Rowing: Bonhams perseverence is rewarded with dead heat

THE OXFORD campaign to reverse seven years of Boat Race defeats began yesterday with a tense Trial Eights race from Putney to Mortlake which, after four-and-a-half miles and a restart, ended with a dead heat.

Fear and Loathing, more Kierkegaard than Hunter S Thompson on the gloomy, wind-tossed Tideway, were offered a good test. They started in relative calm for the first two miles followed by atrocious conditions from Chiswick Eyot to Barnes Bridge and then better water again for the finishing sprint.

Michael Bonham, a 19-year-old who earned his spurs winning the Princess Elizabeth Cup with a famously gutsy Radley School crew, stroked Fear, taking up where he left off in 1998. He was backed by Leonard Diplock, a Canadian lightweight world medallist, and Alex Reid, who has stroked Yale, with Daniel Snow, a Blue last year in the No 5 seat. They showed in front early on and looked the more settled unit.

Loathing, on the Middlesex station, were stroked by Philip Beard, in his fourth year but dismissed in the past as too slight, had another 19-year-old, Andrew Dunn, at No 7 behind him with Toby Ayer at No 6.

The crews clashed just beyond the Mile Post, but, once separated, steered and raced well through Hammersmith Bridge before a series of clashes were exacerbated by the umpire, Fred Smallbone, instructing both to go the wrong way with the result that in a tangle of oars Andrew Dunn, at No 7 in Loathing, sheared his foot stretcher, and the race was stopped.

After repairs Smallbone restarted the race, with Loathing fractionally in front, and they maintained the lead past Barnes Bridge. Fear's final push, led by Bonham and solidly backed by the big men in the middle, Reid and Snow, began about 90 seconds out and brought them up agonisingly slowly so that they drew level only on the finish line.