Two Newnhamites have been chosen to row for Cambridge in 2018 – and one of the women learned to row with Newnham College Boat Club.
Pippa Dakin, a second year Physical Natural Sciences student, will row in the Cambridge University Women’s Boat Club (CUWBC) Reserve Boat ‘Blondie’. She learned to row when she joined NCBC when she came up to Cambridge.
Ellie Thompson, a second year Geography student, will once again row for the Lightweights at The Henley Boat Race, the annual lightweight clash with Oxford. Ellie was in the winning crew last year.
The Oxford v Cambridge Cancer Research Boat Race will take place on the Tideway in London on Saturday, March 24. The Lightweights race at Henley will take place the next day, the race will be live streamed from 12.45pm when the women’s race begins.
Last year CUWBC won the Boat Race beating Oxford by 11 lengths and setting a strong new course record of 18:34, Newnham graduate student Anna Dawson was a member of the winning crew.
The 2016 women’s boat race provided the memorable image of the Cambridge women’s resilience as they rowed through sinking conditions.
It took until 2015 for the Women’s Boat Race to be staged on the same day and over the same distance as the world famous (men’s) University Boat Race, on the 6.8km Championship Course from Putney to Mortlake, in London.