Hope Floats For Ant ‘N’ Dec’s Row Idol And The Sunken Boat Race
PAST the bell at Arling and Hobbs and down to river for the big one. In 179 years of the Varsity Boat Race, Oxford and Cambridge have featured in them all.
Some say this makes the Boat Race predictable and old fashioned. But we say it represents the future, and other sports, chiefly football’s Premier League could surely do worse than dispense with all teams other than the richest duo of Manchester United and decide who wins the league title on penalty shoot out, or, indeed, a boat race.
Of course, even then the title can be decided in the opening salvos.
As TV Boat Race commentator Peter Drury tells the Telegraph: “There have been some exciting, tight races, but there is always the possibility that by Hammersmith Bridge you know who’s won, and you still have 10 to 12 minutes to run. That’s what I’ve been preparing for. You can’t sit and watch those dead minutes and hear the commentator say, ‘that is X, a 23-year-old from X college, studying X…’.”
Indeed, not. You need to know the rowers height and weight, what pub the boat is passing and a hotline to Stephen Fry and Clive Anderson.
But enlivening the race can be tricky.
Now ITV covers the race, we can only hope that Row Idol begins soon, the country’s foremost talent search for a varsity rowing team. And the spin-off show, Celebrity Boat, in which pro-celebrity teams do battle, with Ant ‘n’ Dec as the coxes.
Happily, though the mood is for choppy waters and that means the prospect of a sinking.
The Times’ front-page invites its readers to tune into the race in light of the news that bookmakers have slashed their odds on one of the boats sinking to 16-1.
Stay tuned. Get in early. Soak up the atmosphere. And pray for rain…
Posted: 29th, March 2008 | In: Back pages, Broadsheets, Tabloids, TV & Radio Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
