Bristol Alumni leading UWE Alumni in the 2004 race, one of the closest and most exciting Varsity Races ever, with Bristol winning by only 3 feet.
Bristol Alumni leading UWE Alumni in the 2004 race, one of the
closest and most exciting Varsity Races ever, with Bristol winning
by only 3 feet.
In short, the Varsity Boat Race is the annual grudge match between the rowing teams of Bristol University and the University of the West of England (UWE).
Both Bristol and UWE's boat clubs are made up of a number of squads divided by experience and gender. Gender is split into the obvious categories, whilst experience is split into
Using these categories there are four possible squads:
Novice Men
Senior Men
Novice Women
Senior Women
The Varsity Boat Race comprises of a series of head-to-head races between the equivalent squads at Bristol and UWE boat clubs. The club that wins the majority of these races is declared the overall winner of the Varsity Boat Race and is awarded the varsity trophy along with the satisfaction of knowing that they are, in general, better at rowing than their neighbour.
However, the Varsity Boat Race can be quite an emotional day for rowers who have sacrificed degrees and relationships in order to train incessantly to beat the opposing university. Those who fail to achieve this are often left bitter and so, to prevent eternal resentment, there is also a special Men's Alumni Varsity Boat Race, where old scores can be settled and smug satisfaction gained.
This 2005 Varsity was further complicated by an abundance of men's senior rowers, enough in fact to put out two boats. So this year there will also be a Men's Senior 2nd Boat Varsity Boat Race. However this race does not count towards the overall Varsity Trophy.
The following races count towards the overall Varsity Trophy:
Men's Senior First Boat
Men's Novices
Men's Alumni
Women's Seniors
Women's Novices
Let battle commence.
