Cambridge crew gives Boat Race a London edge

London always provides the setting for the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race but this year it will provide many of the combatants too.

Four of the eight rowers in the Cambridge boat come from London or Kent, according to the team sheets unveiled today.

The crew includes Henry Pelly, 24, who was born in Bromley and educated at Eton College. He is now a masters student in environmental architecture at St Edmund's College.

He is joined by Peter Marsland, 23, who went to Hampton School and is now studying for a masters in environmental policy at Clare Hall. He took up rowing two years ago after injury forced him to give up rugby.

Tobias Garnett, 20, who is studying English at Trinity, is carrying on a family tradition by joining the race - his great uncle, Kenneth Garnett, took part in 1914. Tobias attended King's College School in Wimbledon.

Completing the quartet is Tom Ransley, from Ashford, studying history at Hughes Hall College.

This year's race on 29 March will be the 154th. Cambridge won last year, giving it a 79-73 lead in the event (there was one dead heat).