The Boat Race

[Zbigniev Hamson]

Does anyone actually give a stuff? I'd rather watch the annual cheese-rolling thing to be honest, if they hadn't banned it that is.

[Dirk Gently]

Yep, I watch it. If you'd rather watch something else then that's fine with me.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

I was asking for people's opinions, so thought it only fair I gave my own

If it's fine by you that I'd rather watch something else then I'd rather be fine with that... no that's not right...

[Dirk Gently]

I suppose it's a Geography thing. I've lived within the range of Oxford for most of my life & it's a historical thing in our family.

[stephenhannan]

It's a good one for those wishing to place bet

[WhiteCrow]

There's a girl at work who's seriously into her rowing - she used to be on team GB and used to go to Cambridge. It's fun to wind her up by asking if she's going canoeing this weekend.

For me though the boat race is an elitist persuit. But they I went to all the down-and-out Universities. Somehow our local sport of avoiding getting beaten up by locals isn't destined for TV sport fame.

[enzo1701]

Predictable reply alert!

I'm amazed that it's always these two teams that get through to the final!

[Milky Tears]

Rough conditions expected:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olym...ng/7318164.stm

Who will sink first?

[Captain Tancredi]

Given that 99% of the population didn't go to either Oxford or Cambridge and that rowing is in many ways an elitist minority sport par excellence, its credibility as a popular sporting event must be on shaky ground. Except that having a boat race on shaky ground is going to be tricky unless you stick your legs through the bottom and run like the Flintstones.

People aren't selected for University Challenge on their rowing ability, so I suspect that it has more to do with the number of Oxbridge graduates working at the BBC in former days. It's also probably the case that in the early days of outside broadcasting, it was one of the first events that could be broadcast live- not too far for the BBC's equipment to have to go, nothing moving too quickly and comparatively straightforward to cover from end to end, so the novelty of being able to see the race live would have brought it more prominence than it really deserves.

On the other hand, it did mark the beginning of Hugh Laurie's television career.

[Dirk Gently]

Good race today. Oxford won naturally & the Cambridge boat team didn't field a member that quit his course this year...so far anyway.