A FORMER school tennis captain swapped racket strokes for rowing strokes to help Cambridge take a clean sweep in Sunday's Boat Races.

Monmouth Rowing Club member Becky Ashford, whose main sport was tennis as a pupil at Monmouth School for Girls, was on board the Cambridge 'Blondie' women's 2nd 8 that raced over the full 4 1/4-mile Thames course in front of the 200,000-strong riverside crowd, powering clear of Oxford's Osiris to win by 4L in 19 minutes 17 seconds.

Allied to the men's, women's and men's reserve boat wins, it was Cambridge's fourth clean sweep following successes in 1993, 2018 and 2023.

Becky took up rowing seriously in 2022 when she attended Exeter University, where she graduated with a 1st class BSc with Honours in Business and Management with Industrial Experience.

She is currently studying an MPhil in Environmental Policy at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, and said before racing alongside the likes of GB world junior medallist Eloise Etherington: "I can’t imagine being at Cambridge and not being part of CUBC. I have absolutely made friends for life and have never been part of a more supportive team who inspire me every day!"