BY ALEX STORY “Whose you for?”, asked the rotund lass with a swarm of multi-hued father-less children running around the front porch. “Cambridge”, I replied. “Tough luck, chuck. I’m Oxford”. The colours had a lot to do with it, I discovered, and the fact that the Boat Race, like the Old Queen, had always been around. The lady and her children watched it every year, … Continue reading Ignorant Self-Righteousness
BY ALEX STORY In a world governed by officials that demand constant change, it is reassuring to know that some things never do. The Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge is some such. On April 13th, for the 170th time, since Charles Wordsworth of Oxford and Charles Merivale of Cambridge started the challenge, two crews of eight men “good and true” (and a cox) from … Continue reading The Reassurance of the Never Changing
BY ALEX STORY As winter gives way to spring and days lengthen heralding a longed-for summer, the eighteen men of Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Club can now rest their limbs having met yesterday on the Tideway, the 4.25 mile stretch of the Thames that runs through London from Putney to Chiswick Bridge. The first race, in 1829, took place 14 years after the end … Continue reading A British Institution
