And so the great British sporting spring begins with surely one of the most pointless sporting events ever, the Boat Race. We sat through it last night out of pure politeness (Mrs Spurt had never seen one before) and we have to report that as a sporting spectacle, it did not cover itself in glory.Originally conceived as a way to thin out the academic gene pool and for the university nobs to run riot about London town (if PG Woodhouse is to be believed), we can remember our folks coming over all a quiver at the prospect when we were knee high to a grasshopper, but even back then it seemed as pointless as a politician’s promise.
Twenty minutes of pure tedium given a glossy sheen by esoteric language and frankly rubbish tactics (“They’re driving for the Middlesex station but Oxford move to cover it”, “Cambridge have the smoother stroke rate” – what? What?!), it’s basically a dull pull-a-thon that could easily be decided down at the local gym.
You can occasionally judge a sport by it’s coverage and when the funniest quote from two hundred years of competition is the 1949 radio commentary from John Snagge "I can't see who's in the lead but it's either Oxford or Cambridge" then you know you’re not in for the finest of sporting spectacles.
Apparently someone won (either Oxford or Cambridge ho ho - we'd lost the will to live by then) and nearly quarter of a million people watch from the banks of the Thames and over 120 million world wide on TV.
People you need to get out more.
