Cambridge’s men and women crews cruised to a double victory over Oxford yesterday afternoon (25/04) in the 2021 Reserve Boat Races.

The 56th men’s reserve race saw Goldie, the Cambridge men’s boat, secure a 6-length victory over Isis (Oxford), with the 49th women’s reserve race seeing Blondie, the Cambridge women’s boat, beat Orisis (Oxford) by a 7-length margin.

Both results mark a more substantial victory than the blues races, which were held 3 weeks earlier and saw winning margins of 1 length (men’s) and ¾ of a length (women’s).

The Goldie crew, coached by Jordan Stanley, consisted of Ollie Boyne (Downing), Hugo Durward (Sidney Sussex), James Burnard (St Edmunds), Reggie Mitchell (Trinity), Reef Boerick (Caius), Clayton Roberts (Girton), Rob Harris (Pembroke), Cameron Spiers (Downing) and Sam Vosper (Magdalene).

Meanwhile the Blondie crew, coached by Patrick Ryan, consisted of Angela Harper (Churchill), Rebecca Dell (Christ’s), Kasia Pilch (Newnham), Jo Matthews (St John’s), Gemma King (St John’s), Rhiannon Mulligan (Lucy Cavendish), Alex Riddell Webster (Murray Edwards), Elena Von Muller (Jesus) and Catherine King (Caius).

As with the blues races, the reserve races were held away from the Tideway, on the Great Ouse, near Ely. The course is considerably shorter: measuring only 4.89km from its start at the Queen Adelaide bridge to the finish line at Victoria Street bridge, compared to the 6.8km Championship Course in London which stretches from Putney to Mortlake.

The two reserve victories mean that Cambridge have now won all of this year’s four races, achieving a clean sweep for the third year in a row (2018, 2019 & 2021), with the exception of last year, when the races were cancelled in the wake of the first national lockdown.