111th Boat Race | |||
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Date | 3 April 1965 | ||
Winner | Oxford | ||
Margin of victory | 4 lengths | ||
Winning time | 18 minutes 7 seconds | ||
Overall record (Cambridge–Oxford) |
61–49 | ||
Umpire |
G. A. Ellison (Oxford) |
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Other races | |||
Reserve winner | Isis | ||
Women's winner | Cambridge | ||
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The 111th Boat Race took place on 26 March 1966. Held annually, the event is a side-by-side rowing race between crews from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge along the River Thames. The race was won by Oxford, who led from the start, by three-and-three-quarter-lengths, in the third fastest time in Boat Race history. Isis won the inaugural reserve race while Cambridge won the Women's Boat Race.
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, followed throughout the United Kingdom and broadcast worldwide. Cambridge went into the race as reigning champions, having won the previous year's race by six-and-half lengths, and led overall in the event with 61 victories to Oxford's 48 (excluding the "dead heat" of 1877).
The first Women's Boat Race took place in 1927, but did not become an annual fixture until the 1960s. Until 2014, the contest was conducted as part of the Henley Boat Races, but as of the 2015 race, it is held on the River Thames, on the same day as the men's main and reserve races. It was the first year of the reserve race, contested between Oxford's Isis boat and Cambridge's Goldie boat. According to author and journalist Christopher Dodd, allowing the reserves to race on the Tideway was "a curtain-raiser to the battle of the blues and to give the up-and-coming men some experience of the Putney razzle-dazzle". Since then, it has usually taken place on the Thames, prior to the main Boat Race.