Cambridge’s David Billings is looking forward to bidding to help Goldie stretch their winning sequence to three in the reserve race, which precedes Saturday’s Boat Race – sponsored by Xchanging.

Billings, from Chester, said training with the Blue Boat helps the reserve crew’s performance.

“We do a lot of stuff competing with them and we do raise our game to do that,” he said. “We’re pretty closely matched in our pieces. It causes us to raise our game rather than living in their shadow.

“I’m definitely looking forward to Saturday,” he added. “We’ve got a good bunch of guys and we all get on pretty well. We’re feeling pretty confident and pretty good.”

Goldie take on Isis in the reserve race at 4pm on Saturday (7th April), with the Boat Race getting underway at 4.30pm.