The Biennial Cambridge vs. Oxford cross channel relay swim took place in the early morning of Saturday 12thJuly. Under the cover of darkness, on Shakespeare Beach in Dover at 1.43am Erik Sullivan, together with his Oxford counterpart, dived into the sea to begin the first leg of the swim. Thus began a nine hour crossing of the English Channel by the Cambridge team comprising, Daniel Brackenbury (Captain), Graeham Douglas, Erik Sullivan, Katie Davidson, Emma Tarrant and Jacqui Gilbert, alongside their escorting vessel and its pilot, Reg Brickell. Each swimmer swam a one hour shift before passing on to the next swimmer.

For the first hour, the teams from Oxford and Cambridge were neck and neck, but as the hours went by Cambridge managed to earn a narrow lead over their Oxford adversaries which was maintained and built upon for much of the swim. A push from Oxford during the sixth hour saw them catch up and push slightly ahead. Thus began the final stages of the crossing, which saw much toing and froing between the two opposing teams as to who was in front.

By the close of the eighth hour, the Oxford team were about 100m in front. A strong swim from Graeham during his second swim of the race, together with much excitement and shouting of support from the rest of the team on the escorting boat, saw that margin slowly eroded and Cambridge in front once again, and as the cliffs of France loomed larger and larger, so too did the Cambridge lead. Cambridge touched down on the beaches of France in an unverified time of 9 hours and 12 seconds, just in front of the Oxford team who finished 1 minute and 48 seconds behind in a time of 9 hours and 2 minutes.

The rules agreed upon by the Oxford and Cambridge swimming teams state that, if the two teams finish within two minutes of each other the race would be declared a draw due to the variations introduced through problems with accurate timing and with the definition of where the finish is along the French coastline. Thus, for the second time in the sixteen year history of the Varsity cross channel relay the race was declared a draw, the last time being in 1998 where both teams finished in a time of 9 hours 24 minutes.

In previous years, the winning time of the Biennial Oxford-Cambridge Channel race have been the seasons fastest for relay crossings of the channel, so the team from Cambridge will be eagerly awaiting the close of the season in September to discover whether their time has also made it.