5 May 2025

By Tim Koch

On 30 April, Leanne Hodson, the Interim Chair of the Oxford University Boat Club Committee, posted details on the OUBC App of a performance review that the club is undertaking, something presumably driven by the fact that the Oxford men have only won one race (2022) out of the last seven while the Oxford women have not won since 2016. To this end, the OUBC Committee has established an independent Review Panel.

Hodson begins:

Since the merging of the clubs OUBC has grown and continues to have evolving needs. The committee recently agreed to an alumni-led review of OUBC’s performance in Boat Races, with a vision of improving future performances. We clearly need to find a way to get back to winning, and figuring that out requires all aspects that significantly impact on performance to be examined…

The review will start imminently and is looking to report back to the committee by early June (at the latest) so it can make a meaningful difference ahead of next season.

Some points under the Review Panel’s Terms of Reference include:

The purpose of the Review is to understand the reasons behind the performance of the Club in the Men’s and Women’s Boat Races over the past decade (but with additional emphasis on the past 3 years)…

The Review will gather views from anyone deemed appropriate, including current and former coaches and staff, recent athletes, committee members, and alumni.

The Review will be the only process that the Committee will use to review this period. Any information gathered from informal or formal reviews will need to be fed into this process.

The Review process… will deliver its Report in written format to the Committee not more than three weeks after the Review process starts. The Report will be considered by the Committee at a meeting to be held not more than two weeks after the final delivery of the Report by the Review Panel… The Report will include recommended timelines for proposed actions.

The Report will be confidential but the Review Panel will also produce an abridged version of the Report which the Committee will make available more broadly to members of the Club.

The Review Panel will consist of:

Constantine Louloudis: OUBC 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015.
Anastasia Posner (neé Chitty): OUWBC 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2022.
Matt Smith: OUBC 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003.
Harriet Keane: Osiris 2008; OUWBC 2009, 2011, 2013.

While I have no knowledge of the reasoning behind the form of the review, my immediate reaction is that it seems a rather rushed process by a small number of seemingly random young Old Blues.  

While I am sympathetic to the idea that a small committee or panel can be more effective than a larger one, the four people that make up the review panel are all of similar age and also of similar Boat Race experience. Further, while the production of any report can easily go on for too long, in this case three weeks seems very little time.

I further speculate on the role of the coaches in all this. I wonder if they would like more time to consider how the 2026 Boat Race campaign should be run and also how they would feel about implementing decisions taken elsewhere that they will not necessarily agree with.

While Oxford’s disquiet over recent Boat Race results coupled with their desire to turn things around is understandable, some perspective is required. I have recently written:  

Older Boat Race supporters whose memory is not as reliable as it once was and younger ones who have less experiences to recall should know that over the last two hundred years both Oxford and Cambridge have gone through periods when each have wondered if they will ever win a Boat Race again. Spoiler alert – they did. As an example, prior to the Cambridge women’s current run of wins beginning in 2017, the Oxford women won every race but one between 2008 and 2016.

Currently, the score in the men’s race since it started in 1829 stands at Cambridge 88 wins and Oxford 81. The numbers in the women’s race run since 1927 have been distorted by its checkered history but today it is Cambridge 49, Oxford 30.

However, Dark Blues should gain some perspective and be buoyed by the fact that, in this century, the Oxford men and the Oxford women have won thirteen races each while the Cambridge men and the Cambridge women have won twelve each.

Of course, it is not good for the credibility of any sporting contest if one crew or team or club appears to be dominant for too long. This is particularly true when there is a very restricted entry criteria – with the Boat Race as the most extreme example of this. While most supporters of the Battle of the Blues would recognise this, it does give rise to a conundrum. During CUBC’s record run of thirteen wins, 1924 – 1936, an alleged Cambridge prayer went: Dear God, please let Oxford win – but not this year.

Famously, a camel is a horse designed by a committee. However, we will only find out if Oxford has produced a thoroughbred racehorse or an even-toed ungulate in the genus Camelus on 4 April 2026.