Dark v.. Light

Dark v. Light

Inter-varsity rowing, in the thoughts of all true Britishers, begins and ends before the U. S. rowing season starts--with "The Boat Race" between Oxford (Dark Blue) and Cambridge (Light Blue), over four miles of the Thames between Putney Bridge and Mortlake Brewery. Almost as much of a tradition as the boat race itself is its result. Before last week's race, Cambridge had won 13 in a row, lost only one since the War. After a false start, the race started out as usual last week: Cambridge, in the Surrey-side lane, pulled around the first curve with a growing lead.

Shaped like an S, the Thames course gives the shell on the Surrey side the advantage at the start but, to win, it must be at least three lengths ahead at Hammersmith Bridge where the shell on the Middlesex side takes the inner lane until the race is over. When last week, instead of being ahead at Hammersmith, Cambridge was amazingly a few feet behind, spectators on the banks knew how the race must end. For a few lengths, Cambridge's U. S. coxswain, Hunter, and Oxford's Merifield--replacing 56-lb. Hart Massey who was so minute that his crew would have needed a special shell (TIME, Feb. 1) --steered their boats so close that from the bank it looked as though the oars might lock. Then, with Hodgson at stroke, Sturrock and Cherry, veterans of England's Olympic crew, in the next two slides, Oxford began to draw away. Its lead was a boat's length at Barnes Bridge, two lengths at White Hart Inn, three lengths at the finish.

The Boat Race crowd--anywhere from 300,000 to 1,000,000, depending on the weather--is usually the biggest sports crowd of the year. Last week it was not so large as usual because the tides made it impossible to hold the race on a Saturday. The disturbances in London which always mark Boat Race evening were correspondingly more jolly. Three record-breaking trials had put Oxford undergraduates in fine fettle before the race was rowed. To celebrate, they rioted so jubilantly in the theatres that performances were stopped, tried as usual to raze the statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus.

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