The Boat Race: Cambridge overcome bitter eligibility row to achieve historic clean sweep over Oxford

Cambridge University completed a ruthless clean sweep over varsity rivals Oxford University at The Boat Race 2025, overcoming the bitter eligibility row that has provided the backdrop to the competition this year.

The holders retained both the titles in the Men’s Race and the Women’s Race, with the Cambridge reserve crews also winning both of their races. Cambridge University have dominated the competition in recent years and Oxford University continue to face an uphill battle in closing the gulf in quality between the two universities.

There has rarely been a more dramatic year of Boat Race action with controversy aplenty even before the crews took to the water. There had been fallout over the eligibility of rowers with worries also raised once again over the water quality on the Tideway.

Cambridge University complete The Boat Race clean sweep

The headlines were made early on Sunday too with the Women’s race stopped after just over one minute and 20 seconds following a coming together between the two crews. It was an aggressive Oxford steering line by Daniel Orton that caused that clash with Umpire Sir Matthew Pinsent considering a potential disqualification.

Speaking to the BBC after the race, the former Olympian said: “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 looked comfortable when taking home that win and, after the two reserve wins followed, focus turned to the Men’s Race. Both crews sat on the startline waiting for a piece of debris to make its way down the river as tensions began to build.

An enthralling start to the race eventually came and teased a competitive battle, but it did not take long for Cambridge to open clear water and hold off any desperate Oxford attempts to make back up ground.

Oxford University beaten to backdrop of eligibility row

The win in the Men’s Race makes it six wins in the last seven years for Cambridge with the 2025 victory even sweeter after some bad blood between the universities over eligibility terms. Oxford had raised issues with students studying for postgraduate certificates in education (PGCEs) rather than a degree competing in the race. That led to Cambridge’s Matt Heywood, Molly Foxell and Kate Crowley being ruled out of the race following an official complaint.

Olympic gold medallist and former Light Blue rower Imogen Grant labelled Oxford as ‘slimy’ for doing that with Cambridge consulting legal opinion from Blackstone Chambers, which concluded: “There are strong grounds to challenge the lawfulness of the decisions.”

The fallout from that has been felt higher up in the rowing clubs, rather than from competitors themselves, but it will certainly make the Cambridge clean sweep even sweeter. Speaking to LondonWorld after the race, Cambridge rower James Robson said: “It’s a long race! We sat on the start for ages, nerves just building and building with helicopters circling overhead. It’s like nothing I’ve been involved in before. A great day for the club.

“I don’t need anything else to make it sweeter than it feels already [in reference to the eligibility row]! It’s been a challenging year for the whole club but the whole team has been so process driven and taking it day by day. I’m so proud of everyone. It’s an amazing job top to bottom.

“It’s such an amazing place and an inspiring group of people. It’ll be a bottle of Chapel Down tonight, try and find my family and then worry about the rest of term tomorrow.”