Tideway, Putney to Mortlake, Tuesday 14th December 2004
Ali Oyston on the second Boat Race Trial Eights, this time the Dark Blues.
Today it was the turn of the Oxford University Boat Race squad to be tested on the Tideway in their Trial Eights fixture. The naming of the crews 'Cowboys' and 'Indians' suggested that we were about to witness a hard fought battle, but disappointingly, no such race ensued. The Cowboys were in control from the start and walked away from the Indians to cross the line nearly 5 lengths ahead.
With six returning Blues and a host of Internationals, Oxford fielded what on paper looked to be two very strong crews. The 'Indians' were stroked by Barney Williams, strokeman of the Canadian coxless four who nearly snatched Olympic gold from Pinsent and his crew, but today, Barney was denied victory by a different British Olympian, Andy Triggs Hodge, who led the Indians impressively from the stroke seat.
Both crews got off to an aggressive start, but the Cowboys seemed to cope better with the rough water and started pounding out a long and strong rhythm. Some onlookers thought that the bow of the Indians may have nudged ahead on the first few strokes; however this was contradicted by Oxford coach, Sean Bowden who watched from his launch alongside and later commented that the Cowboys were "moving on every stroke from the first". With one minute gone and both crews now settled down to 35 strokes a minute, the Cowboys had three quarters of a length advantage, which they opened up to a length by the Black Buoy. Coming up to Harrods, Williams pushed the rate up to 38 but gained nothing for his effort as the Cowboys maintained their lead still striking 34.5. As the crews passed under Hammersmith Bridge there was a 7 second gap between them. For a while the Indians appeared to be hanging on while both crews displayed some scrappy blade work in the rough water but coming down the Eyot the Cowboys settled back into their long powerful stroke and started to widen the gap again. They crossed the line an impressive 16 seconds ahead of the Indians, which contained the Oxford president and British Olympian, Robin Bourne-Taylor.
After the race, Bowden expressed disappointment that it was not closer and said he had been surprised by "how early and how emphatically" the Cowboys had taken the lead. The sentiment was echoed by Hodge who had expected to be jumped off the start by the "spunky" Indians crew. Interestingly however, Bowden did not seem surprised or concerned by the result, claiming that the fight back from the guys who have just been beaten will be a positive energy within the squad. He was confident that Oxford are on course for a Boat Race victory in March saying that "we feel we are ahead of the game", but acknowledged the strong performance put in by Cambridge yesterday. It seems that that the 2005 University Boat Race could be quite a battle!
Cowboys:
Bow Jake Sattlemair (Exeter) 2 Andrew Keats (Brasenose) 3 Andrew Brennan (Pembroke) 4 David Livingston* (Christ Church) 5 Chris Liwski (St.Catherine's) 6 Michael Blomquist (St.Peter's) 7 Henry Morris*+ (Magdalen) Str Andy Triggs Hodge (St.Catherines) Cox Acer Nethercott*+ (University)
Indians:
Bow Jamie Anderson (Keble) 2 Nick Thomas-Peter (Balliol) 3 Robin Esmond-Frej (Oriel) 4 Joseph Von Maltzahn (Kellogg) 5 Peter Reed* (Oriel) 6 Colin Smith* (St.Catherine's) 7 Robin Bourne-Taylor* (Christ Church) Str Barney Williams (Jesus) Cox Nick Brodie (St.Catherine's)
* denotes previous Blue
+ denotes previous Isis
Official verdict:
Cowboys beat Indians in a time of 16:57 by 4.5 lengths (16 seconds)