One Foot in the Wave: The 2003 Boat Race

Tim Koch of heartheboatsing.com goes back twenty years to a Boat Race where the drama of the run-up was only exceeded by the excitement of the race itself.

^{Words: Tim Koch / Photos: Tom Hevezi + Chris Young}

Considering that it is a nearly 200-year old “private contest” between two institutions inaccessible to most of us and involving a minority sport, the Oxford/Cambridge Boat Race still generates remarkable appeal. Every year, millions urge on some ridiculously fit and highly intelligent young people as they lay down the unflinching 600-strokes that each needs to produce to cover the four-and-a-quarter miles between Putney and Mortlake in the original “extreme sport”.

Of those watching in person or via the BBC broadcast, very few would call themselves avid followers of the sport of rowing. The vast majority are engaged simply because it is THE Boat Race, an eccentric British national institution that appeals to many who have no connection with Oxbridge or with oars. But, despite their loyalty to the annual Battle of the Blues, the last thing most once-a-year rowing fans want is “a nice clean race”.

In the weeks before the big day, a “mutiny” by some damned Yankees or an inspiring “human interest” backstory by one of the crew would arouse far greater interest than tepid reports from inscrutable coaches informing the outside world that “training is going well”.

During the contest itself, rough water, a clashing of oars, an increasingly irate umpire and, ideally, a sinking or two would be scenarios that most of the sport’s floating voters would hope for.

One of the few men’s Boat Races in recent history that satisfied both those who wanted a fair test of sporting skill and those who wanted an aquatic soap opera was that of 2003.

“Four-and-a-bit miles of eyeball-to-eyeball rowing, most of it with the blades of the two crews interlocked like the fingers of a man at prayer.”

Cambridge went into the 2003 race as challengers but also as favourites, not least because they were 7.25kg per man heavier and had the 100kg German international, Tim Wooge, in the stroke seat. Such a great weight advantage had never before been overcome in the Boat Race, the closest being Oxford winning in 1989 when nearly 5kg per man lighter. The Dark Blues, however, may have been buoyed by the fact that in the previous year’s race they had overturned recent history by becoming the first crew in 50 years to come from behind at Barnes Bridge to win (albeit aided by an asthma attack in the Cambridge boat). Further, Matt Smith, the stroke that led the remarkable 2002 victory, was back in his old seat.

Initially, the “human interest” angle came from the fact that two brothers would be racing each other, James Livingston for Cambridge and David Livingston for Oxford. The last time this had happened was in 1900.

The real drama began on the Friday before the Sunday race when Cambridge collided head-on with a 15-tonne harbour master’s launch during a practice start resulting in broken oars, bent riggers and a bowman with a sprained wrist. “For a couple of seconds I thought I was going to die,” said number seven, James Livingston. The injured bow, Wayne Pommen, was replaced by Ben Smith, the brother of Oxford’s Matt Smith, resulting in a first, two sets of brothers on opposing sides (further, all four had attended Hampton School). It resulted in many media stories titled, “The Blues Brothers”.

Two days before the 2003 Boat Race, The Times published an interview with the umpire, Boris Rankov, who suggested that public interest in the race remained high, not because it was about rowing or Oxbridge, but because of the event’s charm, a result not only of its history but also of its unpredictably.

As if to support Rankov’s view, the 149th contest between the men’s Blue Boats turned out to be both history and unpredictably personified. Despite starting with Cambridge as 4-6 favourites, a race that had produced wins averaging over three lengths for the previous ten years saw the lead exchanged three times and the closest result since the dead heat of 1877 in a battle between two crews that would not give up.

With Cambridge on Surrey and Oxford on Middlesex, the crews were level after a minute but by the first timing point, the Mile Post, Oxford were one-second ahead. A series of near clashes followed along Fulham Reach with Cambridge drawing level approaching Harrods and taking the lead by one-second at Hammersmith Bridge and maintaining this to Chiswick Steps.

As the course curved back in their favour approaching Barnes Bridge, Oxford retook the lead, ahead by two-seconds. In the final stretch, Oxford began to weaken and Cambridge took the stroke rate up to a potentially ruinous 44 strokes-per-minute around the outside of the bend.

The crews crossed the line together in a remarkable sprint finish, both recording 18 minutes 6 seconds.

After a short pause, the finish judge confidently called the race for Oxford by one-foot, a result ridiculously close to the dead heat that the parents of the two opposing pairs of brothers must have wanted. James Livingston later calculated that one foot was a 0.0043 percent difference between the boats after 6.8 kilometres.

Writing in The Times, Simon Barnes called the race “four-anda-bit miles of eyeball-to-eyeball rowing, most of it with the blades of the two crews interlocked like the fingers of a man at prayer… It was an astonishing finish to any race, doubly astonishing in a race of such extreme distance; trebly astonishing in a race traditionally regarded as a procession”.

The Boat Race had (and has) its detractors but Barnes observed that, “great drama sucks you in and makes you care even if you have no intention of doing so”. Anyone in doubt about this can relive the race via YouTube.

At Mortlake, the Boat Race trophy was presented by five-time Olympic gold medallist, Steve Redgrave, who was, according to The Guardian, “so breathlessly excited that the immediate assumption was that he had been taking part”. Redgrave declared that the race “will be the greatest we will see in any of our lifetimes”. Whether a fan of boat racing or of boat sinking, few would disagree.