The OUBC veterans raced their CUBC opponents on March 21st. This has been a most unusual winter for rowing, because of the weather, and this led indirectly to a most peculiar race.

The up-river Thames has been unusable through flooding almost continuously since October. As a result, the veteran squad was unable to train at Shiplake College, where Nick Bevan is Headmaster, as had become the tradition, and was forced to move to the Tideway early, where the presence of Bosporos Club gave a welcome base from which to work. Sadly this meant that we had less of Nick's admirable coaching than usual. As always, availability of crew members was variable, and after relatively few outings, the final crew was selected on 19th and had its only practice in the final order on the night before the race. The crew was, from the bows, with ages,

	Jon Billowes	45
	Paul Marsden	51
	Jerry Dale	52
	Donald Macdonald	45
	Stephen Plunkett	47
	Tom Cadoux-Hudson	42
	Tom Barry	42
	Alan Kirkpatrick	41
	Nicola Oddie (cox)
	Martyn Kelly (spare man)	53

Boris Rankov, who had been training with the crew, umpired. The average age was 45, with a requirement of not less than 42, and the youngest oarsmen was 41, with a requirement of not under 35. We need new blood; particularly oarsmen in their late 30s. Any volunters?

When the river is in flood, the river authorities use the Thames Barrage to speed up the outflow of landwater. This means closing the barrier at low water so that the tideway fills up only from the top, and then opening it at high water so that all the fresh water can flow out. This leads to fast ebb tides and slow or stationary flood tides. At the time of the race the water was almost dead; unprecedented conditions for a Boat Race. The results were surprising.

Cambridge won the toss and chose Middlesex. The water was flat, with a light following wind, which was a relief after the bitter gales and snow of the previous day which had forced cancellation of the Schools Head. The race eventually started at 1030, half an hour late, for boring logistic reasons. Oxford stormed away at 45, settling quickly to 36, overrating Cambridge, and soon began to creep ahead. But meanwhile the crews were diverging: Oxford following the normal course, but Cambridge easing away towards the Fulham wall. By the Black Buoy Oxford had a good half length, but the boats were on opposite sides of the river. At Barn Elms the distance looked like a length. At Fulham Football Ground Cambridge were close to the bank, taking the shortest course in the still water. Both crews pounded on and converged at the mile, where they were level. I judged that Cambridge's short cut over the Fulham flats had recovered more than a length. Temporarily things returned to normal and Oxford at a powerful 34 began to draw ahead again. Approaching Harrods they had clear water, and Cambridge decided to cut the next corner too. They moved in under the Surrey bank, a length and a half down, with the stations completely reversed. There they held on for a time, but when they had to pull out to take the centre arch of Hammersmith Bridge, Oxford, still on the conventional course and rowing well, put in a finishing burst at 37 and pulled away to win by two lengths.

This was a fine Oxford crew and the fact that the time of 8 minutes 54 seconds was far slower than the usual 7 and a half minutes was entirely due to the lack of tide.

The score is now 4 Oxford wins to 2 Cambridge.

Alexander Lindsay

View report on year 2000 vets race here.