Coxing the 1991 Boat Race

Extract from Chapter XVII of A History of St Catherine's Rowing 1875-1999

[written by Neil Chugani]

There is an old saying that in the Boat Race, two crews row alongside each other until one of them decides it can't win. Morale is a huge factor in the Boat Race and the motivational role of the cox is to keep the crew believing that they can win as long as possible. The 1991 Oxford boat was a confident crew, but there is nothing which will sap confidence from a crew faster than the other boat taking a length's lead before the end of the Fulham Wall, and this was exactly what happened to us.

We had expected to be at least level with Cambridge after the first minute, if not slightly ahead, based on our weight advantage, but I think that even some of the Cambridge camp were surprised at how slow we were away from the stakeboats on the day. Cambridge had Middlesex, and at one point, they were only a quarter of a length away from being able to take our water in time to take advantage of the Surrey bend.

Photo: Neil Chugani coxing Oxford at the start of the 1991 Boat Race. Oxford won by 4 1/4 lengths, in a time of 16:59.