Strength of Personality gains the upper hand

Rowing

Rowing

HUGH MATHESON

Beef was off the menu at the Cambridge University Boat Race trial yesterday thanks to cold germs, not BSE hysteria, as Personality beat Looks by one and a half lengths in 17.01sec. The crews had near perfect winter conditions for a race which demonstrated the excellence of their coaching and preparation. But the power of two key men, incidentally the Boat Club's only postgraduates, was missing and the order, once it was established, never looked like being changed.

Nick Burfitt, who retired two years ago after a long career in the British team, has appeared at Cambridge, at 28, to read medicine, but has not yet found a cure for the common cold. His power and experience under pressure will be a vital asset when the universities race for the Beefeater Trophy next April, but his absence disrupted the line up of Personality.

Looks, too, had their problems and changed their personnel only minutes before the race when Christian Brun moved into the No 6 seat to replace Ethan Ayer, who had succumbed to the same bug as Burfitt.

The result of these absences was a fine display of British-born undergraduate racing with four under-23 world champions on show, but the missing ingredient was anyone who could have taken the race by the scruff of the neck and lifted the crews out of the comfortable groove they had struck in the first minute.

The winners, Personality, rated two strokes to the minute above Looks at about 34 throughout, raising it to 35 at the end. However, Looks never lost their poise and kept the deficit to less than a half a length of open water, while never looking likely to come back to win.

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY BOAT RACE TRIALS: Looks bt Personality 17.01sec, 11/2l.

LOOKS: Bow: A R Watson (Cavendish Sch, Hemel Hempstead and Sidney Sussex); 2: N G C Smith (Winchester and Corpus Christi); 3: M P C Barnett (Harrogate Grammar and Queen's); 4: J R Mellor (Latymer and Queen's); 5: R J Pim (Methodist Coll and Downing); 6: C Brun (Eton and Robinson); 7: H G C Clarke (Taunton and Trinity Hall); Stroke: P Mallin Jones (The Grange Grammar and St John's); Cox: A L Potts (Winchester and Trinity Hall).

PERSONALITY: Bow: S G Butlin (King's Sch Ely and Churchill); 2: D Bertschinger (Kingsthorpe, Northampton and Caius); 3 R A Bowman (Wrenn Sch Wellingborough and Trinity Hall); 4: J D Fauset (Hampton and Homerton); 5: S J Dawson (Bowling King's Canterbury and Magdalene); 6: D J Cassidy (Shrewsbury and Trinity Hall); 7: J F E Ball (King's Chester and Robinson); Stroke: R M Waller (Emanuel and Downing); Cox: K Whyman (King's Chester and Peterhouse).