Chairman prepares celebrity boat race crew

YOU may well recognise some of the famous faces in this boat.

There’s Sir Steve Redgrave, five-time Olympic champion and now chairman of Henley Royal Regatta, but most of the others are not rowers at all.

They are celebrities who are to take part in a special boat race in aid of Cancer Research UK.

Sir Steve is coaching one eight while his former  crew-mate James Cracknell is preparing the rival boat. The event will take place on the River Thames on the same day as the actual Boat Race on April 2 and will be broadcast on BBC 1.

Sir Steve’s boat will be coxed by Leander athlete and Rio silver medallist Zoe de Toledo and will also include TV presenters Dan Walker, Dan Snow and Michelle Ackerley, model Jodie Kidd, McFly drummer Harry Judd, comedian Mark Watson and Olympic medallists Helen Glover and George Nash. Their rivals include triple Olympic gold medallist Andrew Triggs Hodge who lives in Checkendon, para-rower James Fox, rower Emma Spruce, journalist Sophie Raworth, swimmer Rebecca Adlington, DJ Vernon Kay, TV presenters Gethin Jones and Ore Oduba and comedian Zoe Lyons (cox).

If you’re looking for a winner, listen to Strictly Come Dancing winner Ore who says: “This is the kind of group that will find it quite easy to fall in the water.”