Cambridge on home waters for crowd-free Oxford boat race

ELY, England: Sandwiched between a country road and a train line, the wind funnelled by its banks, the Great Ouse river appears an unlikely venue for one of Britain's most watched sports events.

But with England in partial lockdown and one of the bridges over their usual London boat race course in danger of collapse, a stretch of the Great Ouse in Cambridgeshire is where Oxford and Cambridge universities' rowers will lock oars on Sunday. The contest, which dates back to 1829, was cancelled last year during Britain's first coronavirus lockdown, leaving Cambridge unable to defend both the men's and women's races.