Reading University Head

[FTD]

Top quality entry for this Saturday's race. Looks like the Oxford Blue Boat and Isis are both entered. It will be interesting to see how Brookes do against them as I think they have just done pieces against Cambridge. Plenty of other classy crews looking to tune up in advance of HoRR.

[fatsculler]

It's definitely going to be interesting to see how Oxford get on. Honours were even between Brookes & Cambridge the other day. My gut instinct is that Oxford will head Brookes by at least 15 seconds. Leander have a pretty strong crew and Thames won the Hammersmith Head last weekend.

[fatsculler]

Oxford Blue Boat win by 24 seconds ahead of Leander with Brookes 2 seconds back. But, Brookes incurred a Penalty which cost them 2nd place. I'm not sure what for yet or whether it was a 5 or 10 second penalty. If it was 10 seconds it makes my prediction of an Oxford win by 15 seconds pretty accurate!!

http://readinguniversityboatclub.co.uk/ ... onal-2.pdf

[smatatat]

No, OUBC beat Brookes by 26 seconds, then Brookes had a penalty added on to that (probably for swearing or something similarly Brookes-y) so their final "official" time was probably in the realm of 26-36 seconds back off OUBC. This is why Brookes are placed 4th, despite having a time faster than the "3rd" place Isis 2 crew behind them. Pretty basic stuff really, if you take the time to read results and not immediately jump to self-confirming conclusions.

[jyjy]

If they give you your real time and jut relegate you one place, not really much of a penalty is it?

[Blah Blah]

Looks like another year where Isis and the Cambridge Blue Boat are about the same speed, then. I heard a mixed Brookes 2nd/3rd boat beat Goldie, so that's really worrying for that race. If Cambridge lose both races by 5 lengths plus, can the same coaching team really stay in place?

[fatsculler]

Looks like another year where Isis and the Cambridge Blue Boat are about the same speed, then. I heard a mixed Brookes 2nd/3rd boat beat Goldie, so that's really worrying for that race. If Cambridge lose both races by 5 lengths plus, can the same coaching team really stay in place?

A bit like last year when I reckon Isis were on a par with the Cambridge Blue Boat. I think it'll take something quite remarkable for Cambridge to win this year....but stranger things have happened.
having said that if Oxford win both races by as much as they did last year I can't see Trapmore keeping his job

[Blah Blah]

Looks like another year where Isis and the Cambridge Blue Boat are about the same speed, then. I heard a mixed Brookes 2nd/3rd boat beat Goldie, so that's really worrying for that race. If Cambridge lose both races by 5 lengths plus, can the same coaching team really stay in place?

A bit like last year when I reckon Isis were on a par with the Cambridge Blue Boat. I think it'll take something quite remarkable for Cambridge to win this year....but stranger things have happened.
having said that if Oxford win both races by as much as they did last year I can't see Trapmore keeping his job

If he loses his job, then all the ex-Goldie/spares who decided they weren't going to get anywhere and are currently rowing in the fastest college boats while having free time/trying other sports might come back, which would add some depth to the squad...

[FTD]

Since Trapmore took over, I would argue he has had weaker squads to work with than Bowden (including this year), and in some years has produced crews that raced to closer verdicts than expected. Having said that, Cambridge can't keep backing him forever. At some point they have to overturn the odds.
Perhaps what is most impressive now about the OUBC set-up is the fact that it is producing consistently fast Isis crews, in a way that was beyond Oxford 15 to 20 years ago. Bowden is keeping guys motivated and Andy Nelder is doing a great job with Isis.

[Blah Blah]

Since Trapmore took over, I would argue he has had weaker squads to work with than Bowden (including this year), and in some years has produced crews that raced to closer verdicts than expected. Having said that, Cambridge can't keep backing him forever. At some point they have to overturn the odds.
Perhaps what is most impressive now about the OUBC set-up is the fact that it is producing consistently fast Isis crews, in a way that was beyond Oxford 15 to 20 years ago. Bowden is keeping guys motivated and Andy Nelder is doing a great job with Isis.

2011 - Oxford by 4 lengths
2012 - Cambridge by 4.25 lengths (Oxford rowed with 7 men for the last 6 minutes and this was all the gap they put in)
2013 - Oxford by 1.33 lengths - a Cambridge crew that looked ill-equipped, technically, for the tideway, but gave it everything
2014 - Oxford by 11 lengths - another clash, this time caused by steering in to stop Oxford breaking away and winning

I don't think any of Trapmore's crews have actually looked good, especially when compared to Chris Nilsson's 2010 crew.

In his time in charge, Isis have won by 5 lengths plus three times (inc. last year's 13 length whipping), and lost narrowly in 2013 despite being favourites.

He might be a good crew coach for the top boat, but that's not close to being the job of a Boat Race coach - squad development is what brings long term success, and at the moment Cambridge's crews seem to be based on taking good rowers from middling US universities onto 2nd undergraduate degrees - at least Oxford's lot are all doing proper postgraduate study.

[limegreenspeed]

We focus on how Trapmore is doing, but perhaps we're witnessing one of the best boat race coaches of all time during his peak. Bowden fascinates me, seems to really prepare and lead his rowers well and their program sounds properly intelligent (all the athletes who've remarked in videos about how Bowden really utilizes the scientific method in their program).

Trapmore is a good coach but he's up against an excellent one, so I would expect that people realize replacing Trapmore means starting the process all over again and likely without any better results, so why not let him build up experience year after year in the hopes he can lead a crew to a win one day.

[Blah Blah]

I completely agree, to the extent that a seriously unrealistic part of my brain is making excuses to put my life on hold and apply for a phD at Oxford to see if I could be any actual good at rowing if I could get my foot in his door. His crews row so intelligently, with no style for its own sake and everything devoted to boatspeed.

Even facing the Cambridge juggernaut of the late 90s he only ever lost by 3.5 lengths or less, and of the races he's lost since then, 2001 saw a clash and restart, 2004 saw a number of clashes and Oxford's bow losing his seat, narrow losses in 2007 and 2010, and 2012's complete nightmare.

But his Isis crews have always been competitive, breaking an 8 year streak in his first year and now having won 6 of the last 7.

The big difference, I feel, is that as Malcolm Howard has said in their recruiting video 'with Sean you know that you're going to arrive on the start line with a good chance to win' and I don't think anyone gets that confidence from Trapmore - particularly when his predecessor won both races in his second year, and was then forced out by internal politics.