Cambridge College Bumps Races

The bumps are unconventional rowing races- find out how they work in Cambridge!
Video clarification:
- Willow branches are given to the boats who have bumped other boats
- Each division usually has 18 boats, with one boat referred to as the "sandwich boat"- a crew that finishes in the top spot of their division, gaining the opportunity to race at the bottom of the next division.
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[@CollinEvans]

This is the first and only explanation of bump racing that has made sense to me. Awesome!

[@yettsoman4364]

1:18 It's the crew of the boat that does the bumping that put the branches in their hair, not the bumped boat.

[@jdm2626]

Wow really interesting! Never knew what this was until someone posted it on reddit.

[@BenTavener]

Hi there, I'm Ben from the BBC World Service. Are we available to use this video in a piece about the Bumps, giving you an on-screen credit? Please let me know - many thanks!

[@happytosee1]

What distance are the races?

[@mads4it555]

I come from Cambridgeshire {a small village near Ely} and I had never heard of The Bump Races until today, 11 December 2023 AFAIK anyway.
THIS WHOLE BUMPS RACING SOUNDS REALLY FUN AND REALLY FASCINATING TO ME!
BUT: I have/will always hold the opinion that the tv coverage of Cambridge v Oxford boat race is a total yawn fest, tedious, boring and not in any way interesting...
...To me, it's something "Toffs {Rich Twits} do for fun and exercise}.
I know that's not all of them, but it's MY opinion... THAT type of straight race would bore the sh|t out of me any day, and twice on Sundays. I wouldn't ever watch... You couldn't pay me enough to do that! Waste all that time, not me... I'd definitely rather read a book or if i had to, watch the earliest episodes of Emmerdale Farm whenever it started... but I wouldn't enjoy that either. Neither flips any of my switches... I'd rather watch paint dry, honestly.
HOWEVER...
If this Bump Racing was televised I'd watch every race, trying to spot all the bumps myself and also do my own scoring, as the officials do...
Every bump, every race, every college, every day, for the whole every day each meeting every year, you'd find me glued to the TV.
Never will watch a straight race, but this... you couldn't stop me! Lol
Oh BTW... Now, I live much closer to Oxford than Cambridge but...
Oxford... you are more boring than Cambridge ever could get, so there! Stick that in your pipe! {Sniggers and smirks, behind raised hand} I feel a teensy bit mean saying that, but Cambridge is local to me. Oxford is a far away place that I've never been to, plus what could it offer me compared to Cambridge?