Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-04-09

Tho Annual Contest That Has Been Fought
Since 1899.

Since 1899.
Today's Oxford Cambridge boat race was the
forty-ninth race between the representative
crews Of the famous English univsrsities-Ox-
ford and Cambridge-of which Oxford has
won 20. Cambridge %, with one ''dead heat. "
Whether eight-oared racing originated or not
with the universities, it certainly has been kept
up to its present high standard In England by
the Oxford and Cambridge University boat
clubs, as it has in the United States by the an
nual contests between Yale and Harvard. In
fact, these annual contests are the mainstays
OF amateurism in both countries, for al
though the betting may be heavy and the
feeling run high, there has never been
. shadow Of doubt of the honesty Of all
contending. Many who have rowed in the
English contests have reached high positions in
the church, law, army. diplomacy and medical
science. The English records Of the first fifty
years show that Of the Oxford crews 10S be-
came ministers, 81 lawyers. doctors and 8
went into the army. or those who pulled in
the light blue boat 80 chose the church, so
went into law, 2 doctors and into the army.
Each university had 2 bishops. Wordsworth and
Macdougall from Oxford and the 2 Adwyns
from Cambridge. In the law Chitty of Oxford
reached the bench, as did Brett and Denman
of Cambridge.
One advantage the English crews have had
over those OF Harvard and Yale is in having
friends willing and able to compile the histories
OF the annual races, with biographical sketches
OF those who rowed. 1t is comparatively lit
tie trouble to know the whereabouts Of those
who battled on the Thames thirty or forty years
ago The reverse is the case with those for Har-
ward and Yale, it being difficult il possible, to
get the names of the crews that rowed in the
''ffties." Yet it is well known that these col
leges have sent good men into the world to bat
tie for God and humanity that rowed under the
crimson OF Harvard and the blue of Yale. All
the Improvements made from time to time in
rowing in the matter of boats oars, sliding
seats and otherwise, have been utilized and
made popular by the Oxford and Cambridge
race. The first race, rowed in 1929, WAS in
heavy barges, and they continued to be used
until 1916. when Cambridge won in down.
river race-from Mortlake to Putney-in an
Outraged clinker-built boat 50 feet long, 80
inches wide. with ends uncanvased, the Oxford
boat measuring 5Sl5 feet long. In 1857 the
present style of shells we're first used, as were
round oars, all Of the same length-12 feet
inches.
A change in the style Of rowing also marked
the year, and both the crews were taught the
art Of catching hold of the beginning OF the
stroke. which was not at all part Of the old
style. but which was imperative for the new
light boats without keels. which otherwise
slipped away before the work could be got on.
Oxford had the best of the practice. and in the
race rowed clean away from Cambridge, win
ming easily by 80 seconds, although rowing a
much slower stroke, demonstrating that the
old style OF high feathering and pulling out
hard at the end was OF no use.
In 1873 the then newly invented American
sliding seats were first used in an English uni
versity boat race. Both crews rowed in cedar
shells built by Clasper-that for Cambridge was
81 feet inches long, 251z inches wide, II
inches stem, Ia inches amidships and ~