Rowing: Oxford ride the storm to take a clean sweep

Oxford pulled off a clean sweep on a windswept course at the Henley Boat Races yesterday. The dark blues won the women's race by an impressive four lengths in 6 minutes 6 seconds for the 2000 metres from the Regatta finish downstream to Temple Island. Cambridge, with a curious oar arrangement of seats two and three rowing on the same side, never converted an outing into a race.

Oxford pulled off a clean sweep on a windswept course at the Henley Boat Races yesterday. The dark blues won the women's race by an impressive four lengths in 6 minutes 6 seconds for the 2000 metres from the Regatta finish downstream to Temple Island. Cambridge, with a curious oar arrangement of seats two and three rowing on the same side, never converted an outing into a race.

Oxford's men's lightweight reserves had the closest shave, with a canvas win over the crew from the Cam. The men's lightweight race was a stroke-by-stroke treat, with Oxford taking a canvas lead at halfway and holding off repeated bursts to win by half a length. Osiris, the women's reserves, achieved a similar verdict over Blondie, and the Oxford women's lightweights' victory was only slightly more comfortable, at three-quarters of a length.

Saturday's Head of the River at Putney was cancelledthanks to wind and three-foot waves. That deprived us of seeing the likes of Leander, Imperial College and Molesey, crews containing most of the Olympic squad who have raced next Saturday's Boat Race crews in the last three weeks. Any clues to the outcome of that remain hidden in the Head that never was.