The Great Boat Race

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 109, 17 May 1901, Page 1

The Great Boat Race

OXFORD’S VICTORY. Oxford won the boat race on March 30 by two feet. It was the closest, the pluckiest, the hardest, and, therefore, the finest race that in the memory of the oldest Blue ever was rowed. From the technical point of view of the rowing expert neither erew was in the very first class. Perhaps more than one of the crews which have led unexciting processions in un- j distinguished years could have made common hacks of Saturday’s winners. But that matters nothing. There is no glory in an easy win. It is the strenuousness of the struggle that is the measure of the triumph of vie tory, and whether they were in the .very first rank as oarsmen or not, the two crews of Saturday made the finest race of it that has ever been seen on the river. . To the Cambridge president belongs a great share of the popular gratitude for the greatness of the race. He won the toss. It is a simple and not uncommon achievement, and he would be the last to claim any merit for it. But his winning the toss, and the most favourable station made the greatness of the race. If Oxford had gained this advantage the race might have been after the first few minutes a tame, one-sided affair. For the result proved that Oxford were the better crew, and with the better crew having the advantage of the more sheltered position the result could never have been in doubt. But Mr Brooke, to his lasting credit, named the ' spinning coin correctly, and the advantage of the Surrey station equalised the chances so perfectly that the two crews were at the closest of grips all the way, and there was only the difference of a mere couple of feet at the finish.

Cambridge got rather the better of the start, but from the first the superior form of the Oxford crew was apparent. However, form does not assert its value in a moment, and Cambridge held its own, both sides working like demons, until at tho bend in the river their stations began to give them an' advantage. But which side was leading or by how much it was impossible to see from the following boats. The shifting angle of view as the river turned seemed to givo first one and then the other side an advantage. But what could be seen was that every man in each boat was straining every muscle of his body and every strand of resolution in his moral fibre. They went under Hammersmith Bridge dead level amid tremendous excitement. Then, in the bend of the river where the south-wester meeting the tide threw up white-crested rollers, Cambridge had the inside turn and the most sheltered position. They began to forge ahead, the Dark Blue hanging doggedly on. At Barnes Cambridge were still leading, and shot the bridge first, but hero with another bend the broken water smoothed down and Oxford had the inside course.

Now was their opportunity. Gradually they closed up and up, made good the difference, and just managing to push themselves ahead kept their position, and won by two feet—two feet in a four-mile race which each crew had rowed all the way at one mile paoe. Culme-Seymour, the Oxford stroke, won those two feet by judgment. THE CRITICAL POINT. Nearing the Doves the bad water could be seen ahead. The Cambridge cox went right in under the Surrey shore, and Culmeafter nearly getting level took a long look'round, first at the water ahead and then at his rivals. He then showed the finest piece of generalship in the race. He deliberately slowed down and gave the lead to the Cantabs. It was not worth killing his men in such a raging sea. The waves were terrible off Chiswick and in Corney Beaoh. Maitland spurted continually, and tried his best to get right away from the Oxford boat, which had dropped into the wake. Culme-Seymour, splendidly backed up by T. B. Etherington-Smith, nursed his crew through the rough water, never hurrying them or calling upon them for any special effort. When a wave caught them badly he slowed and got them together again. So Oxford hung on ip the wake of their rivals, bidipg their time.

Had the Oxford stroke eyes in the back of his head he could not have shown more perfect judgment. Had he attempted to get level along the Meadows the effort would have killed the crew. The fact was the Cantabs’ boat was very full of water, and their uneven form was beginning to tell against them. They held the lead, but could not get away from the steady swing of the Oxonians, r

Nearing Barnes both crews were being terribly buffeted; tho waves continually broke over their baoks, and the water in the boats splashed about up to their ankles. So the boats laboured and rolled, and there was never a second’s respite from the struggle with the wind and waves.

A tangent across to the Middlesex shore had to be struck. This is what Culme- Seymour had waited for, but Maitland was also watching his rival’s tactics. Suddenly both crews quickened. It was a critical moment of the race, for a few hundred yards further and Oxford would have.the station- The Cantabs struck 16 strokes in half a minute, and quickened to 37 to the minute. This great effort told its tale later, but Oxford was once more stalled off, and the Cantabs shot Barnes Bridge in 19m. 10s., well over a length to the good. CULJIE-SEYMOUR’S TRIUMPH, The race seemed over. If Oxford had a final spurt left in them, eyen their strongest partisans admitted that it had been now delayed too long. In this they failed to realise two facts. Firstly, though the Cambridge boat was manned by eight game and plucky ogrsniep, that it was, nevertheless, not a really first-class crew; secondly, that CulmeSeymour was a born stroke, and had been steadily nursing his crew in the cruel water the boats had been floundering through. A sudden spasmodic shout from tho steamers apd the banks showed that Oxford were" making their effort. How they rowed, those eight Oxford men I Off tho White Hait the Cantabs [realised that the victory was possibly to be snatched from thsm. The stroke was suddenly-Mar too suddenly—raised to 40 to the minute, and the coxswain, presumably losing his bead for the moment, steered out towards the Surrey shore, The Cantabs rowed pluckily, but their previous efforts had told on them. Lack of true combination of

form at the finish of a punishing race told its tale. They failed to hold any length of stroke. By the time Maitland and Duncan, son had settled down to a more steady 36, and the coxswain hadjgot his boat pointing straight up river again;fOxiord were level. It was then a ding-dong struggle between the 16 exhausted men. It was impossible to say which crew showed the greatest pluck. Not a man failed ip .either erew. A few strokes forced in at almost breaking point pushed the bows of the Oxford boat in front of the Light Blues as the winning-post was breastod in 33m. 31s.