This will be Cambridge Men’s first run down the Championship course of the year, so the stakes are high as the countdown begins to 26 March 2023.

The Championship Course runs from Putney to Mortlake in a spectacular 4.17 mile race with advantages and disadvantage at each turn for the Surrey (South) and Middlesex (North) sides.

Head Coach Rob Baker said Trial VIIIs is seen as the culmination of a tough term. We have seen lots of PB’s from across the squad. The crews have different strengths and it will be exciting to see how this plays out during the race. This is also a big occasion for our two coxes to demonstrate the things they have learnt about the course and their crews. The men’s team at Cambridge is really looking forward to Trial VIIIs, we had some very close racing at the fours head between our boats, so we know we have the strength in depth to make two fast Trial VIIIs. The goal for the next few days is to make each boat faster, hopefully with them reaching a similar speed but ultimately we want fast boats pushing each other to get quicker all the time.”

The Boats

CUBC Men’s President Ollie Boyne said: “We’ve been in our set crews for a few weeks now, gelling well and producing two high quality units. One of our crews has six undergrads, and the other seven postgrads, so, as well as testing our crews over the Championship course, we’re hoping to answer the age-old question with our Trial 8s names: which is better, ‘youth’ or ‘experience’?”