Oxford crew member William Zeng used Twitter to send Trenton Oldfield, the protester, a series of emotional messages after the race.
Mr Zeng, a doctorate student at Oriel College, tweeted:
‘When I missed your head with my blade I knew only that you were a swimmer, and if you say you are a protester then no matter what you say your cause may be, your action speaks too loudly for me to hear you.Nice and lucid sentiments from an articulate as well as athletic young man, who is a credit to his family and life.
‘I know exactly what you were protesting. You were protesting the right of 17 young men and one woman to compete fairly and honorably, to demonstrate their hard work and desire in a proud tradition.
‘You were protesting their right to devote years of their lives, their friendships, and their souls to the fair pursuits of the joys and the hardships of sport. You, who would make a mockery of their dedication and their courage, are a mockery of a man.’
On the other hand we have the ramblings of Trenton Oldfield from his own website:
'THIS IS A PROTEST, AN ACT OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, A METHODOLOGY OF REFUSING AND RESISTANCE. THIS ACT HAS EMPLOYED GUERRILLA TACTICS. I AM SWIMMING INTO THE BOATS IN THE HOPE I CAN STOP THEM FROM COMPLETING THE RACE AND PROPOSING THE RETURN OF SURPRISE TACTICS. THIS IS ‘PEACEFUL’ … I HAVE NO WEAPONS (DON’T SHOOT!) MY ONLY FEAR, IS NOT SWIMMING FAST ENOUGH TO GET IN THE RIGHT POSITION TO PREVENT THE BOATS.'Trenton Oldfield's manifesto continues:
'The boat race itself, with its pseudo competition, assembled around similar principles of fastest, strongest, selected …etc, is an inconsequential backdrop for these elite educational institutions to demonstrate themselves, reboot their shared culture together in the public realm. It is also inconsequential to the performance that the overwhelming majority of the population continue to remain interested in their own lives and disinterested in the boat race. The boat race, while accessible to everyone, isn’t really advertised or promoted as something for the general public to attend, you know when it’s on because it is part of the social networking calendar. This is a public event, for and by the elites with broader social relations aims.'I will give that statement a good fisking tomorrow.
As for Trenton Oldfield's suggestions for other class warriors:
' If you work in a restaurant where elitists eat, can you serve the food once it is cold or cook the wrong food?There is a word that is coming to my mind...
If you are a builder repairing the house of an elitist can you also bug it and share the footage and audio online?'
3 comments:
would it be 'wanker'?
Sorry but it isn't "British Rowing's big day" - it a big day for undergrads from Oxbridge who go to London, get pissed and vomit in some random front garden.
British rowing has little or nothing to gain from the boat race these days - the majority of competitors are not British.
John B: I did think long and hard before calling it 'British rowing's big day'. I know that Henley is far more important and for the club rower the Head of the River as well BUT The Boat Race is the event that gets pople to watch rowing every year and hopefully inspires a few to take up the sport.
As for your cliched view of Oxbridge undergraduates, please remove chip from one or both of your shoulders. Most Oxbridge undergraduates are neither posh nor likely to throw up in a Putney or Hammersmith garden. I would argue that they are far better behaved than many of the louts who follow football and scream abuse (or worse) at anyone wearing the wrong coloured strip every Saturday of the incessant football season.
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