Blue Boat Crew Announced

The crews for the Boat Race have just been announced, with Cambridge selecting an international-looking crew with four returning Blues.

Light Blue coach Steve Trapmore has picked four Britons and three Australians as well as rowers from Canada and the United States – the same crew who beat the GB U23 triallists this time last week, with the exception of cox Liz Box who has pipped Tom Fieldman to the Boat Race spot.

Three Blues return from last year’s crew, along with 2009 Blue and Tab columnist Hardy Cubasch.

Cambridge will hope to benefit from having an experienced engine room, with President Derek Rasmussen, Geoff Roth, George Nash and Hardy Cubasch all having rowed in the Boat Race before.

Oxford have named a very British Boat containing only one foreign name, and have included the much-hyped 19-year-old Constantine Louloudis from Eton, who has been compared to Matthew Pinsent at the same age.

The Cambridge crew is as follows:

Cox: Liz Box – Australia, Christ’s

Stroke: Dave Nelson – Australia, Hughes Hall

7: Derek Rasmussen* – United States, Hughes Hall

6: Geoff Roth* – Canada, St. Edmund’s

5: George Nash* – Britain, St. Catz

4: Hardy Cubasch* – Australia, St. Edmund’s

3: Dan Rix-Standing – British, St. Catz

2: Joel Jennings – British, Clare

Bow: Mike Thorp – British, Homerton

Trapmore, who will make his Boat Race debut as coach, thinks the Light Blues have given themselves every chance of stretching the overall Race lead to six (it currently stands at 80 to 75 with one dead-heat). “I’m very happy with the balance of experience and youth in the boat and they are single-minded about wanting to perform well on the day,” he said.

Cambridge have broken more than 30 years of tradition in selecting a white Hudson boat for the event, as opposed to the customary yellow-hulled Empacher that Oxford will use.

The Xchanging Boat Race will take place at 17:00 on Saturday, 26 March and will be screened in more than 200 countries around the world.

Follow the final preparations in Hardy Cubasch’s enlightening column.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSGWKmCLSPc&feature=channel_video_title

Oxford: Moritz Hafner (Ger), Ben Myers (GB), Alec Dent (GB), Ben Ellison (GB), Karl Hudspith (GB), Constantine Louloudis (GB), George Whittaker (GB), Simon Hislop (GB), Cox: Sam Winter-Levy (GB)