedly exhibited this year during training and fixtures. It left Oxford in a stronger stream during the first minute, which was how they managed to hold a super-quick Cambridge start after the Light Blue women lost the toss and were put onto the Middlesex station. But it also meant that as the two approached the Black Buoy, Cambridge cox Jack Nicholas was well within his rights to push back onto his station, hence Oxford’s warnings.

From the men’s race:

…the Light Blues made a significant impact in the second minute, shifting from a seat behind to seven seats up around their tiny but useful Middlesex corner at Craven Cottage. The key was Cambridge’s high rating, comfortably sitting at 34-35 whilst Oxford were routinely two strokes a minute slower. For that to work, you need your lower-rate strokes to count for more, and that wasn’t happening for the Dark Blues.

The Row360 article is here.