This story weaves a tale about The Boat Race trophies.

On display in the Fitzwilliam Museum

Tuesday 9 November 2021 to Sunday 27 March 2022

Researched and narrated by Dr Victoria Avery.

Code, design and layout by Prof Daniel Pett using Mural.

Trophies photography by Mike Jones.

Image rights obtained by Lynda Clark.

Realising that the trophies are significant but under-appreciated examples of contemporary British silver, as well as being of great interest to rowing enthusiasts, I argued for putting them out in the galleries.

This year’s double Cambridge victory gives us a unique opportunity to display both trophies side by side. I wanted our visitors to see for themselves just how beautiful these iconic trophies are, and appreciate all the skill that has gone into their design and making.

And it’s especially fitting that both trophies are on display in Cambridge given that the 2021 Boat Race actually took place on the River Great Ouse in nearby Ely (rather than on its traditional venue on the River Thames in South-West London).

So I asked Lily Griffin, one of our fantastic Graduate Conservation Masters students, to thoroughly degrease and clean them. She spent hours on this labour of love (thank heavens she’s a keen rower!) painstakingly cleaning every inch of the complex silver surfaces, inside and out. Mike Jones, our brilliant Head of Photography, then took a set of stunning new post-cleaning photos for this story and for the historic record.

‘The Boat Race’ is the collective name now used to describe six rowing races that take place each year between the University boat clubs of Cambridge and Oxford, over the same Championship Course on The Tideway.

The Men’s Boat Race and The Women’s Boat Race are for the top crews, which are also referred to as The Blue Boats. The Men’s Reserve Race and The Women’s Reserve Race are for the second boats. The Cambridge Men’s Reserve Crew is called Goldie after rower and Boat Club President John Goldie (1849–1896) while the Oxford Men's Reserve Crew is called Isis after the section of the Thames that runs through Oxford, on which they train. The Cambridge Women’s Reserve Crew is called Blondie (after the famous band); Oxford’s is Osiris; both playful responses to the male names. All four are ‘open weight’ races. These four races are rowed on the same day, starting 20 minutes apart, and currently raced in this order:

1. Women’s Blue Boat
2. Women’s Reserve Crew
3. Men’s Reserve Crew
4. Men’s Blue Boat.

We are delighted to be able to include in The Boat Race Trophies Display at the Fitz, the two trophies awarded to the winning Men’s and Women’s Reserve Crews.

The Lightweight Men’s Boat Race and The Lightweight Women’s Boat Race are ‘weight-restricted’, with the maximum body weight for any Men’s crew member being 72.5 kg, with a crew average of 70 kg; and with the maximum body weight for any Women’s crew member being 59 kg, with a crew average of 57 kg. These races take place in advance of the open-weight races.

All six races are rowed in eight-oared boats, with eight rowers seated behind each other, and a cox in the stern (the back of the boat). All six crews are selected from current students who are required to train as elite athletes alongside their full-time academic courses, and many have gone on to row internationally and some have become famous Olympians. Other Blues rowers are better remembered for careers off the river, including Hugh Laurie (Cambridge Blue Boat, 1980), and Dan Snow (Oxford Blue Boat in 1999, 2000 and 2001).

This led to the first Men’s Boat Race taking place on 10 June 1829 at Henley-on-Thames. Billed as the ‘Grand rowing match between the Oxonians and Cantabs’, Cambridge rowed in a brand new boat called the ‘Cam’, which Snow had expressly commissioned from Searle’s of Lambeth, with funds from the Lady Margaret Boat Club, because the fledgling CUBC had no funds or boats of its own. Following usual practice of painting the boat in its owner’s colours, the ‘Cam’ sported the bright pink of LMBC’s pink and white rowing jerseys of the time.

Contemporary accounts described the flamboyant pink ‘Cam’ as ‘good to look at but bad to go’ and ‘far inferior in the water’ to Oxford’s boat, the ‘Old Balliol’, a more sober green vessel that had been built by the great Oxford boat builder, Stephen Davies. Oxford won ‘easily’, and you can see the winning craft on display in Henley’s River and Rowing Museum.

Only twice in Boat Race history has the course been moved from the Thames. In 1944, during the Second World War, it was felt too dangerous to have large crowds gathering along the banks of the Thames, and so the contest was moved to the more rural fens, and rowed on the Great Ouse in Ely. Oxford won but as this was an unofficial race it was not recorded on the Men’s trophy.

In 2021, due to a combination of Hammersmith Bridge remaining closed for structural repairs and concerns about large crowds mingling during the Covid pandemic, The Boat Race returned to the River Great Ouse, but without any spectators permitted on the river banks.

The next seven Women’s (or NCBC v OUWBC) Boat Races occurred intermittently between 1929 and 1939 and were rowed in various locations (Cam, Isis, Tideway, and Thames). In 1936, the contest became side-by side for the first time. As Carol Williams explained to me:

After 1941, which I consider the first true Women’s Boat Race, the contest was held in 1942 and then each year from 1944 until 1948. Then, due to an unfortunate accident of the Oxford women allowing one of their boats to go over a weir, the crew were banned from rowing on the Isis for a decade.

It was not until 1964 that the Women’s Boat Race became an annual event, and even then, the ‘Sweaty Betties’ (as the Cambridge women rowers were called) were not permitted to wear Light Blue. As Averil Wootton (who rowed for CUWBC from 1964–66) recalled,

We were not allowed to use Varsity blue; instead of that particular shade of duckegg/pale turquoise it had to be Sky blue, the standard light blue of the time. Moreover, I assume, just to make the point that we were nothing to do with the Blue Boat, we had a white stripe across the blade. To me, it suggested a Bar Sinister, with the suggestion of illegitimacy.

In 1977, the Women’s Boat Race moved to Henley (where the Men’s Lightweight Race was already established) and was conducted along a 1.2 mile (2 km) stretch of river, from the Henley Royal Regatta finish to Temple Island. In 1981, Sue Brown became the first woman to compete in the Men’s Boat Race, as the cox for Oxford, steering them to victory by 8 lengths. Carole Burton became the first woman to cox a Cambridge Men’s Boat in 1986, likewise steering her crew to victory, with a 7-length margin.

Talking of umpires, in 1877, The Boat Race was declared a ‘dead heat’, the only time this has ever happened. According to another urban rowing legend, the Umpire ‘Honest John’ Phelps, was asleep under a bush as the race ended, leading him to announce the result as a “dead heat to Oxford by four feet”.

In defence of her forebear, British rowing legend Annamarie Phelps CBE told me,

I would suggest that the result wasn’t questionable, the race was just so close that without the aid of an aligned marker and modern technology, it simply couldn’t be called.

And this view is borne out by contemporary accounts, with The Times reporting how:

Oxford, partially disabled, were making effort after effort to hold their rapidly waning lead, while Cambridge, who, curiously enough, had settled together again, and were rowing almost as one man, were putting on a magnificent spurt at 40 strokes to the minute, with a view of catching their opponents before reaching the winning-post.

Thus struggling over the remaining portion of the course, the two eights raced past the flag alongside one another, and the gun fired amid a scene of excitement rarely equalled and never exceeded. Cheers for one crew were succeeded by counter-cheers for the other, and it was impossible to tell what the result was until the Press boat backed down to the Judge and inquired the issue. John Phelps, the waterman, who officiated, replied that the noses of the boats passed the post strictly level, and that the result was a dead heat.

Cambridge has won the last four Women’s Boat Races and the last three Men’s Boat Races, and it’s also won more Boat Races overall: Cambridge women have won 45 (to Oxford’s 30) and Cambridge men have won 85 (to Oxford’s 80).

Excluding the ‘dead heat’ of 1877, the closest ever Men’s Boat Race was in 2003, when Oxford won by just a foot, and the fastest ever Men’s Boat Race was in 1998, when Cambridge won by 3 lengths in the record-breaking time of 16 minutes and 19 seconds. The Cambridge Women’s Crew also currently holds the record for the fastest Championship Course time, with a time of 18 minutes and 33 seconds set in 2017.

Now that you’re all experts on The Boat Race, it’s time to tell you about the silver trophies on show at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. With thanks to Siobhan Cassidy, Donald Legget, the Boat Race Company Ltd and CUBC, five trophies connected with The Boat Race are now on extended public display. In pride of place on the top shelf are the current Men’s Boat Race Trophy (The Aberdeen ‘Quaich’) and the current Women’s Boat Race Trophy (The Newton Trophy), which have been presented to the winning Blue Boat crew since 2000 and 2014 respectively.

These are joined on the bottom shelf by three further trophies. On one side is The Francombe Cup, which as the first Women’s Boat Race trophy (presented from 1936 until some point before 1989) is discussed in greater detail below. On the other side is a pair of rarely seen and less high quality trophies. This comprises the Men’s Reserve Boat Race Trophy (The Isis-Goldie Cup) which, hallmarked in Birmingham in 1973, was first presented at the Silver Jubilee race in 1977; and the Women’s Reserve Boat Race Trophy (The Osiris-Blondie Cup) which was commissioned by the 1991 Blondie Crew.

My story focuses in particular on the commissioning and making of the two current Blue Boat trophies, as these really are works of art in their own right, showcasing great design and making skills. Interestingly, they also represent the two alternative ways of creating an artwork in silver: the Men’s trophy was designed and made by a number of different highly skilled silversmiths, working on separate aspects but ultimately together as a team (equivalent, in rowing terms, to an eight), while the Women’s trophy was entirely designed and made by a single highly skilled silversmith (equivalent, in rowing terms, to a single scull).

Information about the first trophy is patchy, but thankfully, David Searle (one-time Executive Director of The Boat Race Company Ltd) was able to fill me in a bit. David told me,

As far as I am aware, until 1977, there was no trophy for The Men’s Boat Race. There was no ceremony after the Race and the crews simply got out of the boats and a few individuals were interviewed. The first trophy was commissioned by the betting and leisure activities group Ladbrokes, the first Boat Race sponsors. They started their sponsorship in 1977, after giving the event £5,000 in 1976. For the 1977 Boat Race (their sponsorship had gone up to £10,000), they commissioned a trophy and medals for both the winners and the losers. I don’t know how long the Losers’ Medals lasted as they were deeply unpopular, mainly because Cambridge kept being awarded them, and the 1978 Cambridge crew even threw theirs into the Thames!

Nor have I been able to find out who designed and made the rather poignant silver relief of the exhausted rower shown post-Race, slumped over in the seat with head bowed and hands off the oar.

From old photographs, the inscription engraved on a silver plaque at the bottom can just be made out, which stated:

‘THE LADBROKE TROPHY / PRESENTED TO THE WINNERS OF THE / LADBROKE OXFORD & CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY BOAT RACE’.

The Ladbroke Trophy continued to be awarded until 1987, with Oxford winning it every year except for 1986, when Cambridge won by 7 lengths.

David confessed,

After Beefeater Gin took over sponsorship in 1987, the Ladbroke Trophy was decommissioned. Heaven knows where it is now. Oxford must have been the holders as they won every Race between 1976 and 1992, except for 1986.

So, please do get in touch with us if you know of its current whereabouts as we’d love to track it down!

In 1999, the international investment management group Aberdeen Asset Management took over as Boat Race sponsors and for obvious reasons felt that a Beefeater-shaped trophy was no longer appropriate. They had already worked with London-based silversmith Nicholas Winton, renowned for creating bespoke silver cups for major sporting events, and so they approached him to see if he would be interested in creating a new trophy for the Men’s Boat Race. When I contacted Nicholas and asked him about the design process he told me,

There wasn’t really a design brief but given the sponsor’s Scottish roots, the trophy was to be called ‘The Quaich’, and we were keen to try to incorporate the form of this traditional Gaelic two-handled drinking vessel with shallow bowl into the design. The only other stipulation was that the trophy had to be an eye-catching feature on the victor’s podium, and its base elements had to be large enough to incorporate all the winners’ records from 1829 until 1999, and with room for future records too.

Creating the design was very much a collaborative process between Aberdeen Asset Management, the Boat Race Committee (especially Duncan Clegg), Nicholas and his freelance designer, silversmith Rachel Hopkins (now Head Creative Designer at Theo Fennell Ltd).

On receiving the invitation to work on the trophy, Rachel told me:

I remember Nick Winton ringing me to say there was an opportunity to design the Boat Race trophy and wondered if I was interested as I had done some Formula One trophies previously! My answer? Hell yes! We jointly agreed that it needed to be inspired by the very fluid shape of the boats, oars and riggers.

My sister was rowing for Monmouth at the time so I met her on several occasions to get a better understanding of what’s involved in rowing and to study the shape of the boats and blades. I wanted the trophy to be tall and sleek with an overall design that is elegant and stream-lined. This led to the Quaich’s two handles being inspired by the riggers, and the supports being made in the form of oars.

Rachel recalls:

In order to visibly herald the winner, I devised two different and easy-to-attach finials for the lid of the Quaich, in the shape of a heraldic animal associated with the respective Universities and their boat clubs: a lion for Cambridge and an ox for Oxford. If Cambridge wins, the lion finial is quickly screwed in place, but if Oxford wins, then it is replaced with the ox.

By holding the finial, you can remove the lid to reveal the interior of the Quaich. Following a suggestion of Mr Clegg from the Boat Race Committee, the inside was engraved with a map recording the Championship Course. It’s great fun to see people’s faces when they take the lid off and they discover this unexpected element hidden inside.

In terms of how she actually made the design, Rachel told me,

I initially sketched shapes and ideas and then drew it up on the computer. I then hand-painted the final drawings and presented full-scale ideas to Aberdeen Asset Management. I think I gave them four options in total. They liked all of them but in the end chose the one they preferred.

Converting the two-dimensional design into a three-dimensional object involved many other skilled silversmiths, as Rachel revealed:

Once the final design had been agreed on, I prepared scaled-up technical drawings for Nicholas Winton and his team to work to. I had no part in converting these into the silver cup: that was left to his silversmiths who used the whole range of silversmithing techniques – spinning, smithing, forming, and scoring, engraving and polishing. It was really lovely that they also included my name in tiny letters at the bottom, as it was such an honour to be able to work on the trophy for this iconic rowing race, which I’ve loved watching since I was a kid.

I quizzed Nicholas Winton about the materials and techniques used. Nick recalled how:

The trophy was made from sterling silver with the Quaich and sheet areas being spun, and the finials and the oars cast. The spinnings and castings were combined with the smithing to create the Quaich, and then the cup was carefully engraved with all the historic records from 1829 until 1999. Each record had to include the date, the name of the winning crew, and the winning margin. Before final polishing, we added the obligatory hallmarks: my maker’s mark (my initials ‘NW’); the lion passant (indicating that the material used is sterling silver), the number ‘925’ (the modern convention mark for sterling silver); the leopard’s head (indicating that the place of production was London) and the letter ‘a’ (the date letter for 2000, the year of manufacture).

The whole process, from start to finish, took about 18 weeks. It was a pleasure to be involved in such a high-profile commission, and wonderful to be invited to the 2000 Boat Race by the sponsors, when the Quaich was inaugurated. Although Aberdeen is no longer the sponsor, with Xchanging, BNY Mellon and now Gemini getting involved, the cup they commissioned is still being awarded, which is wonderful, and it’s a thrill to see it being presented year in, year out.

Details about the first Women’s Boat Race trophy are sparse but as Annamarie Phelps told me,

It was called the Francombe Cup after its donor, Miss F.E. (Betty) Francombe, who was Stroke of the Oxford Crew in 1929 and OUWBC Coach from 1931 until 1936. She donated it the year she retired as Coach. It was lost for many years, and so a replacement trophy in the form of a shield was commissioned by Dr John Marks, a great champion of women’s rowing at Cambridge. The Francombe Cup was later found, and has been re-purposed as the Victor Ludorum Cup for the most successful university at the Henley Boat Races.

The Francombe Cup has now been lovingly cleaned by Conservation Masters student Lily Griffin and its hallmarks deciphered, revealing it to have been made by William Neale & Sons Ltd in Birmingham in 1934. It is proudly inscribed on the front, ‘OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE / WOMENS BOAT CLUBS / CHALLENGE CUP / PRESENTED BY / MISS F.E. FRANCOMBE / 1936 / OXFORD STROKE 1929 / OXFORD COACH 1931–1936’.

By way of replacement, Dr John Marks (Senior Treasurer of CUWBC) donated a wooden shield adorned with mini silver crests. These were engraved each year with the year of the Boat Race, the winning side, and the winning margin. It was used from 1989 until 2013. Rather lacking from an aesthetic point of view, The Marks Shield clearly made a minimal impression on the victors. When I asked Olympic rower Catherine Bishop, who was part of the winning Cambridge Women’s crew in 1993, for her reflections on the Boat Race and the trophy, she confessed:

For me, it was never about the trophy, which in my day was a shield. It was more about what the trophy represented that I still treasure: shared experiences, lifelong friendships, an exploration of my physical and mental capabilities, belonging to a unique team who have been through incredible highs and lows together, in order to prepare to be our best when we lined up to race the Boat Race.

The Women’s Boat Race trophy was commissioned from Norfolk-based Rod Kelly, one of the UK’s leading silversmiths. In reply to my question about the commissioning process and the role of the sponsors, Rod told me:

Newton initially looked at several folios of work by several artists and I was very fortunate to be chosen. We then had lengthy discussions about a design brief. I had previously designed and made several horse-racing trophies and had the confidence that the design would be a great success. I was given plenty of time to develop ideas and finally made a presentation to the small committee that had been formed to oversee the Women’s Boat Race Trophy. This comprised of Annamarie Phelps on behalf of CUWBC, Annabel Eyres on behalf of OUWBC and Clare Blackmore on behalf of Newton.

Happily, they all loved the designs I had come up with, so we agreed a timetable and a budget, and I started work on the trophy. Newton were very supportive all the way along the journey from conception to completion as they really understood what designing and making a trophy involves. They were a wonderful company to work with, and sent me a lovely warm rowing fleece and chocolates to keep me going in the workshop during the cold winter months, and they even commissioned a Lego model of my design as a surprise!

The design process for the Women’s trophy was another highly successful collaboration between the sponsors, the two University Boat Clubs and the silversmith, with everyone having the chance to input ideas over the 18-month period it took to make the cup. Rod recalls how,

The Universities were asked for their comments, and feedback was given to Newton who then relayed the observations to me. I wanted to get a feel for rowing and the boats, and so I met with the two Captains, and I was invited to join a Light Blue training session. Despite it being at 6am on a very cold autumn morning, it was an amazing experience, and I realised just what sacrifices they made to rowing. They caught the first train to Ely, jogged to the Rowing Club hut, used dire changing facilities to change, took to the river with their expensive hulls, and worked out on the water with the coach in the freezing cold. They then had a quick change, no shower and were back on the train for a 9am lecture. That was real commitment, and three times a week. Understanding all of this, just added to the privilege of being asked to make a Trophy that would be awarded each year to the winning crew, and act as a focus for their celebrations.

As with the Men’s Trophy, it was felt important to record all historic winners. The earliest records, from 1927 to 2013, were engraved on a silver plaque positioned underneath the base of the trophy. The winning crews from 2014, when the Newton trophy was first awarded, were recorded on the rim around the top of the cup, with lots of room left for the names of future winners.

I asked Rod for his final reflections and he told me,

I attended both the unveiling ceremony for the trophy and the Women’s Boat Race in 2014, when it was first presented, both hosted by Newton as sponsors. I was lucky enough to meet Sir Steve Redgrave as well as the winning Oxford crew, and I had a thoroughly enjoyable day. I still very much enjoy watching the crews race each year at this unique event, and it fills me with pride to see my trophy being presented. I’m thrilled to hear that the trophy’s going on display in the Fitzwilliam, so it can be seen and admired by many more people, rowers and non-rowers alike.

Huge thanks to everyone who helped me in the preparation of this digital long form story especially silversmiths Rachel Hopkins, Rod Kelly and Nicholas Winton and the sporting contingent:

Nick Brooking (Director of Sport, University of Cambridge Sports Centre) and Siobhan Cassidy as well as Robert Gillespie and David Searle (Boat Race Company Ltd) and Donald Legget (CUBC) as well as other former Blues rowers and Boat Race experts: Göran Buckhorn, Len Dunne, Tina Goode, Jane Kingsbury, Tim Koch, Annamarie Phelps, Alister Taylor, Carol Williams and Jon O’Donoghue (River & Rowing Museum, Henley).

And many thanks to all my wonderful colleagues at the Fitz for their help with the display and its promotion: Lynda Clark, Jo Dillon, Lily Griffin, Tracy Harding, Mike Jones, My Linh Le, Andrew Maloney, Tim Matthews, Dan Pett, Helena Rodwell, Sophie Rowe, Elena Saggers, Emma Shaw, Neal Spencer, Luke Syson, Phil Wheeler and Liz Woods.

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