The Boat Race

The very first University Boat Race took place in 1829. It was started by two friends who had both been at the prestigious Harrow school but then one went to Oxford and one to Cambridge. They met up one day rowing at Cambridge and decided on the race.

On the 10th of February 1829, a letter was sent from Cambridge stating ​​that “the University of Cambridge hereby challenge the University of Oxford to row a match at or near London, each in an eight-oared boat during the ensuing Easter vacation.”

And ever since, except for the war years, and in 2020 due to Covid, they have raced sometime around Easter, depending on the tides. . It's 4.25 miles of very hard rowing.

In 1877 the race ended in a dead heat and the closest finish was in 2003 when Oxford won by 1 foot. The number of wins stands at Cambridge 88 and Oxford 81. There have been several sinkings and protesters disrupted the race in 2012.

The first women's race was in 1927 and annually since 1964 and was originally on a different day to the men's race but has been on the same day since 2015.

The race  was first broadcast on BBC radio in 1927 and was televised for the first time in 1938. After almost 100 years the BBC lost it's right to show it. So today  it's on Channel 4. I just hope they don't stop for adverts in the middle of the race!

With Suffolk being next door to Cambridgeshire that's who I've been supporting for the last umpteen years, it was always something we watched as I was growing up and will watch this year too.

Coverage on C4 begins with the build up at 1.30 and race start timings are............. 

• 2:21pm – Women's Boat Race.
• 2:36pm – Women's Reserve Boat Race.
• 2:51pm – Men's Reserve Boat Race.
• 3:21pm – Men's Boat Race.

Have a good weekend, mine will be  very quiet one on my own. I don't have Easter eggs but made scones and bought clotted cream for my Easter treat- with the 'compost jelly' made last month - all very yummy!

         

                                                       Who needs to spend £s on Easter eggs!

The 1st April Library Book Photo

Brought home these library books yesterday from the Mobile Library, and they will be round again in four weeks and it will still be April - so that's why it's the 1st April Library Book Photo. Almost all the books were reserved online and as usual there are some authors I know and others I wonder where the information came from to give me the idea for reserving.

The two crime by Jim Kelly I know will be good and 'The Double Turn ' by Carol Carnac, who is one of British Library Crime Classics best authors. The other BLCC, 'Sky High' is by Michael Gilbert. 'Murder at the Castle' is by an author I don't know and the same with Claire Anders. I did say I wouldn't read any more Devon crimes by Stephanie Austin as they are a bit light , but I seem to have reserved another. I know I saw 'The Eights' by Joanna Miller on a book blog. The one with a T on the spine is teenage fiction by Laura Wood that I read about somewhere and the Persephone is one of their recent re-prints "Crooked Cross" by Sally Carson. On the right are two non-fiction 'The English Path' a reprint by Little Toller books that I've had before but didn't read and 'On Gallow's Down' by Nicola Chester is a memoir of countryside life , she wrote 'Ghosts of the Farm' which I read and enjoyed  earlier this year.

Below - In March there were eight brought home. I was just a few pages into The Potting Shed Murder before deciding it was rubbish!. I enjoyed Moonfleet, The Place of Tides, London Can Take it, and especially Appointment in Paris by Jane Thynne. I didn't like the book by Mick Herron and the very old crime story "The Abominable Snowman "was very dated. The small book in the centre was "The Serviceberry" a book about plants and indigenous Americans, I think. I flicked through but didn't finish it.

Details of books read are on the separate Books Read 2026 Page and I'll let you know how I get on with my early April  assortment.

Back Tomorrow

Up the Lane

 I walked up the lane close to home last Saturday morning, the wind was freezing, blowing across the open fields from the West.

I saw three people walking, one dog, three people cycling - two normal and one in lycra!  and ......... 

Dandelions

Jack -by -the -hedge

                                                                    White dead nettle

                                                                       Red Dead Nettle

An animal track across the field - maybe fox but probably deer

Pink blossom in the distance

Hawthorn just coming into leaf

Blackthorn blossom finishing

 

That dot is a Buzzard circling- need a better camera for something so high. There were skylarks too - no chance of taking their photographs at all

And all the time the sprayer was going up and down the field - probably with weedkiller- luckily the wind was taking the spray away from where I was walking or I would have needed  a mask. The fields  have wheat or possibly barley growing well, no sugar beet or oil seed rape this year.

View over the village. There will soon be 70 more homes in the area that's cleared, in front of the other houses. Who will buy them is the question. 50% of the houses built two years ago at the other end of the village are still empty. You just need £500,000+ to buy one!

Back Soon