By Martin Gough

Le Neve Foster and Reed are rare late-comers to rowing

If the Boat Race is trying to move away from its image of being the preserve of public schoolboys and foreign all-stars it has not done a very good job in 2004.

Of the 16 oarsmen from Oxford and Cambridge who weighed in on Tuesday for the 150th version of the event, 10 are from overseas.

Just one of the 16 - Oxford's Peter Reed - attended comprehensive school and one - Chris Le Neve Foster of Cambridge - learned to row while at his current university.

But accusations of friendly recruitment policies and easy courses are wide of the mark.

You would be very hard-pushed to win the race with eight young, inexperienced undergraduates Robin Williams Cambridge coach

And Cambridge in particular have been forced to scout within the ranks of current students to stay up with the pace.

"We have no mechanism for getting people into the university - that's got to be an academic decision," Oxford coach Sean Bowden explains.

"There's nothing we can do materially and there seem to be relatively few soft courses."

Bowden's Light Blue counterpart Robin Williams defends the inclusion of six foreign post-graduates in his line-up, saying it reflects the student population at Cambridge.

"They're not all-stars; they're varsity guys but they've got a bit more physical maturity," he argues.

CHRIS LE NEVE FOSTER Nationality: British Age: 23 Height: 6ft 5in Weight: 88.4kg Cambridge profiles

"You would be very hard-pushed to win the race with eight young, inexperienced undergraduates these days."

Le Neve Foster is one inexperienced oarsman who is bucking the trend.

A former pupil at Royal Grammar, Guildford, he was spotted on his arrival at Cambridge because he was a suitable build, and fast-tracked towards the Blue Boat.

"It's never something I would have thought of taking up unless I'd come to this university," he says.

"I could never dream of being in any other sporting event with such a high profile and such a great history."

It was a lifestyle choice to make sacrifices, accept that work and relationships would suffer Chris Le Neve Foster

Now 6ft 5in, he played tennis at school and did not even make the first rugby team, and he was far from ready for the demands of training for the Boat Race.

Williams explains: "Three years is pretty good going [to get in the Blue Boat] but if they're on a three-year course that's all the time they've got.

"Anybody could get fit in six months but getting the overall level of power and physiological development you need takes a few years."

Reed, who went to Cirencester Deer Park School, went through the rowing learning process while at the University of the West of England.

He was spotted in the gym, where his rowing machine scores were better than many of the rowing club, and has gone on to represent Great Britain at Under-23 level.

The 22-year-old enrolled at Oxford because of the rowing, but still has to study for a Masters in Mechanical Engineering.

PETER REED Nationality: British Age: 22 Height: 6ft 6in Weight: 98.7kg Oxford profiles

He says the levels of training at his old university were the same on paper as at Oxford, but with a vital difference.

"Everybody looks to train twice a day - but at OUBC you actually do it and you do it to the best of your ability.

"The biggest difference is that everyone in the squad wants to row more than anything else and would give up everything for rowing."

Both men have had to adjust to a programme that demands five hours of training between morning lectures and other studies.

"It was a lifestyle choice to make sacrifices, accept that work and relationships would suffer and I wouldn't be able to go out as much," says Le Neve Foster.

"You lose some good things about being a student."

But then few students get to take part in an international sporting event.