Four Blues, one reserve Blue, and two Olympians was the pedigree boasted by Oriel College’s M1 boat in this year’s Summer VIIIs, a rowing competition held in the Fifth Week of Trinity Term where boats line up in a straight line and seek to “bump” (make contact with, completely overtake, or force the coxswain to concede) the boat in front and avoid being bumped by the boat behind. Despite having potentially the best Oxbridge college boat ever, Oriel lost its position at the “head” of the river in the final race of the competition due to an equipment failure. This is the beauty of bumps racing in Oxford – the unpredictability inherent in a relatively short 1.2km race on a narrow river full of potential obstacles like swans, houseboats, pleasure boats, and even formerly racing crews can yield unexpected results. One of the biggest talking points from this year’s edition was the final race of the day – Men’s Division I on Saturday. Oriel is renowned for its rowing prowess and has held headship (first place) in Summer VIIIs since Day 2 of the 2019 edition, and its boat this year featuring the likes of two-time Olympian and Oxford University Boat Club President Tom Mackintosh was remarkably strong. This was seen in practice on Days 1-3 of Eights, where they comfortably “rowed over” (avoided being bumped and did not bump as there was no one in front of them). However, the golden rule of Oxford college rowing is ‘expect the unexpected’ and they suffered a catastrophic rudder issue early on in the race on Saturday, forcing them to concede, which allowed Wolfson College to take headship for the first time. The news stunned Boathouse Island, packed full of spectators, and the mood soon turned from shock to jubilance as Oriel’s historic dominance has won them few friends. The fact that a relatively avoidable equipment issue would prove to be Oriel’s undoing goes to show that it is foolish to take victory for granted, no matter how many Olympians are in your boat, in college rowing.

Wolfson’s bump on Oriel was not the only story from Men’s Division I on Saturday. As the division raced past Boathouse Island on the final 500m of the course, an exciting situation was developing. Christ Church, fourth in the division, were hotly pursued by Keble who in turn were closely followed by Univ. This became increasingly hard-fought the longer it went on, because while a boat’s coxswain will often concede the bump earlier in the race if it looks inevitable, the closer the boat gets to the finish line the more determined the cox will be to try and hold off their pursuers until the finish. In this case, and despite some evasive manoeuvring, Keble were unable to hold off Univ and were bumped. As boats who bump or are bumped in Eights must drop out of the race, this meant that Christ Church were able to cross the finish line and maintain their position as fourth on the river. Given that the boats at the top of Division I are usually ordered according to speed by the final day, the occurrence of so many bumps at the top of Division I on Saturday, especially in front of the boathouses, means that this year’s competition was exceptionally competitive and exciting.

Women’s Division I was equally as dramatic. Christ Church W1 started Day 1 as Head of the River, but crashed into the bank early into the race, allowing Wadham to bump them. However, they impeded Univ (third on the river), which led to a lengthy deliberation from the race committee that resulted in a penalty bump for Univ on Christ Church, meaning that Day 2 started with Univ holding headship, Wadham second, Christ Church third, and Pembroke fourth. Wadham bumped up to headship on Day 2 and maintained it on Day 3, setting up a tough race against Pembroke, who had bumped Univ and Christ Church on their rise to second, on Day 4. Wadham managed to hold off a very strong Pembroke boat featuring OUBC Women’s President Annie Anezakis all the way to the island but were not able to reach the finish line before Pembroke could bump them. Despite their frustration at losing headship right at the end of the race, Wadham W1 had a very good campaign, especially for a college not traditionally famous for its rowing like Oriel, Pembroke, and Christ Church, and will begin next year as second on the river with a chance to seize headship back from Pembroke.

However, Summer VIIIs is not just about the boats competing for headship – a club’s success is best measured by looking at the campaign as a whole and not just focusing on the first boats. The most successful clubs this week were St Hilda’s and Reuben – both of whom had a +15 record across the club. This is especially impressive for Reuben, as only three of their boats qualified (as opposed to six from Hilda’s) and Reuben W2 went -1 to end the week as foot of the river, so Reuben M1 and W1 had a combined +16 record. This is highly unusual because, as boats involved in a bump have to drop out, it is usual for even the most successful boats to only go +4 or +5 if they bump up a division because the top boat in Divisions II-VII will race at the bottom of the division above it in an arrangement known as a ‘sandwich boat’. Reuben W1 had a highly rare double overbump on Day 1, meaning they had to make up 7.5 boat lengths over a roughly 1.2km course. 

On the other hand, this was a week to forget for some other clubs. Balliol had a very topsy-turvy campaign, as their W1 went +2 to rise to fifth on the river and their M4 “beer boat”, comprised of highly experienced alumni including some former Blues, won ‘blades’ by bumping every day in Division VII while their four other boats had a combined record of -15. Of particular note is Balliol M3 which incredibly dropped eight places on day 1 due to the unfortunate consequences of crashing into a houseboat with such force that they punctured the houseboat’s hull. The least successful club on the river was St Catz, who went -12 across four boats. Their M1, M2, and W1 all won “spoons” by being bumped every day, while their W2 was a slight saving grace with a net record of +0. Despite this, the long-term nature of Eights means that when St Catz rebuilds their squad they will have weaker crews behind them, so they will find it easier to find more success in the future.

Overall, this year’s edition of Summer VIIIs was highly successful not just due to the big names and excitement at the top of Division I or the Spitfire flyover, but because of how many boats entered, with many participants having only picked up the sport at the start of term. It was a great advert for the excitement of bumps racing and college rowing, and undoubtedly many boat club captains and presidents hope that the novices who raced for the first time this week will stick with the sport through the cold mornings and flooding of Michaelmas to become the next generation of Oxford rowers.