First Cambridge whitewash since 1997 a reward for major rebuild
A whitewash of four triumphs for Cambridge at the Boat Race was reward for a painstaking, eight-year rebuilding programme.
Coaches Steve Trapmore and Rob Baker, who led the men and women respectively to victory on the Thames Tideway on Saturday, had spent the best part of a decade overhauling what at times had been a floundering Light Blues system.
The chief aim was to create a more democratic set-up in which the men, women and lightweights worked alongside one another in a way that they had never previously done, which included sharing a new £5million boathouse.
“We do a lot of stuff together now, the women, the boys and the lightweights,” said Trapmore.
Opened in December 2016, the new headquarters at Ely replaced meagre borrowed facilities and was crucial to the reversal in fortunes. The Light Blues had lost more often than not in the past two decades and their whitewash on Saturday was Cambridge’s first in 21 years.
“We go on camps together, run pieces together, speed orders, the whole thing,” said Trapmore. “It means we can put everybody under pressure internally. I think it’s a really big strength of the combined system of rowing at Cambridge.”
The races were the least eventful of recent years, crew after crew in Cambridge colours sliding steadily past their opposition for a combined 21.5-length victory over four contests. Cambridge men’s cox Hugo Ramambason even had time to listen to the roaring crowd as his crew rowed to the line. His female counterpart, Sophie Shapter, was able to relax as Oxford tried in vain to close what became a sevenlength verdict in the women’s race.
Whether Cambridge will find it easy to continue their success remains to be seen. Many of Baker’s oarswomen are graduating this summer, while Trapmore is coming to the end of an eight-year tenure with the men and his replacement has not been announced.
Despite this year’s problems, the Dark Blues are not in the doldrums. Men’s coach Sean Bowden was philosophical. “They were just bigger, stronger, rowing well,” he said of Cambridge. “We lost our three strongest guys this winter, though even still the odds were against us and Cambridge did a super job.”