THE UNIVERSITY BOAT RACE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 121, 24 May 1877, Page 2

THE UNIVERSITY BOAT RACE

A graphic description of this great event I in the sporting world by an eye witness was received by a gentleman in town by the San Francisco mail, and has by him been kindly placed at our disposal. As will be seen by a perusal of it there can be no doubt as to the side on which the writer's sympathies were enlisted, so that we may as well state at once that he is a member of the University of Oxford, and consequently i 's report cau scarcely be looked upon as an unbiassed one. He says:— "A g .eat deal of betting was done ou tho crews, and many must have stood to win large amouuts, for it was fhe easiest thing possible up to the last moment to find one man laying 4 to 3 on Oxford and a yard off another putting 5t03 on Cambridge. The London Rowing Cub all went for Cambridge, and the majority of the public for Oxford. The race was rowed soon after eight o'clock on a cold morning wth a very strong wind blowing down tl e river. I was off at 5.30 f_p Putney on foot having a ticket for the Oxford steamer. I dou't know whether you have ever been iu the steamer, (I suppose the present plan of only four setamers was not started in your time) if not you can scarcely conceive what it is to watch every stroke from beginning to end, especially when you know almost all the crew. By the time they got off. the fide, which had been a miserably poor one, was actually running down and before reaching Hammersmith they 'must have been rowing against a considerable stream instead of with a great spring tide as usual. Oxford had the inside round the first corner, but to my dismay did not gain more than a qua fer of a length, so when the Soap Works bend came the other way I made sure they must fall behind. Then first a wild cheer went up from our steamer as wc saw that on the outside of the circle and without quickening their stroke they i actually held their own; under the Hammer- j smith Bridgo I believe tbey raced exactly ! level, rowing stroke for stroke and with the cars only two feet apart, but, as you know the course still goes on for quite another mile in favor of Cambridge, who, at the beginning of tho eyot were, perhaps, three feet ahead. The rowing hero was simply perfection. I never saw anything in my life to equal it. Though side by side the stroke was maintained exactly at 37 in each boat Neither seemed in the least flurried, every stroke was clean and well rowed out, and the time was faultless. Oh! it would have done you good to see it. There can't be much the matter with England, or "these degenerate days wheu men can row like that. Up the straight towards Barnes, Oxford, having held their own all round lhat trying corner slightly quickened their stroke, and began rapHly to gain, and cheer r.fter cheer went

up as with the next corner in our favor the race seemed certain. Under Barnes Bridge Oxford was a good length ahead, a foot or two of daylight being visible between the boats. Here the effort made by Cambridge passes description; they had heen working like giants hefore, but now they quickened up to 40, and seemed more like maniacs thau mortals. We all thought it was a dying struggle, and so, I believe, it would have been, but as Oxford began to answer to their spurt, bow (one or two of us had remarked a minute before how T.ightfully hard he was rowing) with a violent stroke broke his oar off at the button, the crew were thrown out for a stroke or two, and Cambridge in an instant shot up level. Then ensued a scene that baffles description; our bow's oar, though broken in two, held together by the leather, he drew it in rapidly, and with the handle hauging over the right side of the boat rowed as well as he could, holding on at the leather. Practically, of course, all lie could do was to swing aud slide and keep time, so with seven oars against eight they rowed this last third of a mile, a. nearly all the four miles before had been, as level as possible. Cambridge were by now pulling with a sort of desperation, out of time, but still each man working for his life. You must have seen boats at Oxford hold their own in front of the barges in that way long after feeling and sight were gone, and so Oxford, though their time and swing were perfect up to the last, and with their strongest man useless in the bows, could not shake their opponents off, and the judge, hemmed in by boats, and utterly unable to see, was obliged to give it a dead heat. C shall always believe that Oxford won by at least two feet, indeed, they say the Cambridge coxswain acknowledges this, but after such a plucky struggle as they made one cannot grudge them a share in the honors. The first telegrams sent and first editions of papers all spread the news that Orford had won, and one paper (uot au Irish one) had in large letters the next day— " ExtraorJiuary Race I Dead Heat ! Oxford won by two feet I "