At 4:30pm on the 3rd April 2010, the 156th Boat Race will start, with Cambridge attempting to put one over on their oldest rivals. With defeats in 2008 and 2009, and only one victory in the past 5 years, Cambridge will be looking to buck the recent trend and extending their overall lead; which currently sits at 79-75 in the Light Blues’ favour (with one dead heat in 1877).

            The line-ups have been announced and are as follows:

Cambridge: Bow Rob Weitemeyer (St. Edmund’s); 2 Geoff Roth (St. Edmund’s); 3 Derek Rasmussen (Hughes Hall); 4 Peter McClelland (Pembroke); 5 Deaglan McEachern (Hughes Hall); 6 Henry Pelly (St. Edmund’s); 7 George Nash (St. Catharine’s); Stroke Fred Gill (Hughes Hall); Cox Ted Randolph (Peterhouse – GB)

Oxford: Bow Ben Myers (Exeter College); 2 Martin Walsh (Green Templeton); 3 Tyler Winklevoss (Christ Ch); 4 Cameron Winklevoss (Christ Ch); 5 Sjoerd Hamburger (Oriel); 6 Matt Evans (University); 7 Simon Gawlik (Kellogg ); Stroke Charlie Burkitt (Wolfson); Cox Adam Barhamand (Wolfson).

Cambridge have three returning blues (Rob Weitemeyer, Henry Pelly and this years president Deaglan McEachern) to Oxfords one (Sjoerd Hamburger), with Deaglan McEachern sitting directly opposite Hamburger as they were last year. At the weigh in, Cambridge were 3.8kg heavier than Oxford, weighing 760.4kg. Notable presences in the Oxford boat include the Winklevoss twins, who represented the USA in the pairs at Beijing 2008, and also sued Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg after being heavily involved in ConnectU, a facebook precursor based at Harvard.

Trials started two weeks before this academic year began for the right to fill the seats that illustrious Blues such as Kieran West, Tom James, and even Hugh Laurie had once filled. Fiercely competitive, trials soon gave the chief coach, Chris Nilsson an idea who would represent Cambridge. Second only in volume to the level of training done by internationals, rowers push themselves through the pain barrier on numerous occasions (notably the 5km tests) in order to place themselves with the best possible chance of gaining the Blue, and at the same time keeping focused on the main goal of beating Oxford. Goldie, the reserve boat, who row half an hour before the Blue boat against Isis train alongside and carry out the same volume of training as the Blue boat, making their second team Blue one of the hardest won. Their line up is as follows:

Cox Liz Box (Christ’s) Str Joel Jennings (Clare) 7 Code Sternal (Hughes Hall) 6 Hardy Cubasch (St Edmund’s) 5 Moritz Schramm (Fitzwilliam) 4 Matt Whaley (Gonville & Caius) 3 Mike Thorp (Homerton) 2 George Lamb (St John’s) Bow Wanne Kromdijk (Clare)

A week before, CUWBC (and their reserves, Blondie) will be rowing against their Oxford counterparts at the Henley Boat Races along a 2km stretch of the Thames. Overlooked in comparison to the men’s boat race, CUWBC suffer from poorer training facilities and a lack of willing triallists in comparison to the males, and as a consequence have suffered, with a CUWBC IV losing at Fairbairns to FaT (Trinity College). However, they put in as much training and dedication as their male counterparts, and it is a shame that people do not leave the relative sanctuary of college rowing to push themselves in order to add to the tally of 77 Cambridge victories to the 50 of Oxford.

CULRC and CUWBC lightweights shall also be taking part in their Varsity ties at the same time, and again their lack of exposure should not detract from their achievements, carrying out similar volumes of training to CUBC.

 

 

Crew Lists:

CUWBC: Bow: Constance Daggett  Girton 2: Anya Rachel Jones , Fitzwilliam 3: Carys Rowlands , Sidney Sussex 4: Penny Thuesen , Christ's 5: Beth Colman , King's 6: Anna Railton , Pembroke 7: Sarah Allen , Peterhouse Stroke: Hermione Mackay , St John's Cox: Catherine Taylor , Trinity Hall

CULRC: Bow: Christopher Kerr , St Catharine's 2: Matt Lawes , Fitzwilliam 3: Christopher Bellamy , Homerton 4: Iain Rist , Trinity Hall 5: Charles Pitt Ford , Pembroke 6: Tom Coker , Trinity 7: Alistair Chappelle , Pembroke Stroke: John Hale , Pembroke Cox: Ruth Coverdale , Jesus

Blondie: Bow: Stacey Hickson , Trinity Hall 2: Hannah Morgan , Clare 3: Rebecca Eleanor Minnich , Clare College 4: Julia Dorothea Fischer, Clare Hall 5: Claudia Catacchio , Newnham 6: Anne Hempel , 7: Rebecca Pound , Trinity Hall Stroke: Elizabeth Polgreen , Downing Cox: Matthew Bryan , Peterhouse

CUWBC Lightweights: Bow: Nora Staack, Sidney Sussex 2: Laura Bierer, St Catharine's 3: Hannah Sensecall, Girton 4: Julia Robson, Trinity 5: Lisa Meegan, Sidney Sussex 6: Edwina Surtees, Christ's 7: Catherine Blake, Lucy Cavendish Stroke: Harriet Trayler-Clarke, Newnham Cox: Kate Richards, Queens'