[Closed] boat race

They should do it in swan pedaloes.

I always want Cambridge to win, no idea why?!?
it's a bit dull though isn't it?

and this is ridiculous.

Cambridge all the way!

I've heard they've got KERS fitted to their boat 😉

It is incredible how the BBC are trying to make the build up dramatic! The prog started 75 mins before the race!

It's just a good excuse to mess about in pubs by the river really 🙂

Is it just me...or do others think 'Cambridge blue' looks more like green?

Fantastic event spoilt by the BBC wanting to fill a few hours of tv on the cheap

the cambridge bianchi wellies are pushing me towards Oxford

Wellies and short shorts is not a good luck 😀

it doesn't kick off for another 45 mins, jeez!
I'm going to the pub...

It's just a good excuse to mess about in pubs by the river really

Nothing wrong with that!

I went to uni in London, who do I go for?

My oh my...excitment...a WHITE boat ! 😯

Who ever you like 'safety.

Oh I don't know, do I?

Isn't there some sort of etiquette for support depending on what uni you went to other than those two? No?

D'you think there'll be any fighting in the pubs between rival fayns?

nah, it's all very friendly rivalry

Which of the cox do you fancy the most?

Oh no...would you really want a shouty ickle girl as your SO...doesn't do it for me

400,000 at the cuts march, 250,000 watching the boat race!

oh sorry, did I put cox, I meant co***
😈

finally

And they're off!

Bored now.

not going to plan there

Cambridge have looked short and slow right from the start. Surprised that Oxford aren't trying to horizon them now though.

Wish I'd had a few quid on the Dark Blues!

That Oxford 5 might have just won but he needs a decent haircut and some basic lesson in rowing technique 😉

Says Clubber what can never hope to be anywhere near as good as him! 😆

He says you need some hair, and some basic lessons in riding a bike....

Actually I chose my words quite carefully... Don't assume too much my little wordy friend 😉

Mind you, he'd be right about the bike bit 😉

Yeah but he's a better rower than you, and he's on the telly, and you're not so ner.

He'll be living it up with his mates, and probbly some young ladies by the looks of things, whilst you'll just be sobbing into your warm beer sat all on your own once more. And don't say you won't because you will.

Will there be any post-race violence then?

ok, elfy but don't confuse your life with mine 😉

I'm not, Clubber. I'm commenting on your reality. And you know I'm right, too.

Don't be too sad though. At least you won't risk getting your face smashed in with a glass, if you stay at home.

See? Every cloud...

I really wanted Balding to shout 'Ha! Loooosers!' at the Cambridge crew.

I wooduv [i]laughed[/i].

Like I said 🙂

And I don't like warm beer 😯

Yay! Stereotypical toffs on interview. I thought they'd have been at the riots 😉

Interview of toffs, ermmm well at least people like that won't grow up to run the country.......

Indeed they'll all be bankers. Pays even better.

I went once about 15 years ago. There was some filthy posh totty in the pubs; a very enjoyable day out.

No I'm sure a couple of them were studying medicine or something so you never know they might end up as GPs working in some deprived inner city area and being a real asset to society.

My GP is absolutely lovely, has quite a 'posh' accent, yet works tirelessly for the good of all her patients, as well as being involved in research and stuff around women's health issues and health issues in ethnic minority communities and supported an anti-fascism demonstration and everything, so don't judge a book by it's cover.

If they do turn out to be bankers, then torture and kill them.

lordy 'safety, for someone that doesn't cheer for either crew you've got a bit worked up mate.

I remember being all inverted-snob about it too. Then I grew up...

Maybe it was over-confidence from the Cambridge crew who were nailed on favourites, but I couldn't quite believe how Oxford slowly destroyed them.

And good on Oxford - an almost exclusively GBR crew and a fresher cox. Fair dues. Their stroke was a picture of emotionless focus for the whole race. No matter how Cambridge upped their rating, Oxford kept stretching the lead - this must have been so demoralising for the Cambridge crew.

As someone said above, total elation for the winners and utter despair for the losers - you really feel for the Cambridge crew as you watch them take the last stroke and see eight heads going down. Then the first to congratulate the winners are the losers.

Middle-class sport - yeah, probably - but honourable, honest, a pure contest of skill and physical ability without the handbags and cheating of more popular sports - certainly.

And I honestly can't believe someone is criticising a member of the winning crew for his technique - a few too many shandies perhaps? 😉

Have to agree with darcy....unfortunately. Mr 'rowing' has been restricted to my Erg since I left college, but the technique looked pretty good to me

Spent the day selling programmes on behalf of my son's school. Good day out. Very broad range of people, plus an excuse for LOTS of drinking. I was surprised Oxford hung on... But then I rowed lightweight for a REAL University club#

#Imperial, of course!

Middle-class sport - yeah, probably - but honourable, honest, a pure contest of skill and physical ability without the handbags and cheating of more popular sports - certainly.

'With' doesn't mean he's 'as good as' or even 'anywhere close'.

I've had a spliff with a member of a very well known Hip-Hop group.

Doesn't make me a Gangster Wrapper.

A to the K....

'With' doesn't mean he's 'as good as' or even 'anywhere close'.

Actually, I've also played footy with a former Chelsea player. Doesn't make me John Terry.

Although, actually, the other people's women bit, erm.... 😳

Darcy knows all about that one.

Don't you Darcy? 😐

As a centuries old grudge match, it doesn't make for the TV spectacle the BBC want it to be.

Nonetheless, I'm pleased with the way Oxford destroyed the minty blues. They'll spend a long time wondering what went wrong. Overconfidence and complacency?

And still, I wish they'd show more of the Isis/Goldie race 😐

I wouldn't say middle class, more educated class

No, course you wouldn't. That would mean you couldn't stick your particular oar in.

Ear we go... 🙂

That would mean you couldn't stick your particular oar in.

clubber knows more about rowing than me then. But then lots of people do.

The boat race and all that surrounds it is vile. A celebration of all things toff and public school. Horrible.

And we, the proletariat, are expected to be so impressed by the upper class twits moving a boat up a river. No thanks. It won't be long before this isn't carried by the BBC and it'll die the death it should have done years ago.

I'm not a rower - never have been, despite going to a rowing school and the university which won today. But I do have mates who row who are very very far away from you idea of toff, [b]loddrik[/b] and who have never been near a public school or university, and who would laugh at your silly early 1980's class warrior stand.

The boat race bores me rigid. But despite being only 7% of the kids in the UK, ex-public school kids will make up 33% of the GB 2012 Olympic team. If you want to look at the proportions in the last olympics who won medals it is higher still. So you better avoid the TV in 2012.

I'm not saying it is a perfect world, and my kids go to state schools. But such chippy rhetoric is pointless.

hear 'kin hear loddrik.

why is this event remotely relevant ? Is it because of it's antiquity ? If so, I'm sure that there's some bowls match in lancashire to rival it but who fives a flyer about that.

this is the last of the old scool ties' hegemony over the sporting cultural heritage in this country. another 10 years and it will hopefully disappear.

another 10 years and it will hopefully disappear

Yeah, and hopefully we'll end up a nicely homogeneous society of dullards with few (if any) differences to separate us.

aint got a problem with posh blokes rowing. doesn't do no harm. keep rowing. forever! don't stop!

Yeah, and hopefully we'll end up a nicely homogeneous society of dullards with few (if any) differences to separate us.

Plenty of diversity to define us - which is why we don't need any more of these over represented oxbridge types, i'm sure you'll agree.

too right, I feel like a freak on a 110mm xc hardtail these days

which is why we don't need any more of these over represented oxbridge types, i'm sure you'll agree

Aye, and no more foreigners either! Keep them filthy poor bastards out, got plenty of them here already! I'm sure you'll agree.

Heh!

Well, I enjoyed it, so that's all that matters really.

And I have rowed myself, believe it or not. And, Trailmonkey and Loddrik, get this:

I've actually bin to a public school, right on the Thames, right on the boat race route.

How about that then, eh? You weren't expecting that, were you?

And, check dis out right; I grew up on a Council Estate!!!!!!!

Oh the Humanity.

Won't someone think of the children's faces being ripped off by rabid pitbulls???

Yeah, it's a bit of a 'posh' sport, and yeah, it does seem that the boat race is over-represented by posh types, and yeah, many of them probbly do come from a privileged background. Yeah, society could do with less social and class barriers. Etc Etc etc.

But do you think your blinkered prejudice is helping matters much?

And this, coming from [i]me[/i].

Someone mistook me for a Communist tonight. And here I am defending the Toffs. 😀

Isn't life wonderful?

Sport is sport. Live and let people enjoy. FFS, the boat race is on once a year. How much other rowing stuff do the Beeb show? Compared to say, Footy or Rugby? Hmm? So what, we're only allowed to have working class sports on't telly? Don't hear you moaning about the F1 or the cycling what was also on telly this afternoon.

Do you even know any posh people? See, it's easy to slag off cultures and customs you know nowt about. What's wrong with a few lads rowing a boat up the River? Would you be so vehement in your objection, if it were a load of butchers from Barnsley, or some postmen from Preston?

No, you wouldn't. So shut up.

I feel like a freak on a 110mm xc hardtail these days

You disgusting pervert. People like you make me [i]sick[/i].

I've actually bin to a public school, right on the Thames, right on the boat race route.

How about that then, eh? You weren't expecting that, were you?

Well TBH elfin, yeah, that's pretty much what i expected but i encourage diversity and i embrace you all the same. In fact why bring it up, it's not a problem is it ?

What's this got to do with Oxbridge hegemony over the national cultural heritage ?

loddrik - Member

The boat race and all that surrounds it is vile. A celebration of all things toff and public school. Horrible.

And we, the proletariat, are expected to be so impressed by the upper class twits moving a boat up a river. No thanks. It won't be long before this isn't carried by the BBC and it'll die the death it should have done years ago.

That is so uninformed that it MUST be a troll. Engage brain before hitting keyboard. You try to come across all intelligent and a bit of a snob in the actors thread, then come onto this one with this tripe........ Nver was 🙄 more appropriate.

Hey guess what, people are different, so because I have less mainstream tastes with regards film, that should dictate my views on other matters...?

And as for having gone to public school but still 'keeping it real' by having grown up on a council estate, that's one of the corniest things I've heard. Though I'm sure it's great to have a foot in both camps eh...? Just shows you are unlikely to lose touch with the rest of us.

There is an unpleasant whiff of establishment about the boat race, I also sense it in rugby, where an ex public school boy can gouge someone's eye and it's all in the spirit of a game, yet if a (typically poorly educated) footballer lashes out, we have 2 weeks plus of introspection and accusation.

Have I met toffs? Being from a socialist leaning background in Liverpool, never up here. But having lived and worked in Guildford, I came across a great many through my work, not my type of people it has to be said. And my far left wing views were at odds with just about everybody in the office, though it made for lively debate. Hearing the views of a 22 year old public scool boy who was 'true blue to the core' was both an eye opener and pretty scary if I'm honest...

People don't like my views, I don't like toffs, but the world keeps turning..

And as for having gone to public school but still 'keeping it real' by having grown up on a council estate, that's one of the corniest things I've heard. Though I'm sure it's great to have a foot in both camps eh...?

Just means that I might, just might, have a more informed and balanced opinion than you, that's all. Cos you do come across on here as pretty narrow-minded about some things. As you are demonstrating here. So you think it's ok, therefore, for 'toffs' to hate 'oiks'then? Do you not see a problem with such a divisive attitude? Do you not consider yourself somewhat bigoted in this regard?

I don't like toffs

Irrational and unfounded bigotry. Why not try evaluating people as individuals instead, as opposed to unfairly judging all those whose culture and customs you actually have very little knowledge of? You might have a happier life.

Irrational and unfounded bigotry. Why not try evaluating people as individuals instead, as opposed to unfairly judging all those whose culture and customs you actually have very little knowledge of? You might have a happier life.

OK, so I go away for a week, but what the blinking flip is this madness? Where is Fred and what have you done with him? 😉

Good points, mind you...! 🙂

Our members include people of all ages, from all walks of life, which helps us to maintain a relaxed, unpretentious atmosphere.

Irrational and unfounded bigotry. Why not try evaluating people as individuals instead, as opposed to unfairly judging all those whose culture and customs you actually have very little knowledge of? You might have a happier life.

Those are your standards, not mine. I'm quite happy with my views, and if my narrow mindedness allows people like yourself to feel morally superior, I can live with that.

You alright Flashy? Enjoy yer holiday?

I am opposed to divisions between people within a society, on economic, racial, gender/sexuality and cultural grounds. Stuff like religion, music and that, well it's good that diversity on such grounds exists, as it keeps things interesting.

But deliberately hating an entire group just because of some percieved (yet not necessarily real) differences is just ignorant and blinkered.

Look at Flashy an me; ideologically opposed on a range of issues, yet still two individuals with an appreciation of stuff like art, architecture, bikes and most importantly, beer. May we wouldn't get on in 'real life', maybe we would. And maybe we might have a heated debate on here about something. But as long as there remains a modicum of mutual respect, then all's well. The moment you add hate to that equation, things just go wrong.

It's understandable to harbour resentment, and sometimes, it's understandable and even justifiable. But you should always seek to remove hate from your consideration of others.

Boat Race might be a 'Toff's' sport, establishment blah blah blah, but folk enjoy it, and it makes them happy. Everyone deserves a bit of happiness once in a while.

Are you just angry that they're happy? Is that the issue?

Don Simon, I might just give that one a miss thanks. I'll do my class warrior thing alone, they'd just irritate the he'll out of me...

I'm quite happy with my views, and if my narrow mindedness allows people like yourself to feel morally superior, I can live with that.

Don Simon, I might just give that one a miss thanks. I'll do my class warrior thing alone, they'd just irritate the he'll out of me...

Hate is fair enough in my book, as long as it does not manifest in a way which is harmful or detrimental to anyone else, then there is no issue. I'm quite certain no one I'd class as a toff would be in the slightest bit bothered should they be aware of my views. On the contrary, they'd probably feel that they were wholly superior to the bigoted scouser. It's taken my 38 years to develop my world view, it's pretty fair to say I'm quite comfortable with the way I see things, other people on the other hand...

Don Simon, so if someone's views differ from your own, that classes them as a troll...? That's a little weak really...

And at no point did I say 'all rowers are toffs', I'm sure you'll agree...?

From bow seat in my eight today:

Software Engineer
German Student Voluntary Care Worker
Software Engineer
Unemployed
(not sure, just out of college)
Primary School Teacher
Aerospace Engineer
Project Manager for a Builder

And a tradesman in the cox seat.

Toffs the lot of us.

Wow, what a knockout blow landed there, that'll show me...

FFS please refer to my above post, or at least pay attention.

And at no point did I say 'all rowers are toffs', I'm sure you'll agree...?

loddrik - Member

The boat race and all that surrounds it is vile. A celebration of all things toff and public school. Horrible.

Don Simon, so if someone's views differ from your own, that classes them as a troll...?

Those are your standards, not mine. I'm quite happy with my views, [b]and if my narrow mindedness [/b]allows people like yourself to feel morally superior, I can live with that.

Most of what you posted above doesn't make any sense.. 😕

The only people 'celebrating my bigotry' is....

I just accept it.

[Hijack]

Awsome, thanks, Elf! I was skiing in blistering sunshine all week!

Oh dear, skiing? What was I thinking? That must make me a bigoted toff.... 😉

Just to let you all know that my wife is thoroughly on your side on this as she has just seen the thread.

But what would she know anyway...

[Hijack]
Awsome, thanks, Elf! I was skiing in blistering sunshine all week!
Oh dear, skiing? What was I thinking? That must make me a bigoted toff....

You see that isn't remotely relevant and definitely a crap attemp at humour.. 😐