Why protest the Boat Race?

So a protestor decided to risk his life by swimming in the Thames just as the two Boat Race crews, and the huge flotilla of following craft, passed the half way point.

Why? What on earth could someone be protesting about that was worth risking their life?

Next weekend it's the Grand National at Aintree - an orgy of animal abuse which will, almost certainly, involve horses being injured and killed.

There's the ridiculous finances in football - overpaid players, debts, corruption - but what has that got to do with two rowing eights on the Thames?

And there's always the cost of the London Olympics - but that has nothing to do with the two old universities.

Maybe it's nothing about sport. Maybe it's to do with cuts in society, the NHS, Ken Livingstone's tax return...

Who knows?! It certainly ignites Twitter, which lit up with suggestions it was David Walliams training for next year's Sport Relief!

Maybe it was a suicide bomber in the style of "Four Lions" who hadn't thought that the water might stop their bomb going off?

All we do know is the guy is an idiot and has caused chaos for what is, in reality, the last great amateur sporting encounter in the world.

COMMENT: The Boat Race

I'll lay my cards on the table: I love The Boat Race, and it's not just because I went to Oxford. As a kid, long before I even contemplated going to university, my family would always huddle round the television, two of us supporting Oxford, two of us cheering on Cambridge (bizarrely, perhaps, I was always a Cambridge supporter in my pre-Oxford days!).

I never rowed at Uni - much too much like hard work, and stupid early mornings didn't fit with my personal version of being an undergraduate - but I always enjoyed watching my college friends wear themselves out at Torpids or Eights Week - and, of course, I'd watch The Boat Race and cheer on the Dark Blues in the hope we'd beat Fenland Poly.

I seem to remember that, during those years, Oxford had a habit of coming second.

And today, with my life at university a fading, distant memory, The Boat Race remains one of the year's big events that always get priority in my calendar - along with the Eurovision Song Contest and the F.A. Cup Final!

I know there are lots of people who don't care about it. And that's fine but even if you watch it as simply an amazing demonstration of fitness and sporting achievement it's surely worth a watch?

Each year, of course, the same cynical anti-Oxbridge jokes get wheeled out by those with an entire bowl of chips balanced on their shoulders.

"Well done to Oxford and Cambridge for qualifying for The Boat Race final again this year." Ho ho ho! Such wit! So clever! Probably explains why they were rejected by Oxbridge.

Of course, it's a private event. A direct challenge from one university to the other in a rivalry, across a multitude of sports, that dates back beyond Englsnd/Scotland football matches, or battles for The Ashes!

The race, itself, lasts less than 20 minutes, the physical endurance is amazing, the tactics can be ferocious and, of course, there's always the chance of a sinking.

Hurrah for The Boat Race! Long may it prosper.