It just wasn't cricket!

Protestor nearly gets his head sliced off!

I completely forgot to watch the boat race at the weekend, despite my good intentions....something to do with an unwarranted belief that my house was going to view that day and urges to do a complete Spring Cleaning.

I was gobsmacked when my English Mum, living in Australia gave me a blow by blow account of the drama that unfolded as she listened to the race on the radio!

If you don't know about the boat race, it comprises two boats of 8 men and one cox, one for Oxford, one for Cambridge. The course covers 4 miles of the River Thames. The crews have trained for years for this prestigious and traditional event and it IS an event that is watched, nay enjoyed,  by thousands world over, whether or not they attended an Oxbridge college.

Two miles in to the course, the Oxford cox alerted the crews to the fact that a man was swimming in the water, about to have his head sliced off by the flashing blades. The race was halted while police arrested the man, a protestor against elitism. PURLEEAASE............

The man, an Australian, as it turned out was angry. No kidding...really? As someone who was cox of the 3rd boat at her Cambridge college (I was pretty bad at it but it was still a lot of fun) I can attest to the amount of training that goes into an event like this and as an ex-pat who finds such events even more important now that I am not surrounded by them,  I mourn the disruption of a pageant which is usually fun and part of my cultural heritage, especially by someone who isn't even part of that heritage!

I hope they throw him in the Tower of London!