Lightweights in the Limelight at Henley

On Sunday women’s and lightweight men’s Boat Races in Henley-on-Thames ended with two victories and two defeats for Cambridge University crews with some very close tussles and exciting racing.

The day began with the intercollegiate races which were introduced when the lightweight men’s reserves’ race was scrapped last year. Ideally, they see the top Cambridge and Oxford College crews pitted against each other over a shortened course; this year, Pembroke W1 and Caius M1 for Cambridge.

Pembroke, who performed well in the Lent Bumps to finish up three in second position, saw off Magdalen (Ox) with relative ease despite almost certainly being significantly slower than Lents Head of the River Downing, who declined the offer to race on the day. Similarly, Caius M1, who stormed through the rankings to claim the headship by bumping every day, disposed of a rather scrappy-looking Christ Church crew.

The first race between University crews was that between Blondie (Cam) and Osiris (Ox), the women’s open-weight reserve crews. In a reverse of last year’s weights, Blondie was 5kg lighter per oarswoman than Osiris, although this is thought to play less of a role in the women’s races.

Carnage dominated the early stages of this race, far from Cambridge supporters, waiting to cheer their crews on. As it turned out, Blondie had carved out a narrow lead of a seat or two when Osiris veered across despite warnings from the umpire. One Cambridge blade was apparently caught underneath the Oxford boat’s bow, which forced Blondie to stop and restart from standing still. After the blade crash they were some two lengths down, where they stayed for most of the race. However, Osiris were subsequently disqualified for their steering and Blondie took the first light blue win of the day.

The lightweight women pulled away from Oxford convincingly and had carved out a lead of a boat length by the halfway mark. They managed to extend this to win with clear water between the boats, and a final verdict of 1.5 lengths.

The open women’s Boat Race, sponsored for the first time this year by Newton, was won by an Oxford crew considered to be underdogs after Cambridge’s strong performances in races in the lead-up. They had come a very impressive tenth at the women’s Head of the River Race in London the previous weekend and also outclassed Oxford in most races that both clubs have entered. On the day, however, the Oxford ladies, with Sir Steve Redgrave’s 6ft 2in daughter Natalie in the 4 seat, upset the odds to beat Cambridge by a length.

The men’s lightweight race was the last on the programme, and an extremely close win for Cambridge last year (by only 2 feet) promised an exciting race.

In the Henley Head race Oxford beat Cambridge by 12 seconds, but the Cambridge lightweights rowed a fantastic race and never lost touch with their opponents. Oxford moved into a slight lead of a few seats early on and the gap grew to maybe two thirds of a length at its widest. Like last year, the crew, coxed by Katie Phillips, showed real guts and came back to steadily hunt down Oxford towards the finish. Unfortunately, it was not to be this year, but the final verdict of just a canvas is testament to a race very well rowed indeed.

For the women in particular, this year’s racing was an extremely pleasing effort considering that President Lizzie Polgreen had to basically rebuild the club from scratch following both serious coaching and interpersonal difficulties last year. The new team surrounding head coach Martyn Rooney have produced three very strong crews, one of which was beaten despite having proven to be very quick in a national field.

Similarly, the men’s lightweights under new head coach John Thicknes produced a fantastic crew around two returning Blues.  We can expect great things at the Head of the River Race next weekend and in the upcoming regatta season.

Winners receive medals from World Rowing Champion Anna Watkins

If standards remain high and continue to improve and squad depth increases, there may be hope that the lightweight reserves’ race between Granta (Cam) and Nephthys (Ox) will be reintroduced at some point in the future.

Photos by Jonathan Fuhrmann