Cambridge ran out victors in the 168th Men’s Boat Race, defeating Oxford by around a length.
Oxford won the toss with President Tassilo Von Mueller choosing the Surrey station that served Cambridge women so well an hour before. Off the start, both crews got away cleanly and decisively with little to choose between the surging hulls as they passed Putney Embankment. Cambridge were warned almost immediately as the overhead shots showed the correcting course for Jasper Parish, who made his name with some incisive steering in the 2022 race.
Both crews settled into strong rhythms as they swept past Craven Cottage with no daylight between them. Cox Parish moved his crew aggressively to the Fulham side, a move bold enough to shock watching pundits and eek his boat out to a 3/4 length lead. Strategy is so often an under-rated component of a rowing race but Cambridge’s pre-race conversations clearly paid dividends as the first Middlesex bend began to broaden out.
As Harrods Repository loomed large, both boats had settled back onto the conventional line as Umpire Tony Reynolds warned first Cambridge then Oxford as the Light Blues threatened to break clear. Cambridge had a length at this point and were doing all they could, buoyed by an emboldened Parish in the steering seat, to negate Oxford’s Surrey advantage. Fractional margins can be decisive and as the boats blasted underneath Hammersmith Bridge, Oxford, stroked by four-time Blue Felix Drinkall, looked to be slightly smoother and slightly silkier.
A recurring theme of this Boat Race battle was the voice of Umpire Reynolds, whose warnings for Cambridge split apart the sound of spit, surge and spray. Passing Chiswick Eyot, Cambridge continued to lead by just over a length despite active interest from a resurgent Oxford crew, whose early sluggishness had cost them the opening half of this contest.
Pain was personified in Oxford stroke Drinkall’s face as the crews turned screws and scrapped their way down the quieter stretch of the Thames that divides Hammersmith and Barnes Bridge from each other. The ask for Oxford was increasing with every stroke as the Surrey bend ran its course and the final curve in the course countered back into Cambridge favour.
Victory in rowing is abstract whilst on the water; the effort and strain that the sports costs its incumbents dissipates any feeling of elation during a race but Cambridge approached Barnes Bridge in commanding fashion. The margin was nearly two lengths and kitchen sinks were likely on Oxford minds as they briefly disappeared into darkness before remerging into the blinding light of the final kilometre.
Finally, Umpire Reynolds could stand quiet in admiration for two fine boats, both battle-hardy and resilient in their efforts to dispatch each other. Coach Rob Baker, whose orchestration of four victories in five years will surely stand the test of time as one of the most impressive achievements in Boat Race history, can celebrate alongside the parish of brotherhood that Ollie and Jasper shared before the race but that now all nine in the Cambridge crew have forged together.
A word for a despondent Oxford; Drinkall collapsed over the line and required immediate medical attention as Dark Blue heads sunk low. A bad day for Oxford, a bright era for Cambridge whose clean sweep of all titles in the 2023 edition of The Boat Race(s) will be cheered long into the spring time night.
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