page_title: The Boat Race 1922
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: The Boat Race 1922 / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Caricature of Sydney Ernest Swann - “The Light Blues Stroke”.
context_page_description: The 74th Boat Race took place on 1 April 1922. Held annually, the Boat Race is a side-by-side rowing race between crews from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge along the River Thames. Cambridge went into the race as reigning champions, having won the previous year's race, and had the significantly heavier crew. Four of the Oxford crew and three of the Cambridge crew had previous Boat Race experience. In this year's race, umpired by former rower Frederick I. Pitman, Cambridge won by ​4 ¹⁄₂ lengths in a time of 19 minutes 27 seconds. It was Cambridge's fourth consecutive victory, the largest winning margin since 1914 and the fastest winning time since 1911.
context_section_description: The Boat Race is a side-by-side rowing competition between the University of Oxford (sometimes referred to as the "Dark Blues") and the University of Cambridge (sometimes referred to as the "Light Blues").  The race was first held in 1829, and since 1845 has taken place on the 4.2-mile (6.8 km) Championship Course on the River Thames in southwest London.  The rivalry is a major point of honour between the two universities; it is followed throughout the United Kingdom and, as of 2014, broadcast worldwide.  Cambridge went into the race as reigning champions, having won the 1921 race by one length, while Oxford led overall with 39 victories to Cambridge's 33 (excluding the "dead heat" of 1877).
  Oxford's coaches were George Drinkwater who had rowed for Oxford in the 1902 and 1903 races, E. D. Horsfall (who had rowed in the three races prior to the First World War) and R. P. P. Rowe who had rowed four times between 1889 and 1892.  Cambridge were coached by H. Peake (who had participated in the Peace Regattas of 1919), Sidney Swann (who had rowed in the four races from 1911 to 1914) and G. L. Thomson.  For the fourteenth year the umpire was old Etonian Frederick I. Pitman who rowed for Cambridge in the 1884, 1885 and 1886 races.
caption: Sidney Swann coached the Cambridge crew.
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