The Women's Boat Race is an annual rowing race between Cambridge University Women's Boat Club and Oxford University Women's Boat Club.
First rowed in 1927, the race has taken place annually since 1964. Since the 2015 race it has been rowed on the same day and course as the men's Boat Race on the River Thames in London, taking place around Easter, and since 2018 the name The Boat Race has been applied to the combined event. The race is rowed in eights and the cox can be of any gender.
The course covers a 6.8 km stretch of the Thames in West London, from Putney to Mortlake. Members of both crews are traditionally known as blues and each boat as a Blue Boat, with Cambridge in light blue and Oxford dark blue.
As of 2021 Cambridge have won the race 45 times and Oxford 30 times. Cambridge has led Oxford in cumulative wins since 1966. The women's race has received television coverage and grown in popularity since 2015, attracting a television audience of 4.8 million viewers that year. The 2019 race was won by Cambridge by five lengths.
The first women's rowing event between Oxford and Cambridge was held on 15 March 1927 on The Isis in Oxford. This was not solely a race in the years up to 1935, the two boats were not on the river together and were judged on both their speed and their steadiness, finish, rhythm and other matters of style.
More information: The Boat Race
The Times reported that large and hostile crowds gathered on the towpath and The New York Times stated a crowd of fully five thousand persons was on hand as a willing cheering section. The race covered a distance of approximately 0.80 km over which the crews were judged on their style while rowing downstream and their speed while rowing back upstream.
Reports differ as to the judges' opinions on style: one suggests they failed to agree on a winner, another indicates that they deemed the style of each crew to be equal. As a result, the judges based their decision on speed: the race was won by Oxford in a time of 3 minutes 36 seconds, beating Cambridge by 15 seconds.
The next event in 1929 took place on the Tideway in London. At the 1935 race, after two intervening events, the crews took to the river together for the first time. Racing on the Thames in London Oxford's boat was sent off first with the Cambridge boat following thirty seconds later.
The 1936 race, held on The Isis, was the first to take place side by side. Later, the location alternated between the River Cam in Cambridge and The Isis, over a distance of about 1,000 yards. Unlike the men's race, the women's continued in most years through the Second World War.
More information: Cambridge University Boat Club
The Cambridge University Women's Boat Club was founded in 1941 when Girton College became the second women's college to cater for rowing.
Until that year Cambridge was represented by Newnham College Boat Club. The first blues were awarded in 1941 when CUWBC raced against Oxford University Women's Boat Club, which had been founded in 1926.
All of the Cambridge rowers in 1941 were members of Newnham College. The following year the first non-Newnham rower competed.
In training after the 1952 race, Oxford rowed over a weir and was banned from the river. Both OUWBC and later CUWBC suffered from lack of funds and the race fell into abeyance. After a 12-year gap, the race restarted in 1964 and has been held annually since.
The number of women rowers increased as more colleges started to admit women and reserve boats from each university began racing in 1966, the year after the men's reserve boats began racing.
A second reserve race was run in 1968, and the reserves have raced annually since 1975. The women's reserve boats were later named Osiris (Oxford) and Blondie (Cambridge).
The race has been won 45 times by Cambridge and 30 times by Oxford, with Cambridge leading Oxford in cumulative wins since 1966. The reserves race has been won 28 times by Cambridge and 20 times by Oxford, with Cambridge leading in cumulative wins since the inception of the race.
More information: Oxford University Boat Club
what you need to do for yourself.
We cannot afford to be separate.
We have to see that all of us are in the same boat.
Dorothy Height
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