WYE rowing cox Jack Tottem steered the winning eight for the second year running in the Oxford Blue Boat trials race, reports Nick Hartland.
Minus Tokyo Olympics quad scull medalist Angus Groom, who was out injured, the top 16 Dark Blue rowers vying to take on the Light Blues next April raced the full Boat Race course from Putney to Chiswick in two matched eights.
Old Monmothian Tottem put his crew in pole position right from the off as they raced into an early lead, skilfully keeping the door closed on them as his boat won a tight clash by just over a length.
And after victory in last year’s trial 8s, held on the Ely in Cambridge because of the closure of Hammersmith Bridge at the time, he will be hoping that victory brings better fortune than last year, when he missed out on a seat in the Boat Race itself.
The boats were named Rohan and Gondor after Lord of The Rings territories, and it certainly proved a battle royale.
While Tottem’s boat Rohan was stroked by Tokyo 8s GB medalist Charlie Elwes with GB world U23 champion Tobias Schröeder at six and Swiss Olympian Roman Röösli at three, their rivals boasted US Olympian Liam Corrigan, Swiss Olympian Barnabe Delarze and two-time Henley winner David Ambler.
Rohan on the Middlesex station after losing the toss shot out to an early lead, and some aggressive coxing from Coupe de la Jeunesse European junior medalist Tottem, pushed home the advantage on the inside of the first Middlesex bend at Fulham football ground, to put his crew 3/4L up at the Mile Post.
The blades got close to clashing before Hammersmith Bridge, with Tottem chancing his arm with the umpire and being warned, but successfully keeping Gondor at arm’s length.
With the river turning Gondor’s way, they closed fractionally up to Hammersmith Bridge, but passing St Paul’s a slight clash saw the bowman’s blade in the trailing crew momentarily fly up after being caught by the Rohan strokeman’s oar.
And although the rower recovered immediately, Rohan took advantage to squeeze away with the Wye cox, who comes from Devauden, continuing to lean hard on his rivals to prevent them taking advantage of the rest of the Surrey bend.
As the bend ran out, Rohan moved out to grab clear water and, with the river swinging to their Middlesex station and keeping their bladework clean, they stayed clear around the final Barnes bend to claim the win.
Gondor cox Olly Perry appealed to the umpire at the finish line, but was turned down.
“In my opinion the clash did not affect the outcome of the race so the result stands as it is,” said the official.
Tottem told Rachel Quarrell writing for Row360: “We had little moves off the back of the clashes, we talked about being really sensible, really calm, not getting into anything which would disrupt the rhythm.
“Obviously with Middlesex we knew we had to make sure we used our advantage early in the race to put ourselves in amongst it.
“We were in a pretty good position coming out of the Fulham bend and then got into some really nice patches of rhythm before the island.
“Credit to them, they held on a really long time but the guys are pleased we cracked it and then had some beans left at the end,” added Tottem, who steered the first ever Old Monmothian eight to qualify for Henley Royal Regatta last August.
History student Jack is hoping to follow fellow Old Monmothian coxes and winning Oxford Blues Colin Moynihan - who went on to win an Olympic silver medal in 1980 and be Minister for Sport - and Chepstow’s Laurence Harvey, who steered the Dark Blues to victory in 2014.
Photos: Ben Tufnell/Row360 and Monmouth School
