The Boat Race

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The Boat Race Every country has got its own strange historic sport or race such as the Palio in Sienna, Italy, or the Pamplona Bull Run in Spain, but the Boat Race in London is one of the most extraordinary to understand. It is simply a race between two boats, one from Oxford University and one from Cambridge University. 2004 is special because it’s the year of the 150th Boat Race. VOCABULARY CHECK LIST History coxswain – the person who steers* the What is it in boat). The oarsmen are big and strong your language? The first race was in 1829 in Henley, a but the cox is always a very small Find out! small town on the Thames. 20,000 person. Every crew* member has to people watched it and now Henley is luxurious train for two hours for each stroke famous for its annual regatta – a series (one movement of the oar) – that’s of boat races in July each year. People crowded 1,200 hours! That’s a lot of training! come dressed in fashionable clothes and have expensive, luxurious* picnics The Race takes place at Easter time, approximately on the River during the races. After the and the water in the River Thames first year, the Boat Race moved to between Putney and Mortlake is very to steer Westminster, but by 1845 when tidal*. The streams of water move very Westminster became too crowded*, the fast when the tide is coming up the Race moved six miles (9.65 km) up the Thames. The weather, the tide, and the crew River Thames to Putney which was only bends in the River mean that the a village in those days but it’s a difficult parts of the River are exposed* tidal fashionable suburb of London now. to winds from different directions and this adds mystery to the unpredictable* Facts conditions. exposed The two long boats measure 19.9 metres and they are very light – they The Spectators unpredictable only weigh 96 kg. The race lasts for 400 million people in the world watch 6.8 km. It takes approximately* 600 the Boat Race on TV, and 7.7 million live (adj) strokes (a movement of the oars of the people in Britain watch it. The Boat boat) to row the course. There are Race is in the top five live* TV sports eight oarsmen (people who row the events on British TV. boat) in each boat and a cox (short for www.theboatrace.org

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Boat Race Statistics Like all famous sports, there are lots of statistics connected with it. Fill in the missing words in these sentences and then find them in the word search grid. Draw red lines through them all when you find them. The extra words in the grid (not coloured red) spell the name of the oldest person to take part in the Boat Race, and they also tell you what happened in 1912.

1 The ...... fastest time for the Boat Race is 16 minutes, 19 seconds. FASTESTLT Cambridge did this in 1998. EANSDSS I S 2 Christopher Hibbert was the ...... oarsman to row in MY P E EREGE the Boat Race. He weighed 110.22 kg. AOB L E RGH I 3 Alfred Higgins was the ...... oarsman to row in the Boat Race. He weighed 60.1kg. LTLL NTV He took part in 1882. But there were two tiny coxes who took part in 1862 EASAANUEA and 1939. Francis Archer (Cambridge) and Hart Massey (Oxford) both TNAMOWOSE weighed just 32.66 kg. FIRSTKYTH 4 Matthew Brittin (Cambridge) was the ...... person to take part in the Boat Race. He was just eighteen years old in 1987.

5 The ...... winning margin (the distance between the two boats at the finish) was just 0.3048m. This was in 2003. It was a very exciting race!

6 The ...... oarsman rowed for Cambridge. He took part four times in the Boat Race: in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002. He measured 2m 7cm.

7 In 1981, Sue Brown (Oxford) was the first ...... to take part in the Boat Race.

8 The ...... twins rowed The oldest person to take part in the Boat Race was in the Boat Race in 1982. . He was the Cambridge cox in 1992 when he was 38 years old. 9 In 1989, both Oxford and Cambridge had ...... coxes. In 1912, the two boats .