Head of the River

Two years ago, I didn't check my calendar before a friend suggested going on vacation to Portugal, and hence I missed watching the Balliol men win Head of the River, an outstanding achievement in Summer VIIIs. You see, since the Isis, the river in Oxford, is not wide enough for crews to race side-by-side, races are instead done by holding "bumps." Each boat starts with a length-and-a-half of clear water inbetween them, and they must attempt to catch the boat ahead of them whilst also rowing faster than the boat behind them, who are attempting to catch them.

Although I'd missed out on the Balliol men, the Balliol women were tipped this year to win Head of the River, so I made sure my schedule was clear to come up and watch the race. I arrived around mid-day, and was totally surprised when as I was standing on the roof of the boathouse, this girl asked me, "Are you Adrian, by any chance?" Turns out that it was a girl I'd been e-mailing with about rowing shirts, although I couldn't believe she recognised me out of the blue, I guess from having seen random Facebook photos...

At around 3 PM, this chap I'd met whilst playing polo turned out to be in Oxford, so I went up to the Head of the River pub to meet him for a drink. It was a nice enough time, although in truth I was a bit annoyed to have been dragged away from the river's edge, so I suggested to him that we return to the river's edge.

Only upon getting there did I realise what an error in judgement I'd made, as this chap turned out to be one of those types that needs a baby-sitter, and so as I was swanning about, saying hello to people and chatting with friends, he just followed me around like a baby duckling, unable to make conversation on his own.

Thankfully, Balliol won the race in pretty short order (to tell you the truth, it wasn't that dramatic, as they were so dominant over everyone else), and Baby Duckling Chap decided to move along, which I was grateful for. I almost felt that I must have been a horribly rude host, but he texted me later to say that he'd never had so much fun in Oxford. So hey, I guess I couldn't have been that bad as a hostess!

The best part of the race then, came at the end, when after having won the whole thing, we took the rigging off of an old boat, and then putting the coxswain, my friend Zhan, on top of the boat, everyone in the college carried it through Oxford back to the main college gates. I took a video of it, and edited it when I got home, resulting in this pretty nifty film (courtesy of iMovie!):



Finally, all of the rowers headed home for a nap, and I hopped back on the Oxford Tube to go back to London. Overall a great day, and I'm glad I finally got the chance to see Balliol win Head of the River!