2023 Boat Race Squads Tested in Trial Eights

A traditional part of the Oxford Vs. Cambridge Boat Race Season is the “Trial Eights” races. The coaches form matched eights from their squads and race them against each other over the full “Championship Course” from Putney to Mortlake in London, Great Britain. This year’s races took place in freezing conditions, with close and dramatic races across the board.

The week before the races, the ‘President’s Challenge’ was held where the President of the losing Club in the previous race formally challenges the President of the winning Club to an ‘eight oared race’ the following Spring. Cambridge won the 2022 Women’s Boat Race and Oxford won the Men’s race.

For the Trial Eights, the squads each select names for their crews, often drawing on key moments of history, or something meaningful to the squads and sometimes providing entertainment for the Umpire following their races. While the squads for the 2022 Boat Races were boosted by a post-Olympic year break for many athletes, in contrast, the squads preparing for the 2023 Boat Races contain many rowers who have worked their way through the collegiate systems within the respective universities.

Oxford’s Women’s Squad was the first to race, with their crews named after female figures of Greek mythology; Artemis and Athena. The Oxford women’s squad this year is all fairly new to the Boat Race programme, with the Trial Eights crews featuring no returners from last year’s ‘Blue Boat’ and four returners from last year’s reserve crew including this season’s President, Sara Helin. Athena had established a clear-water lead by Hammersmith Bridge, and continued to row away in dominant fashion, winning by several lengths.

The Oxford men were next to take to the water. Their winning Blue Boat from earlier this year was stacked full of Olympians and Internationals, but none of them featured in this year’s trial eights crews. There were three returning rowers from their reserve crew, including cox Louis Corrigan, and this season’s President, Tassilo von Mueller. The crews were named ‘Beetle’ and ‘Wedge’ after a landmark restaurant on the River Thames in Oxford. The Oxford men’s trial eight was tense throughout and, as the crews rowed away from Hammersmith Bridge, there were several blade clashes, eventually causing bowman of ‘Wedge’, Andrew Wakefield, to lose his blade. This allowed Beetle to row away and win by a fair margin.

The next day, the Cambridge crews took to the water for their races with snow having fallen across much of London overnight. Similar to Oxford, the Cambridge women’s crews also had four returners from their 2022 reserve crew, but they also have this season’s President, Caoimhe Dempsey, who already has two boat race wins to her name and will be looking for a third in March 2023. Jasper Parish, who coxed Cambridge’s women to victory earlier this year has moved to the men’s programme for the 2023 Boat Race season. The race was the most fiercely contested of the trial eights and saw a clash that caused the race to be stopped. The race got underway again but remained close all the way to the line where “Rapinoe” claimed a 6-inch verdict over “Mead”. The crews had been named after Megan Rapinoe and Beth Mead, footballers and huge advocates for women’s sport.

The last of the four races was the Cambridge men. This squad has the most returners from previous crews with two of last year’s Blue Boat returning and five of last year’s reserve crew including cox Ollie Boyne, who is this season’s President. The crews hoped to answer the age-old question with their crew names which were ‘Youth’ and ‘Experience’. The two crews were very evenly matched and neither crew ever managed to gain a substantial lead. Whilst the margin wasn’t quite as close as in the women’s race, Youth, who had narrowly led for all of the race, got the better of Experience by about 1/3 length. The crews came together past the finish line to shake hands and will now reform as one squad to work towards the 2023 Boat Race.

After the Holiday break, the squads will return to London in the weeks leading up to the Boat Race to contest “fixtures” against various opponents invited by the Oxford and Cambridge coaches. The fixtures, which are generally shorter pieces on sections of the Boat Race course, will be an opportunity to test various line-ups in the run-up to the Boat Race. Crews expected to take part in fixtures in 2023 include Molesey, University of London, Leander and Oxford Brookes.

The 2023 Boat Races places will take place on Sunday 26^th March with the Women’s Boat Race at 16:00 BST and the Men’s Boat Race at 17:00 BST.