Keep Your Distance; Umpire Ready to Crack Down If Coxes Steer into Trouble

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Byline: ALAN FRASER

LIKE a convention of European bankers, all the talk on the Tideway this week has been of convergence.

The frequent coming-together of the Cambridge and Oxford crews last year was not so much a meeting of brilliant minds as a clash of personalities - and one which officialdom is determined to prevent this time round.

'It was terrible, a disgrace,' Oxford coach Sean Bowden said of the aggressive, in-your-blades tactics carried out by Light Blue cox Kevin Whyman in 1997. 'Cambridge should have been disqualified.' Alex Greaney, the vanquished Oxford cox who returns to steer another day, disagreed. 'I thought Kevin did a fantastic job.