Author: Purple Brolly

Aside from being Cockney rhyming slang for ‘face’, the Boat Race is a traditional sporting competition between the Oxford University Boat Club (in dark blue jerseys) and the Cambridge University Boat Club (in light blue jerseys). Most of the other UK universities have their own student rowing clubs, but this particular race only involves Oxford and Cambridge and is by far the most famous. Their first race was in 1829 at Henley-on-Thames and Oxford were the winners.

Today it takes place between Putney and Mortlake in London and there are men’s, women’s and reserve team races. Rowers must be currently enrolled on a full-time course, with no scholarship. Training must be fitted in alongside study and during holidays, including Christmas. The race accoutrements, from boots to beer, attract sponsorship and there are partnerships with charities.

The men’s race has been shown live on television since 1938 and the women’s race since 2015. There have been a few mishaps over the years, including collisions, sinkings and attention-seeking individuals. The closest winning margin was 12 inches in 2003:-

(Top image: Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0)

This is a sport, honestly.

The ordinary welly, or Wellington boot, has predecessors going back to the Duke of Wellington’s specially commissioned leather boots in 1817. The rubber and PVC versions came out of the Dunlop company’s takeover of New Liverpool Rubber Co Ltd in 1925. In the next few decades the Wellington boot became the essential footwear for wet, muddy, rugged terrains.

So, the British being the British, along came the game of welly wanging (i.e.throwing or flinging). It began in Yorkshire in the 1970s and is now played at sports days, parties, team-building weekends and summer fêtes all over the country. It has even caught on in other countries, particularly, it seems, in Finland, where they have the world record distances for the men’s and women’s categories (there are also boys’ and girls’ categories). The Welly Wanging World Championships are held each year in Upperthong, Yorkshire. Yes really!

(Image: Magic Foundry at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)