'Slimy tactics': Boat Race steers into trouble over move to exclude rowers

With almost 200 years of intense rivalry, the Boat Race has already inspired several major films and, after an extraordinary week, Hollywood producers now have plenty more material to go at.

- Matt Hughes

What began last December as a disagreement between various alumni of Oxford and Cambridge over eligibility criteria for next month's race has exploded into a full-blown incident, with allegations of "slimy tactics", academic snobbery and female rowers being viewed as collateral damage in a dispute between the male boat clubs.

The row was sparked by the decision of the independent panel that rules on eligibility, chaired by the corporate finance lawyer Ian Hodgson, to block three Cambridge PGCE (postgraduate certificate in education) students: the former men's under-23 world champion Matt Heywood, and the women's squad members Molly Foxell and Kate Crowley. In a written submission Oxford University Boat Club (OUBC) argued that the teacher training qualification "is a diploma and that is not a degree", a view upheld by the panel.

In a separate development, the Paris 2024 gold medallist Tom Ford has also been prevented from rowing for Cambridge on 13 April owing to the so-called 12-year rule, which stops anyone competing if it was more than 12 years since they started an undergraduate degree course. The 12-year rule was added to the joint agreement between the two boat clubs that governs the race four years ago after the double Olympic champion James Cracknell rowed for Cambridge in 2019 at the age of 46.