Six University Boat Clubs to take part in 60th Boat Race Anniversary Charity Challenge

In the 1950 Boat Race, Lord Snowdon, then Tony Armstrong-Jones coxed the Cambridge crew to victory over Oxford. This event will celebrate the 60th anniversary of that race and will raise funds for Lord Snowdon’s charity, The Snowdon Award Scheme which provides grants to students with a physical or sensory disability, to help them complete further or higher education or training.

Universities taking part are: Cambridge University, Imperial College, Oxford University, Oxford Brookes, Reading and University of London.

Each will provide a team of eight oarsmen. Half will be current students and half prestigious alumni. In view of the profile of the event and the highly competitive nature of the sport, each club is looking to provide the best possible team and a number of Olympic and World Champions have already volunteered to take part, including Tom James (Cambridge), Sir Matthew Pinsent, Andy Hodge, Jonny Searle (Oxford), Steve Trapmore (IC), Alex Partridge (Oxford Brookes) Dr Richard Budgett (UL).

Teams will have one rowing machine on which they will race as a relay team. The race will last for 20 minutes 15 seconds, which was Cambridge’s winning time in the 1950 race. A film of Lord Snowdon’s Boat Race will be shown on big screens alongside the digital read-outs of distances travelled by each competing team.

The race will be fun, noisy and highly competitive: a great spectacle. The winning team will be presented with a glass challenge trophy in the form of a rowing blade.

The rowing community at each university will help to raise sponsorship for their teams in advance of the event.

For further details visit the Snowdon Award Scheme website