The Last Amateurs: To Hell and Back with the Cambridge Boat Race Crew

by Mark de Rond

As the Cambridge University Boat Club prepared for the 2007 Boat Race, Mark de Rond - a Cambridge don and fellow of Darwin College - spent a year living the blood, sweat and tears of the 39 students risking all for a chance to challenge Oxford. "The Last Amateurs" is de Rond's intense and deeply personal account of freezing early-morning training sessions, booze-fueled crew 'formals', the tenderness of camaraderie, the pain of self-doubt, and the tantrums and testosterone of crew members, each set on becoming a Cambridge 'Blue'. So what does it take to row in a Boat Race? In this thrilling book, de Rond delves into the depths of what it means to be a man and the primeval desire to compete. Told chronologically and driven by the pursuit of the final victory, the result is a breathtaking portrait of a deeply historical race marked by sharp contrasts - and one in which every sports person will recognize at least a little of themselves.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sports

256 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 2005

Reviews

[Christie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this book in the OECD office kitchen. With my own bit of rowing history as a student, I really enjoyed the book. It definitely gave me the nervous anticipation before racing when described in the book. Rowing is a mighty sport.

I’ll try and watch the Boat Race this year 😃

[Paul Griseri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its Cambridge, and its the Boat Race, so everyone brought up in the UK has prejudices one way or another about the subject matter. But once you get behind that this is an interesting presentation of how a group of highly ambitious and highly athletic young men (and one young woman) bond in their common purpose, and how much anxiety is wrapped up in their aim of winning the race. A lot of ivy league-public school 'toughness' complicates their process, and they are conflicted in both wanting to collaborate (because top class rowing is 80% about how a team manages to row well together) and to out-do their colleagues (there are only eight places and about twenty lads vying for a place).

It is easy to miss what the author is up to. He's an academic ethnographer - i.e. trying to present what he experiences without (as far as is possible) adding contextual or explanatory material. So it comes across as reportage, but it is much more rigorous than even good quality journalism, and like most ethnography you end up with some reflection about his own role in the whole process as well. The author's process side steps any sense of class superiority (it's there implicitly, but not a distraction, more an input into the whole narrative) as well as not being sentimental about the substantial disappointment when one or other rower learns that they will not be in the final eight.

The writing is very present, and the tension builds up well, so by the end you are rooting for Cambridge to win no matter what. Some of the biological intimacy is a bit unnecessary (do we really need so often to know who farted and when) but the physical concreteness of the story is important.

The book has a limited scope, one which will fade in time, so it's not an eternal must-read. But it is instructive and a good read.

[Jalaluddin Abdullah · Rating 4 out of 5]

De Rond's writing skills are clearly still being honed in this stimulating and entertaining book. To expect an ethnographer to be able to write like a novelist is perhaps asking too much, but all in all, I found the book to be insightful in so many ways that any minor stylistic qualms I might have had soon gave way to a genuine enthusiasm for the subject and the message. Living with a team within such an evocative and historic environment as Cambridge cannot have been easy and one of the most tellingly positive aspects of the final product is that the CUBC guys still hold him in high regard. From an academic standpoint, De ROnd's later work ("There is an I in team") benefits from the experiences that he gained in living with the Cambridge crew. Since this book was published De Rond's standing and reputation have earned him very significantly as an ethnographer. Therefore I am not sure if he will ever come back to the subject in the way that he approached in "Last Amateurs" which I think is a shame because part of the appeal of Last Amateurs is a certain innocence. I would recommend this book for anyone that is interested either in the Oxbridge boat race or in the dynamics of high-performance teams.

[Hugh Sheehy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good insight into the Boat Race, but not as impressive a piece compared to Boys in the Boat.

[Wolfgang · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like sentences like this one, you will like this book:
"As any oarsman will tell you, there's nothing worse, nothing more humiliating and more sickening, than seeing your crew mates fallen over with exhaustion and yet feeling that you could have pushed harder. All that remains is for you to live with the guilt, knowing that you let your side down."
This is a fact-driven book. For the emotions, watch the race movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTH6NC... and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x66ZP_...
Three stars before watching the race on Youtube, four stars after.

[Vern Glaser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read, for sports-loving guys who love real life stories it is really enjoyable. Not appropriate for kids though.

[Vern Glaser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book! enjoyed the story, a little raw for kids but worth reading if you like competition and sports...