The Return of Bumps

Head of Politics, Ross Simmonds, writes:

Bumps racing in 1948

Over three evenings, on the 9^th, 10^th and 11^th October, rowing crews from all Houses will take part in a House Bumps event. This is the first time since 1974 that the school has run bumps, once a regular feature in the calendar. There have been some changes to the school in the past fifty years and so the event has changed as well. There will be two divisions, one for boys and one for girls, with each House entering a crew of five: four rowers and a cox. The co-residential Houses will race in both divisions but in composite crews in the girls’ division: Field House/Cooper Lodge and Apsley/Sing’s.

Just as it was in the past, the event will run in coxed 4s with the first of the two divisions starting around 4.45pm on each day and the second starting thirty minutes later. The crews will be easy to spot; House tops will be worn and blades will be painted in the House colours.

A Bumps card from 1941

Bumps racing exists in a number of forms at other schools and universities. We will be sticking as close as possible to the version of the event run in the first half of the last century. That was run on the Godstow stretch of the Thames, between the location of the current St Edward’s Boathouse and Port Meadow at Fiddler’s Island. The new event will start just above Bossoms Marina near to Fiddler’s Island, racing back towards the Boathouse – a distance of just over a kilometre. Actual contact between crews will be discouraged, but crews will still be seeking to overtake or ‘bump’ the one that started ahead of them. If a crew is successful and ‘bumps’ another they will start ahead of them the next day. Bumping or being bumped awards or loses a crew a point, with the crew with the greatest number of points at the end of the three days winning their event. Two trophies will be emerging from the archives, both competed for in the period when Bumps was last raced in Houses, between 1925 and 1974. 

Spectators in 1947

The event will be enhanced by support and enthusiasm and parents are welcome to come to Port Meadow and cheer on the crews from the banks of the Thames. The majority of the school spectators will be on the Port Meadow/Oxford side of the river, which will not require traversing the bridges to Binsey. Access to the best vantage points will be across Port Meadow via the Aristotle Lane railway bridge or Walton Well Road (where there is a useful City Council car park). Racing will take place between 4.45pm and 5.30pm each day.