On Sunday, it was the turn of the OUBC Blue Boat to have its first official match-racing of the season in a fixture against the University of London.
This was a different UL crew from that which raced Goldie the day before, and featured GB squad rowers Nathaniel Reilly-O’Donnell and Ollie Cook. The plan was 3 pieces of around 5-6 minutes each, and, due to tide timings, took place above Chiswick Bridge, and was raced on the ebb tide.
Piece One: Oxford got the better start and managed to turn early gains into a convincing victory.
Piece Two: The second piece was more competitive, with the two crews fighting it out side-by-side with multiple clashes for the first couple of minutes, until Oxford were able to draw clear.
Piece Three: A heavy clash less than 1 minute into the piece forced the crews to stop and a restart was called. Again, Oxford proved the faster crew.