True love may conquer all, but not at this year’s Cambridge Trial Eights, where ‘One Night Stand’, a crew strengthened by three returning Blues, took a three length verdict ahead of their Light Blue counterparts, racing as ‘True Love’, over the 4 1/4 mile championship course.

On a cold and sunny London day racing conditions on the flood tide were perfect as umpire John Garratt dropped his red flag to get the two crews under way. True Love, drawn on the Surrey station, went off at 46 strokes a minute, giving them the early advantage ahead of One Night Stand, who went off at 41. Both crews dropped their rate to 38 past the Putney boathouses where True Love had almost a canvas lead but the early Middlesex bend began to swing in favour of the opposition.

As the crews approached Barn Elms at their race pace of 34 both were warned by the umpire as they began to drift perilously close, but True Love maintained the edge past the Mile where the time was 3 mins 56 secs. Both crews then hugged the Surrey shore all the way to Harrods where One Night Stand seized the initiative - their stroke Dave Billings raised the rate to 35 and they gradually began to claw back the deficit. But not until the crews were clear of Hammersmith and approaching St Paul’s boathouse did One Night Stand draw level, with their rate at 33 against True Love at 32.

Along Chiswick Eyot the margin had increased to half a length as Rebecca Dowbiggin, looking to earn herself an unprecedented second consecutive turn steering the Light Blue boat to victory in March, sat on the advantage. True Love narrowed the gap for a few strokes as the American cox Russ Glenn urged his men to close the gap, but One Night Stand had increased the lead to a full length at Barnes Bridge, where they were able to choose their own water for the final half mile, and True Love suffered in their wake. One Night Stand crossed the line in a time of 18 mins 58 secs with a winning margin of three lengths.

To see the crew line-up please visit: http://www.theboatrace.org/article/newsandmedia/latestnews/trial8screws