World News – GB – Boat Race TV program as event in Cambs

The famous rowing duel between Cambridge and Oxford is back, but not in its usual home

The Cambridge-Oxford boat race will return this year after being canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic – and it will take place in Cambridgeshire

In place of the glorious Thames in London, the Blue Boats will line the River Great Ouse among the vast, windswept moors of Ely

The change came due to strict social distancing requirements and repair work on Hammersmith Bridge and is said to be temporary – only for 2021

During the race usually more than 250000 people across the Thames, no spectators are allowed near the banks of the arrow-straight stretch of Great Ouse

But, like every year, the event will be televised so you can still put your feet up and watch the boys and girls give it their all on the troubled water

The boat race 2021 will be broadcast live on BBC One from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. April

This year the rowing competition is between Queen Adelaide Bridge, where the race begins, and the Sandhill Bridge in Littleport, which is just over three miles (89 km) instead of the usual 42 miles (68 km) / p>

Spectators are not allowed to gather on the banks and bridges, and footpaths are closed

However, this is not the first time the Great Ouse has hosted the boat race – not even the second time

It first happened in 1944, when World War II was still devastated worldwide. University teams unofficially sped along the Adelaide Straight in the opposite direction from where they are today. For the record, Oxford

The 1944 race was recreated 60 years later in 2004 by a group called Diamond 44

Cambridge colleague Charles Merivale and Harrow School and Oxford friend Charles Wordsworth decided to hold a competition in 1829. The invitation read: “The University of Cambridge hereby invites the University of Oxford to hold a match over the following Easter break row in or near London, each in a boat with eight oars “

Of course women were not allowed back then. The first women’s race in 1927 was greeted with “large and hostile crowds on the towpath” Worse still, it was a race where the two crews were not allowed onto the river at the same time – instead, they were judged on “time and style”

The event now consists of four races – two men and two women The Blue Boat races are the races for men and women between the top crews or “First Boats” from Oxford and Cambridge These are the televised

The other two races take place between the “reserve crews” or “second boats” The Oxford men’s reserve crew is called Isis, the Cambridge men’s gold crew, the Oxford women’s reserve crew is called Osiris, and the Cambridge women’s reserve crew is called Blondie

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Boat races 2021