Why were Oxford University women not disqualified in The Boat Race 2025?

Cambridge University continue their dominance in the Women’s Boat Race with an eighth consecutive win under the dominant guidance of chief coach Patrick Ryan.

The light blues were touted as strong favourites to win the event once again, despite a resurgence of Oxford University under new coach Allan French. It proved another comfortable win for Cambridge, but the race started with drama as the two crews clashed blades.

Cambridge University had taken the lead off the start, using the advantage of the Middlesex station. Oxford looked for an immediate reaction to going down with coxswain Daniel Orton using his steering to cut across the water and towards his opponents while going around the Putney bend.

Oxford University and Cambridge University clash blades in Women’s Boat Race

After just one minute of racing, the blades of each crew began to overlap with contact following moments later. Oxford University received a warning from former Olympian Sir Matthew Pinsent, who was the Umpire for the race.

Pinsent stopped the race after one minute and 20 seconds with Cambridge rower Sophia Hann was knocked from her seat by the contact as the Umpire took time to think about a straight disqualification.

Former Cambridge University cox Jasper Parrish, who turned heads with his manoeuvre on the same stretch of the river in 2023, was providing punditry for the BBC live from the race. He said: “Well, that was a very, very aggressive move early on from the Oxford cox Daniel Orton. I thought he took on a lot of risk there but it looks as if the race will restart.”

The Boat Race disqualification rules

The Boat Race official website outlines ‘The 10 Rules of the Boat Race’, which includes a breakdown of how the Umpire can disqualify a crew in certain situations. These are the factors that Sir Matthew Pinsent will have taken into mind when restarting the race - it’s the first time that has happened since 2012.

Rule number seven outlines: “In the event of a foul occurring either crew may claim, to the Umpire, that the other crew be disqualified. If the crew making the claim was in its proper course, and the crew against whom the claim is made was out of its proper course, the latter shall be disqualified unless the foul was so slight as not to influence the race. In this case the crew against who the claim was made shall only be disqualified if, in the opinion of the Umpire, it has seriously or deliberately encroached on the course of the crew making the claim.”

Meanwhile, rule number eight is included for a ‘serious or deliberate foul’, which the early clash of blades was clearly determined not to be. That rule outlines: “In the event of a serious or deliberate foul the Umpire shall disqualify the offending crew without waiting for a claim. The Umpire may do this at once or at any later time up to or immediately after the end of the race.”

The ninth part of the breakdown includes a section on the restart of the race, as happened in the Women’s Race in 2025. The Umpire is allowed to stop the race and order a restart or a re-row. However, the rules stipulate that this is only for external interference.

The website outlines: “The crews shall abide by their accidents. But the Umpire may declare “No Race”, and order a restart, or a re-row, (i) if either crew is interfered with by any outside agency to such an extent as to influence the result of the race. (ii) if, before reaching the end of the wall, either crew should suffer any serious accident or sinking or waterlogging, which is not due to the fault of any member of the crew concerned.”

The only Boat Race disqualification in the modern era happened in the Isis/Goldie Race of 1990, when the umpire was John Garrett. At the end of the race, Pinsent told the BBC: “There was a clash between the crews that stopped the race. To my mind, I was absolutely clearly warning Oxford in the run up to that. At that moment, when the two crews were at a standstill, there’s no way we’re going to carry on racing, the clash was heavy enough that it was going to stop the race.

“There are a range of options at that moment, you can DQ someone straight away. It popped into my mind but you also can allow, after the restart, to see whether it affected the outcome of the race. Obviously, in my opinion it did not affect the outcome of that race.”

Cambridge rower reacts to clash with Oxford

Speaking to LondonWorld at the finish, Cambridge rower Katy Hempson said: “I didn’t know [whether it would be a disqualification]. We train for these kind of things and know what to do. If we clash, we stay calm and try to get out of it as quick as we can.

“We had the crab and thought, we have to stop and get going as quickly as we can, we saw the red flag. The only thing we focused on was staying calm and getting straight back into rhythm.

“We practice a lot of both starts [stake boat starts and re-row], we’ve done a mix of both. We do the same style sequence, get back onto rhythm, press it out. We were up off the start already so trusted our rhythm and did the exact same thing.”