Advances in Business, Operations, and Product Analytics: Cutting Edge Cases from Finance to Manufacturing to Healthcare

17. Trouble on the Thames: Event Disruption, Public Protest, or Public Disorder

John Davies, Victoria Business School, Victoria University of Wellington

Introduction

The Boat Race is a highlight event on Britain’s sporting calendar, with a standing and importance in the sporting psyche of the nation that denies it being just a race between two amateur crews of eight, plus a cox, from Oxford and Cambridge universities, also known as Oxbridge. The race has taken place on the River Thames almost without break since 1845 on a winding 4 miles, 374 yards (6.8km) course up river between Putney Bridge and Chiswick Bridge, Mortlake, in South West London.¹ (The race is timed to start on the incoming flood tide, an hour before high tide, so that the crews ...