 According to author and former Oxford rower George Drinkwater, "there was a gale blowing ... which met a spring tide, so that the water was very rough from the start." Oxford, the slight pre-race favourites, won the toss and elected to start from the Middlesex station, handing the rougher Surrey side of the river to Cambridge. Willan started the race at 3: 47 p.m. but within four strokes, the Cambridge boat was "half-full of water".
