Blue Boat Trialists to race on same day

In a break with tradition dating back nearly 30 years, the two university squads due to contest the 2010 Xchanging Boat Race will hold their respective Trial Eights races today.

Since the early 1980s, the Trial Eights have been held on the Thames’ Tideway course on separate dates in December and at the time of the fastest Race tide.

But for the first time this year, two crews representing the Oxford and Cambridge ‘probables’ and ‘possibles’ will race from Putney to Mortlake within an hour-and-a-half of each other.

Having won the toss at a reception to mark the start of the Boat Race season, Oxford President Sjoerd Hamburger elected to take the second of the race times at 13:20, while Cambridge President Deaglan McEachern was not too concerned about racing at the earlier time of 12:05.

Further details about the 2010 race can be found on the official website