BOAT RACE: Dinners, 2016 (Updated Apr. 5, 2016)

The Boat Race (now Boat Races, as women's race
on the same course, same day).

Boat Races Winner, Sunday, Mar. 27, 2016

The Newton Women's Boat Race (OXFORD)
Osiris-Blondie Race
Isis-Goldie Race  
The BNY Mellon Boat Race (CAMBRIDGE)

Events by City, USA and Canada

Boston | Sunday, Mar. 27, 9:45 a.m.  Race Viewing (no charge, but please reserve here) Tavern in the Square, 730 Mass. Ave., Central Square, Cambridge. Women's Race at 10:10 a.m., Men's Race at 11:10 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

Chicago | 77th Annual BRD | Friday, April 15. 6 p.m. Drinks. 7 p.m. Dinner: 7:00 p.m. Black Tie Optional. Dr. Frances Lannon Hon. Fellow and Former Principal,  LMH, Oxford.  Prof. Gillian Peele Fellow and Tutor in Politics, LMH,  Oxford.  James C. Dunlop, LMH will preside. Michael J. Dickenson, Christ’s College, Cambridge, will report on the Boat Races. Buy tickets here.

Denver | April 12. The Denver dinner is probably the least expensive BRD in North America because it is subsidized by loyal alumni. Contact: Chris.Hansen@ihs.com.

NY City | 5th BR Brunch | Mar. 27. Book your place / At the viewing of the race.

NY City | 83rd BRD | Apr. 12. Toast to the Universities by Nick Kristof (Oxford) of the NY Times. Response on behalf of the Universities by Anna Watkins (Cambridge), Olympic gold medalist in double sculls. To register, go here.

Ottawa | BRD |

San Francisco | BR Breakfast | Mar. 27 |  Live Viewing of Boat Races.  8:50 a.m., OUS Northern California. Last year was at Kezar Pub.

San Francisco | 81st BRD |

Seattle | Sunday, Mar. 27 (8 am-10 am) Hosted by The Oxford and Cambridge Society of Seattle at The Market Arms. Live viewing of the 2016 Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race.

Toronto |

Vancouver | 86th BRD |
Vancouver | 5th BR Breakfast |

Victoria | BRD |

Washington, D.C. | 69th BRD | April 7, 2016  National Press Club. Registration is Open. See April 7 date below.

Washington, D.C. | Biennial North America Oxford Reunion | April 8-9, 2016. To order tickets for April 9, go here. The dinner on Friday evening April 8 at the Library of Congress was sold out one month before the event. Contact events@oxfordna.org for further information.

*Link to Oxford Alumni Boat Race Events World-Wide (Europe and Asia included)

Events by Date, 2016
Send updates here. |  History, photos etc. of Prior US-Canadian Boat Race alumni events.

March 27, 2016 (Sunday) | New York City, Boat Races Brunch. Viewing of the BBC record of the races, organized in recent years by the Oxford Business Alumni. 11 am: Viewing Party & Brunch – Manhattan. Location will be emailed to ticket holders. Book here. Note: The women's boats compete on the same day and course as the men's boats. The men's blue boats compete at 4:50 pm GMT and the women's ("Newton") boats one hour later. In New York City the BBC should start showing the race at 11:50 am. For later information, check the official site for the BNY Mellon Boat Races.

March 27 | San Francisco, Live Viewing of Boat Races.  8:50 a.m., OUS Northern California. Was at Kezar Pub.

March 27 | Vancouver, 5th Annual Boat Races Breakfast. Contact: StuartCBowyer@gmail.com. The men's race starts at 4:50 pm GMT - or 8:50 a.m. in Vancouver. 10 am: Vancouver Oxford & Cambridge Society Annual Boat Race Breakfast Venue: Manchester Public House, 1941 West Broadway, Vancouver, BC V6J 1Z3, Canada.

March 27 | Portland, Ore., 9 am-12 noon local time - Oxbridge Cascades Alumni Society Viewing of the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race last year was at Kells Irish Restaurant & Pub, 112 SW 2nd Ave, Portland, Oregon 97204, USA. According to Vancouver branch, Portland invented the Boat Race Breakfast, in which alumni gather at a local pub, many with old college or university gear, to watch the race live on TV. Always early morning in Oregon. Contact: Christopher Gondek, cgondek@ heronandcrane.com.

April ? | Kingston, Ont., Boat Race Dinner, venue to be determined. Contact: Robert Darymple kingston@ousoc.oxon.org.

April ? | Victoria - Annual VIOCS Boat Race Party Saturday, 6:30-9:30 pm, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (exhibits will be open) 1040 Moss Street, Victoria $36.00 p.p. Send your cheque to: Dr. Brian Scarfe (personally) Suite 416, 21 Dallas Road, Victoria, BC, V8V 4Z9 VIOCS. Silent auction to help offset the cost of our splendid venue. Bring cheque book. For further information contact admin@VIOCS.ca or call Dr. Dorothy Kennedy at 250-384-4544. 

April ? | Los Angeles, Brunch. Held every year since at least 2005 (University Club, Pasadena). Last year was at 12 noon at the California Yacht Club in Marina del Rey–enjoy dazzling conversation, a luxurious champagne brunch, and a gorgeous view of the yachts while rooting on the dark and light blues while watching from a week-old DVD. Oxonians, Cantabrigians, friends and supporters are all welcome. In the anxious words of a late 1800s Oxford poet: “The Cambridge eight / have muscle and weight, / but the dark blue blades / fall sharp and straight.” The group assembles at 11:30 am, has brunch and then watches the Boat Races at 1:30 pm (since they are viewing from a DVD, the group is not bound to the Tidewater schedule). Contact: Ray Dean Mize raydean.mize@gmail.com.

April ? | San Francisco, 81st BRD. Presidio Golf Club, 8 Presidio Terrace. Contact: Leena.Bengani@oxfordalumni.org or Matthew Kaser, m.kaser@comcast.net.

April 7 | Washington, DC BRD.  Top Floor, National Press Club, 14th and F Streets, NW. The 69th Annual Oxford and Cambridge Dinner. Cocktails at 7 p.m., Dinner at 8 p.m. All members of Oxford or Cambridge and their guests are cordially invited to attend this renowned event, the largest such gathering to take place on a continuing basis anywhere in the world. Originally linked to The Boat Race, it promises an evening of fine wine and cuisine and exceptional speakers from both Universities. William W. Chip (Clare, Cambridge), Senior Counsel at Covington & Burling will Preside. Professor Angela E. Stent (Girton, Cambridge), Professor of Government and Director, Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies, Georgetown University, will give the Toast to the Universities. Professor Sir Drummond Bone, MA, FRSA, FRSE, Hon, Litt.D., Master of Balliol College and an expert of the poetry of Byron and President of the Scottish Byron Society will give the Response from the Universities. The price of the dinner is $130 per person ($110 for those who came down in the past five years), wine included. Dress is black tie (preferred), college blazer, evening kilt, or equivalent. Please send your acceptance and check without delay, using the acceptance form which follows. Checks should be made out to the Oxford and Cambridge Committee and mailed to David B. Law, Hon. Treas., c/o Curtin Law Roberson Dunigan & Salans, 1900 M Street, N.W., Suite 600, Washington, D.C. 20036, for receipt on or before April 5, 2016. No tickets will be issued; you will be recognized at the door.

April 8-9 | Washington, D.C.  Biennial North American Oxford Reunion. 

April 12 | New York City, 83rd BRD, since 1933. The toasts are to the President and Queen and the Universities, with a Response from the Universities. The Toast to the Universities this year will be given by Nick Kristof of the New York Times. Contact: Hervé Gouraige (Merton), dinner chairman; hgouraige [at] comcast.net.

April ? | Ottawa BRD.  The Cambridge Society of Ottawa hosts an annual BRD that some Oxonians attend. This year's BRD is at the Britannia Yacht Club. Contact: Neil Bliss, nwbliss@magma.ca or (613) 745-5179; or Oxford Secretary Harry Corrin, ous.ottawa@gmail.com.

April ? | Vancouver BRD. Royal Vancouver Yacht Club. Contact: Dr. Dorothy Kennedy, admin@viocs.ca. Website: www.vocs.ca.

April ? | Boston (New England Society) BRD. Contact: Dona Cady is President of OCSNE, president@oxcamne.org; David Manns is Secretary, secretary@oxcamne.org; Belinda Wilkes is Treasurer, treasurer@oxcamne.org. For dinner details, sign up here (you will need to input your university/college of matriculation).

Cities for Which Dates Not Reported

(To add an event - contact JTMarlin@post.harvard.edu)
Calgary, Alberta. Contact: Geoffrey Cowling, gcowling@iridiumrisk.com; jonathan.d.connell@ gmail.com. Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Contact: EnriqueBargioni@msn.com Houston, Tex. Contact: Kevin Bradford, houston@ousoc.oxon.org Indianapolis, Ind.  Contact Stephen Smith,  SKSmith1@msn.com Kansas City, Mo. Contact: BartholomewDean at gmail.com. Little Rock, Ark. Contact: frank.thurmond@gmail.com. Montreal, Que.  Contact: Catherine.Gillbert@videotron.ca. New Orleans, La.  Contact: David Campbell, davidc1010@ att.net. Phoenix, Ariz. Contact: jonathan.rose@asu.edu. Portland, Maine Contact: TracieJeanReed @gmail.com. Raleigh, N.C. Contact: Steven Wilson, scrwilson@gmail.com Richmond, Va. Contact: Matthias Hild, n@hild.org Salt Lake City, Utah.  Contact: Russell Fisher, utah.oxford@ gmail.com. San Diego, Calif. Contact: caio@handsupincentives.com. Contact: Ean.Hernandez@ eanh.net St. Louis, Mo.  Contact: David Pollack, missouri@ousoc.oxon.org Toronto, Ont.  Contact: oxfordsocietytoronto@gmail.com. Vero Beach, Fla. Contact: john@cityeconomist.com. Winnipeg, Manitoba. Contact: Robert Dawson, dawson at dawsonlaw.com.

Read here about the long History of the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race and the Boat Race Dinners in 2015.

Or read about the meanings of the Arms of Oxford Colleges (and PPHs): Article in Oxford Today . Heraldry as Branding . Heraldry as Fun .  Coat of Arms vs. Crest . Sinister Questions . Visit to the College of Arms . Windsor Herald Talks to New Yorkers . Shaming of Harvard Law Crest :: Rapid Expansion of Oxford's Colleges and Halls . Oxford Stars . Links to Heraldry, Oxford, GW . Harris Manchester College . Linacre College . St Catherine's . St Cross College . St Edmund Hall . Trinity College :: Regent's Park College . St Benet's Hall . 

BOAT RACE: 82nd NYC Dinner 2015

The program is posted here.

Links to photos and remarks are posted if and when received.

Boat Race Events in North America - 2015.

The History of Boat Race Dinners in North America.

PROGRAM

6:30 pm

Drinks

7:30 pm

Dinner

Welcome

Sally Fan (Green Templeton, Oxford)

Introduction of Fr. Leahy

Antonia Apps (Magdalen, Oxford)

Grace

Fr. Edwin Leahy

Introduction of Seth Lesser

Antonia Apps

The Boat Races

Seth Lesser (Magdalen, Oxford)

Introduction of Peter Sealy

Antonia Apps

Toast to the President

Peter Sealy (Pembroke, Cambridge)

Introduction of John Tepper Marlin

Antonia Apps

Toast to the Queen

John Tepper Marlin (Trinity, Oxford)

In 1740 Thomas Arne wrote the original music for James Thomson's patriotic poem for a unified Britain, "Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves!"

At that time, Britain's ruling the waves was aspirational. But it became a reality. 

On Tuesday, Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her 89th birthday. She has completed the 63rd year of her reign.

Over the many years, she has unforgettably mastered three different waves.

First, the erase-the-blackboard wave. 

Second, the wipe-the-window wave.

Finally, the wave for which she is best known, the screw-in-the-light-bulb wave.

It is hard for me to imagine the darkness of a world without her.  

Please be upstanding.

Ladies and Gentlemen... The Queen.

Introduction of Paul Bernstein

Antonia Apps

Toast to the Universities

Paul Bernstein (Jesus, Cambridge)

Introduction of Herve Gouraige

Antonia Apps

Introduction of Steve Trachtenberg

Herve Gouraige (Merton, Oxford)

Response from the Universities

Steve Trachtenberg (Nuffield, Oxford)

Closing Remarks

Antonia Apps

BOAT RACE: Outcome 2015

The Oxford and Cambridge Men's and Women's Varsity Crews, 2015. This is the first day that both the men's and women's
Boat Races were held on the same day, over the same course.

To watch the Oxford-Cambridge BNY Mellon-Newton Boat Races with some suspense - if you don't already know the outcome - the various sources below are arrayed with the most suspenseful first and the least suspenseful later.

Putney to Mortlake - two stops on the train.

You have been warned not to skip to the end of this post to find out the results.

This was a race with historic meaning because it is the first one in which the women compete over the same course on the same day as the men. This was a long-running goal of the sponsor of the women's race, Newton Investment Management.

A German TV Clip on YouTube shows the entire men's varsity race with no advertising. Watch the whole race - beautifully recorded and, it seems, the first to be posted online.

The BBC Story includes two clips showing finishing half-minute of both varsity races (men's and women's), each preceded by a half-minute of advertising.

Interviews with the rowers after the races by Universal Sports

The Guardian

The Telegraph emphasizes the outcome of the women's race.

Daily Mail.

Daily Mirror

The Independent

Other Media (more than 200 articles/clips)

Spoiler coming
.
.
.

.

Quick Recap:

Oxford, heavily favored, won every race - the varsity men's and women's races and the two reserve boat races.

The Oxford women's boat has won 12 of the last 16 races against Cambridge.

Cambridge maintain a lead over the life of the Boat Race, for both of the Blue Boat races - the varsity men's boat (79 Cambridge, 81 Oxford) and the varsity women's boat (41 Cambridge, 29 Oxford).

BOAT RACE: History

Memorial to Dr. Charles Merivale (1808-1893)
 in Ely Cathedral. "Caustic in wit".

The Original Challenge.  The BNY Mellon website on the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race pins the origin of the Boat Race on a very personal story.

The founders of the boat race are two friends from Harrow named Charles:

• Charles Wordsworth, who had gone on to Oxford  (Christ Church) and
• Charles Merivale [sic, only one "r"], who went on to Cambridge (St John's College).

Charles Wordsworth was the nephew of the poet William Wordsworth (St. John's College, Cambridge, 1787-1791) and the son of Christopher Wordsworth (1774-1846), Master of Trinity College, Cambridge in 1820-1841.

Charles Merivale deserves most of the credit for the challenge. He actually rowed in the Cambridge boat at #4. The two Charleses met during the vacation in Cambridge and are said to have gone "rowing" on the Cam (they may have been punting).  The two Harrovians decided to organize an intercollegiate challenge.

Punting on the Cam. View looking south from the Garret Hostel
Bridge. Photo by JT Marlin, June 2014.

On February 10, 1829, according to the BNY Mellon site, a meeting of the Cambridge University Boat Club requested Mr. Snow of St John’s to write immediately to Mr. Staniforth of Christ Church with the message

The University of Cambridge hereby challenge the University of Oxford to row a match at or near London, each in an eight-oared boat during the ensuing Easter vacation.

Staniforth and Snow had been contemporary oarsmen at Eton.

However, a guide to Cambridge Colleges published by Pitkin Press, printed in 2014, says the boat race was started by Cambridge as a challenge from the Lady Margaret Boat Club at St. John's College. The Lady Margaret Boat Club is the oldest college boat club on the River Cam and is famed for the scarlet jackets worn by its rowers. This jacket is said to have been the origin of the word "Blazer" as applied to boat club jackets and later to any jackets of a formal nature.

The two stories can be reconciled if we speculate that Merivale took the matter of the challenge up with the Lady Margaret Boat Club and they in turn approached the CUBC.

What is broadly agreed is that the first race eventually took place on June 10, 1829 at Henley-on- Thames. Oxford won this first race easily. The fact that the next race was not until 1836 suggests both how much the initiative had come from Cambridge and how much the eagerness of the Cambridge oarsmen to test themselves may have been dampened by their initial defeat.

Their winning boat from the first race is on display at the River & Rowing Museum in Henley.

Since 1856 the annual event has been uninterrupted except during the two World Wars, although the actual race was interrupted in 2012 by an Australian protester who was subsequently convicted of a crime.

The Course. The 4.2 mile course on the Thames starts in Putney and ends in Mortlake, which also happen to be stations on the SouthWest Trains line, which originates in Waterloo Station. The train trip from Putney to Mortlake takes five minutes, about one-fourth the time it takes to travel on an Oxford or Cambridge boat–although only the cox is able to travel without doing any rowing. The cost of the train each way by is £1.90 or about $3.

The two boats are called "Blue Boats", although they are not in fact painted blue. Cambridge rowers wear shirts that are light blue or have light-blue highlights. Oxford wears dark blue or shirts with dark-blue highlights.

Each year approximately 250,000 people watch the race live from the banks of the Thames while millions watch on television. Cambridge has won 81 races and Oxford 78 races, with one tie.

Writer in 2012 at marker of the start
of the boat race, with Putney Bridge
in the background. UBR stands for
 "University Boat Race."

Boat Race training starts immediately with the beginning of the academic year in September.

The Wikipedia Boat Race entry has an exhaustive history of the boat race, including full coverage of two interesting disputes among the Oxford crew members that involved American rowers who found the Boat Race culture of the time more than they could take.

Several books have been written on the history of the boat race and the various disputes that occurred.

Some Famous Rowers. Investment bankers are said to favor Oxford and Cambridge rowers because they are presumed to be smart, fit and tall–except for the cox. )

The most famous cox may be Jim Rogers, the investment biker, who coxed the Oxford boat and recently donated a new shell to Balliol. Some famous rowers (lists of crews for most years may be found here):

1922-23 (Oxford) Andrew Irvine
1950 (Cambridge) Lord Snowdon
1977 (Oxford) Colin Moynihan
1978-83 (Oxford) Boris Rankov (whose long stint led to the Rankov Rule)
1980 (Cambridge) Hugh Laurie ("Dr. House")
1990-91, 1993 (Oxford) Olympic gold medalist Matthew Pinsent (his sharp comments on the 2012 race are famous)
1997 (Oxford) Olympic gold medalist Tim Foster
1997 (Oxford) Luka Grubber
1997-99 (Oxford) Andrew Lindsay
1998 (Oxford) Ed Coode
1999, 2001, 2006-07 (Cambridge) Kieran West
2010 (Oxford) The Winklevoss twins (who spoke at the 2012 NYC Boat Race Dinner)

Racing Rules. The race is governed by a Joint Understanding between the Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Clubs. Since 1983, no rower may row more than four times as an undergraduate and four times as a graduate.

To protect the status of the race as a student event, the Boat Race committee in July 2007 refused to award a blue to 2006-2007 Cambridge oarsman Thorsten Engelmann because he did not finish his year, returning to the German rowing team to prepare for the Beijing Olympics. One proposal is that only students in courses lasting two or more years should be allowed to row.

Organization. Like the British Constitution, the organization of the boat race is not written down in any one place because the agreements are private and have been changing. Oxford's official site includes a useful summary of the culture of the boat race and some information on the costs. The race costs "hundreds of thousands of pounds" for the rights to use the Thames for the race and an equal amount to prepare the two crews for the race.

So title sponsorships can be taken to be of this order of magnitude. The rules of the boat race are set by the Oxford and Cambridge rowing clubs, and they also appear to be in charge of hiring the management company, the Boat Race Company Limited (BRCL), that handles the details of the race. BRCL in turn obtains sponsorships and hires staff and contractors. One of its contractors is Professional Sports, based in Weybridge, which deals with media and addresses details relating to sponsorships. The boat race website also lists contractors who do web site design and updating.

Writer at Putney Pier, next to the start of the Boat Race.

Sponsors. Boat Race sponsors over the years have included Ladbrokes, Beefeater Gin, Aberdeen Asset Management, and until May 2012, as a "Title Partner", the business outsourcing company Xchanging, which has an office in Chicago but was not widely known in the United States.

The new "Title Partner" sponsor with a strong U.S. base has a five-year contract from 2013 to 2017, BNY Mellon. The boat race is called the BNY Mellon Boat Race. Sponsorships are governed by private agreements with BRCL.

BNY Mellon's Newton Asset Management group has already sponsored the women's boat race and starting in 2015 women's race will be given equal billing with the traditional men's race (for which women have been allowed to race in the coxswain spot). This is a long way from 1963, when Murray Edwards College's women's boat beat Oxford’s in what appears to be the first intercollegiate women's boat race.

Besides the title sponsor, the BRCL obtains other partners such as Hackett, Sharp's Doom Bar, Bollinger Champagne, and BBC Sport. It also lists "suppliers" including London Voyagers, Fattorini, Crew Room, Hunter and BT. The BRCL also lists an official charity, London Youth Rowing, which teaches rowing to young people who might never otherwise have a chance to learn to row and get a chance to compete.

Boat Race Dinners. More than 70 Oxford-Cambridge committees worldwide are dedicated to running boat race events - 15 in the United States, five in Canada, and more than 50 in the rest of the world. In addition, many university-specific Oxford and Cambridge alumni associations sponsor dinners at the time of the boat race, i.e., in the March-May period.

The largest Oxford-Cambridge dinner is usually held in New York City, attracting more than 200  people in years 2012-14, although in the first year of President Clinton's occupancy of the White House, more than 300 people signed up for the Washington Boat Race Dinner. (President Clinton did not appear, although many of his appointees did. I was at the dinner. After 1993, Washington BRD attendance fell.)

The 2014 and 2015 NYC BRDs are at the University Club. The NYC dinner is also the oldest continuous Oxford-Cambridge alumni event in the world, celebrating its 82nd uninterrupted annual dinner in 2015. The Vancouver BRD is the oldest, dating back at least to 1929, but it was not held in three of the next four years including 1933 and therefore loses by one year to NYC, which started in 1933 and had not missed a year.

Alumni Boat Races. Over the years a number of efforts to organize Oxford-Cambridge boat races have been made in the United States. Boston is continuing the tradition, with an alumni boat race before its Boat Race Dinner in May.

New York has had several successful launches, but none has endured as long as Boston's. Most recently races were held at the Saugatuck Rowing Club in Westport, Conn. Dr. Saman Majd was Race Director in  2006-2007. He spoke about the race at the 2007 NYC Oxford-Cambridge Alumni Boat Race. He has a degree in Physics from Oxford and a PhD in Finance from MIT. He rowed for St. Paul's School, London, and for Christ Church (Captain, 1977). He stroked the Isis crew that set a new course record in the race against Goldie. Since 2004, he has competed for the Saugatuck Rowing Club in the US and World Masters Championships and served as the Club's Commodore in 2006-7.

BOAT RACE DINNER: NYC 2014 (81st Annual)

NEW YORK CITY BOAT RACE DINNER

81st Annual Dinner, April 10, 2014
Photos of the Dinner appear here: http://on.fb.me/ZcAmMS

REPORT ON THE 160TH BOAT RACE

Dr. Seth Lesser, Magdalen College, Oxford and Cox of the Blue Boat, 1984 and 1985

Dr. Seth R. Lesser

Welcome to the 81st New York Dinner celebrating the 160th Boat Race. Of the races since 1829, the tally is 81 wins for Cambridge and 78 wins for Oxford, with one dead heat (in 1877).

This year, on a rainy, misty Sunday, Oxford won the race – sunshine for Oxford – but it was due to a clash of oars. A bit of too-aggressive steering by Cambridge led to the oar of the Cambridge two man (the person one seat in from the bow) tipping the oar of the Oxford seven man. That caused him to catch a crab and miss a few strokes. The Cambridge boat stopped dead in the water and you cannot stop like that and expect to ever be competitive. For the oarsman, after so many months of training, that makes for a hard day.

While that is the report on this Boat Race, one for the record books, what I would like to take a few minutes to share with you are two extraordinary things and one wonderful thing. I hope that in a few minutes you will agree that I am not engaging in hyperbole.

The first extraordinary thing is that – I believe – it is fair to say that the Boat Race is one of the world's greatest athletic contests. And I say athletic in the sense of the physical effort expended by the sportsman in the contest. You may not know that rowing is one of the top athletic sports, based on the most commonly measured criteria of physiological ability.

• VO2 Max is the maximum amount of oxygen muscles consumed per minute. In the top rank of athletes, the VO2 max of elite athletes is 6-7 liters/min. The highest VO2 Max is found in running (particularly, middle distance), cross-country skiing, speed skating (distance), and, not surprisingly here, rowing. In rowing, the athletes on the national teams almost all rate at 6+ liters per minute and many are at, or at least approach, 7 liters. By comparison, most professional sports figures in sports such as football (British or American), tennis, or basketball only come in at 4-5.  Most of us, when exercising, would probably be around 2-3 liters. Working that hard – pulling that hard on an oar – builds up lactic acid, the searing in the legs that we all have at one point or other felt. 
• Lactic Acid is another measure. In a 2000-meter race, which is the distance for international rowing, as well as collegiate rowing, the lactic acid tests lead to many rowers referring to the race as a “tunnel of pain.” The lactic acid levels will peak at about 20 millimoles per 100 ml of blood. That’s a “painfest.” “When you get to 20, you are in never-never land,” explains Fritz Hagerman, the eminent exercise physiologist at Ohio University who started the first U.S. Olympic performance lab in 1977, “You wish you were dead, and you are afraid you won’t be.” (Bill Saporito, “Who is the Fittest Olympic Athlete of Them All?”, Time, July 19, 2012.) 

Many years ago, I met Fritz Hagerman at the United States National Camp – the selection camp for the national team rowers – which was that year held in Madison, Wisconsin. He was infectiously excited about testing the rowers and I asked him why he was so high-spirited. His answer was that he saw the very finest athletes in the world but the ones that impressed him the most were the rowers because they – unlike any of the others sports where 6-7 liters of oxygen were used – did not compete individually but in a boat where they have to row in unison, together with others. In other words, unlike cross-country skiers or runners or skaters, the rowing effort must be accompanied by a kind of grace and delicacy to be effective. This is the only sport where such effort is accompanied by such a requirement of maintaining control.

Here is the first extraordinary thing about the Boat Race: Everything I have been discussing about rowing primarily applies to 2000-meter races. The Boat Race, however, is just under 7000 meters and it is rowing the same intensity and by athletes that are superbly fit and prepared with the same intensity as they would row a 2000-meter race - the pace is as high and hard as an international race, starting at 45-46 strokes per minute and settling close to what would be a 2000-meter pace.   It is one of the world’s most grueling pure athletic contests.

Sir Matthew Pinsent, a ten-time world rowing gold medalist, an Olympic gold medalist in four straight Olympics – and a three-time Blue Boater – was once measured as having the largest recorded lung capacity of any sportsmen at time (now topped by another Boat Race Blue, Pete Reed). So don’t take it from me – since I coxed, I’ve just been pulled over the Boat Race course; take it from Sir Matthew himself:

Almost any activity done hard enough will produce lactate but, in rowing, how much you produce and how you cope with it is a big part of the difference between first and second place - or in Boat Race terms, between winning and having wasted six months of your life. For a Boat Race crew, the lactate kicks in after about a minute and stays there scalding and tearing at your muscles and mind for another 18 or so minutes. The only way to relieve the pain is to stop, and that's just not going to happen.

In sum, the Boat Race is not just one of the most demanding sporting events there is - I believe it is one of the most physiologically demanding. That’s the first extraordinary thing.

The second extraordinary thing is that these athletes are scholars. Maybe at some time in the past, rowers were accepted to aid the Blue Boat, but those days are unequivocally (at least at Oxford, about which I know) gone. The University demands that the rowers face the same entrance standards as anyone else. That is no less extraordinary.

The wonderful item I have for you is that, at least in part through the perseverance of BNY Mellon and its Newton division, next year, for the 161st Boat Race, in addition to the Oxford University Boat Club competing against the Cambridge University Boat Club, so too will the Oxford University Woman’s Boat Club be competing against the Cambridge counterpart over the same course of the Tideway on the same day as the men. For one and all, I hope we can all agree that this is a most wonderful thing. Thank you.

TOAST TO THE UNIVERSITIES

Dame Barbara Stocking, President
Murray Edwards College, Cambridge

Dame Barbara Stocking, President of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge

Prior to becoming the President of Murray Edwards, Dame Barbara headed Oxfam Great Britain, which operates in more than 60 countries to act against the causes of poverty.

She oversaw expenditures of more than £300 million and a paid staff of 4,500 based all over the world, reinforced by many volunteers.

RESPONSE FROM THE UNIVERSITIES

The Response from the Universities was given by the Chancellor of Oxford University, the Rt Hon the Lord Patten of Barnes.

Marlin (L) and Lord Patten

Introduction of Lord Patten

Dr. John Tepper Marlin, Trinity, Oxford

At the Oxford European Alumni Reunion in Madrid last year, Lord Patten told me proudly that he, like Dame Barbara, was the first in his family to go to university. His father Frank was a jazz drummer.

Patten won a scholarship to Balliol. He studied Modern History, and since he went down he has helped make history.

Lord Patten has a special relationship with New York City. Right after graduating he came to the United States on a Coolidge Traveling Scholarship, just after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, whose 50th anniversary President Obama celebrated today at the LBJ Library. Patten traveled by car in the American South in the summer of 1965, as Martin Luther King led the march on Montgomery to ensure passage of the Voting Rights Act. Lord Patten told me that as soon they reached Alabama, he could tell that his car’s Pennsylvania plates were attracting local suspicion and hostility.

Lord Patten at Oxford European
Reunion in Madrid

Next, Patten worked for John Lindsay’s campaign for Mayor of New York. He was assigned to follow challenger William Buckley. Although defeated, Buckley’s campaign found a foothold and has since been described as the cradle of Reagan’s campaign for President.

These experiences must have been valuable as Patten started work at the Conservative Party in London. Within a decade of graduation, he became the Party’s director of research. Patten left to run for office, was elected a Member of Parliament, and became Secretary of State for the Environment. He became Chairman of the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher and John Major and is credited with winning the fourth consecutive Conservative victory in 1992.

Lord Patten of Barnes,
Chancellor of Oxford University

He then became famously the last British Governor of Hong Kong, in 1992-1997, and then a European Commissioner. Besides being Chancellor of Oxford University since 2003, he has since 2011 also been Chairman of the BBC Trust. He has been married since 1971 to Lavender Thornton, who is here with us today.

Please give a warm welcome to Lord and Lady Patten.

Oxford men's crew pops the corks as it wins by the biggest margin since 1973.

Oxford Women’s Crew wins by 4 lengths - Oxford Men’s Crew by 11 Lengths, its biggest win since 1973.

The Guardian story.

Official BNY Mellon sponsor site gives equal billing to women’s race, which has for years been sponsored by the Newton division of BNY Mellon.

Video of Key Moment When Cambridge Lost It.

BBC Story (but no video in USA - bummer).

Please join Oxford & Cambridge alumni and friends at the

81^st Annual Dinner to kick off the 2014 North American

Alumni Weekend!

 

Thursday, April 10, 2014  

6:30 pm Cocktails for 7:30 pm Dinner

  

University Club of New York 

1 W 54th Street 
New York, NY

Dress code: Black tie or boat club blazer

"Like" the NYC Boat Race Dinner Facebook page 

Early Bird rates are available until February 14, 2014:

$150.00 Young Alumni (7 years out, matric 2007-2014) 

$200.00 Standard (matric before 2007)

  Regular rates starting February 15, 2014:
$175.00 Young Alumni (7 years out, matric 2007-2014)
$225.00 Standard  (matric before 2007)

Click here to register now.

More details and speakers to be announced soon. 

For college table sponsorships, see event registration.

Other Oxford-Cambridge Events in USA, 2014

March 29, 2014 - A Gathering of Cantabrigians, Cam Day NYC  

April 4, 2014 - Boat Race Dinner, Chicago IL

April 9, 2014 - Boat Race Party, at the Alta Club, Salt Lake City, UT

April 10, 2014 - Boat Race Dinner NYC, at the University Club, with special guests Dame Barbara Stocking, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge and Lord Patten of Barnes, Chancellor of Oxford University

April 13, 2014 - Boat Race Brunch at Jimmy O's in Del Mar, CA

April 16, 2014 - Cambridge in America's LIVE Book Club Meeting NYC, The Orphan Train

April 17, 2014 - Boat Race Dinner at the University Club, Denver, CO

April 22, 2014 - Boat Race Dinner, San Francisco, CA

Details here.  

For the Last Time, Oxford-Cambridge Women's Crew Rows One Week Earlier

The 7-km. Boat Race Course from Putney Bridge to
Mortlake, which will include women's races in 2015.

As reported in The New York Times this morning (first page of the sports section) and The BBC today, this weekend the Oxford-Cambridge women's crews will race for the last time in a different location from, and one week before, the men's crews.

The women's race has taken place annually, except for wartime, since 1927. The men's race started 98 years before.

This year a new silver chalice will be awarded to the winner of the women's race, in lieu of a wooden plaque to be consigned to the Boat Race Museum.

Starting in 2015 the women's boats will race before the men's on the traditional seven-kilometer course on the Tideway.

Credit for the equal status for the women's boat race is given to "an American investment bank" - i.e., BNY Mellon, which is the boat race sponsor for the current round of races. (Sponsorship of the Boat Race is negotiated through a complicated system that is sketched in a well-read previous post on this blog.)

For some years, Newton Investment Management -  a women-oriented wealth manager whose parent is BNY Mellon - has sponsored the Oxford-Cambridge women's boat race. Newton's chief executive, Helena Morrissey, has made it a personal goal to achieve parity between the men's and women's boats in the annual Oxford-Cambridge race on the Thames.

More news about the Boat Race is available on the official web site.

• Men's race.
• Women's race.

BOAT RACE: Dinners 2013

http://bit.ly/15w0aix .  www.theboatrace.org

Events North America

Sunday, March 31 – Day of the Boat Race

BRITISH COLUMBIA - Vancouver. THE SECOND ANNUAL BOAT RACE BREAKFAST (BRB). 8:30AM – NEW OXFORD PUB, 1144 Homer St.  The 2013 Boat Race starts at 4:30 PM GMT, 8:30 AM in Vancouver! "To have a chat while the rowing bores of the Beeb drone on about beefy Germans, Americans and Dutchmen cunningly weighed in stones rather than their native pounds or kilograms, as well as the odd Brit, be there by 8:00 A.M."

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Washington. 10:30 am-12:30 pm.  Elephant and Castle Pub, 900 19^th Street, NW. Cantab DC.

MAINE – Portland. – Bayside Bowl, 58 Alder Street, 11 am to 2 pm. The event will be pay as you go but reservations are required.  Please RSVP, Tracie Reed, traciejeanreed@gmail.com.

NEW YORK – NYC. Churchill English Tavern, 45 East 28th Street. 11 am – 3 pm. Reserve at http://boatracelive.eventbrite.com/

OREGON – Portland. Breakfast, Kells Irish Bar, 112 SW Second Avenue, 11 am to 2 pm. Warning that young children may get restless after an hour.  cgondek@heronandcrane.com

RHODE ISLAND, Providence. Spats Restaurant, 182 Angell Street. 10:30am to 2 pm. Gary McDowell,  gary.mcdowell@childrens.harvard.edu. 

Wednesday, April 3

COLORADO, Denver. University Club of Denver, 1673 Sherman Street. 6 pm for 7 pm. OxCam Denver.

Sunday, April 7

CALIFORNIA, San Diego.  Jimmy O’s, 225 15^th St., Del Mar.  Brunch and showing of the race. Free. 12 noon to 2 pm or later. Organized by Brian E. P. Beeston (Selwyn, Cambridge).

GEORGIA, Atlanta. 5-7 pm. Model Boat Race (battery operated) and cocktails. British Residence (Consulate). Marianne D’Souza  mdsouza@emory.edu

Tuesday, April 9

CALIFORNIA

SAN FRANCISCO DINNER -  78^th Annual.

University Club, 800 Powell Street. 5:30-8:30. Invitation: click here.

m.kaser@comcast.net

Thursday, April 11

NEW YORK DINNER - 80th Anniversary Gala. Oldest OxCam dinner in USA, longest-running uninterrupted annual OxCam alumni event in the world. 

Grace, Archbishop Peter Carnley (Emmanuel and St. John's, Cambridge)

Mr. Claude Prince (Kellogg, Oxford) will report on the 159th BNY Mellon Boat Race
Ms. Annie Vernon (Downing, Cambridge), Olympic silver 2008, will report on the Newton Women's Boat Race

Toast to the President, Dr. Julia Gog (Queens', Cambridge)

Toast to the Queen, Dr. John Tepper Marlin (Trinity, Oxford)

Toast to the Universities,  Ms. Elizabeth Young McNally (Worcester, Oxford)

Response from the Universities, Sir Ivor Roberts (Keble, Oxford), President, Trinity, Oxford

The dinner is sponsored by BNY Mellon.

Friday, April 12

CHICAGO DINNER - 74th Annual - 

Emcee Paul Svoboda (Queens' College, Cambridge)

Mr. Michael J. Dickenson (Christ's College, Cambridge) will report on the 159th Boat Race

Speakers Dr. Robin H. Walker (Queens' College, Cambridge)

Mr. Robert Chatterton Dickson (Magdalene, Cambridge), H.M. Consult General

Musical selections by the Chicago Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company
Dinner secretary-treasurer John H. Morrison, OBE (Univ., Oxford) - JohnMorrison@BoatRace.US

Thursday, April 18

WASHINGTON DINNER - 66th Annual 

Dinner chair George R. Keys (Balliol, Oxford), Curtin Law et al.

Emcee James Fallows (Queen's, Oxford), Atlantic. 

Toast to the Universities  by Katty Kay (Oxford), Lead anchor at BBC World News America

Response from the Universities by Gillian Tett (Clare, Cambridge), Financial Times

Saturday, April 27

VANCOUVER, B.C., DINNER - 83rd Annual – 6:30 P.M. AT THE GREAT HALL OF GREEN COLLEGE, UBC. Boat Race video. The person toasting the Universities this year will be Christopher Gaze, Artistic Director of Bard on the Beach, the “Modern Major General” in the Vancouver Opera’s recent production of the Pirates of Penzance and a well-known raconteur. There are high hopes for a most entertaining Toast. http://2013vocsboatracedinner.eventbrite.ca. 

Questions? Contact teppermarlin@aol.com.

NO INFORMATION ON EVENTS IN

ARIZONA
Phoenix - jonathan.rose@asu.edu -

DAKOTAS AND MINNESOTA
Joel Pace  pacejf@uwec.edu

LOUISIANA
Philip Kirk Jones, Jr. joski@liskow.com

MISSOURI
- Kansas City
Brandon Baeur bhunterb@gmail.com
- St. Louis
David Pollack missouri@ousoc.oson.org

MASSACHUSETTS
Neil Malcolm newengland@ousoc.oxon.org www.oxcamne.org

UTAH
Russell Fisher
utah.oxford@gmail.com

TENNESSEE
Nashville
Donald McKenzie dmckenzie@dmckenzielaw.com

VIRGINIA
Charlottesville n@hild.org

WASHINGTON
Michael Brunet brunetm@gmail.com