In pictures: 2023 Christmas Head boat race in Cambridge is a festive delight

As ever, there was a plethora of weird and wonderful costumes on display as teams took to the River Cam in fancy dress on Saturday (December 2) for this year’s Christmas Head race.

The 2023 edition of the popular annual event was held along a 1,800m-long course running from the Pike & Eel Hotel and Marina to outside Jesus College boathouse.

The fastest open boat was The Mightiest VIII from Downing College Boat Club, with a time of 06.35, the fastest women’s boat was Senior Women, from Cantabs, with a time of 06.55. The fastest mixed boat was Senior Squads, also from Cantabs, with a time of 06.43.

Best fancy dress was a tie between Backs to the Future, who dressed their boat up as the DeLorean from Back to the Future, and Slinky dog who, as the name suggests, turned their boat into a slinky dog, with a head at the front, a tail at the back, and a spring in between.

Best line (the best course under the Green Dragon Bridge, a very hard corner to take) was won by Jess Upton, cox of Housewives Choice.

Omar Terywall was the cox of the ‘Peas in a Pod’ team, which was put together by the Cambridge Rowing Experience.

He said of the event: “It was fantastic; it was really well organised by the City of Cambridge Rowing Club, and cold, but everyone was in good spirits – and there were some wonderful costumes out there that just made it even more worthwhile.”

John Leighton, events secretary at City of Cambridge Rowing Club, said: “It was really good fun; we had nearly 1,000 people rowing and I think 181 boats entered, so it was a big event.

“It went well in some pretty challenging conditions, because it was so cold over the weekend. I think all the competitors did a really good job keeping their spirits up and everyone seems to have had a great time.”

John added: “We seemed to have lots of people on the bank – it’s always a good fun one because there are the people who really make an effort with the fancy dress, but quite a lot of people dress up as well, even if it’s not to the point where they’ve stuck a DeLorean on their boat or a dog’s head on top!”