The boat race
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The Boat Race The Cancer Research UK Boat Race |
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| Contested by | |
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| CUBC | OUBC |
| theboatraces |
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| First boat race | 10 June 1829 |
| Annual event since | 15 March 1856 |
| Current champion | Cambridge |
| Largest margin of victory | Cambridge, 35 lengths (1839) |
| Smallest margin of victory | Oxford, 1 foot (2003) |
| Course |
The Championship Course River Thames, London |
| Course length | 4.2 miles (6.8 km) |
| Current sponsor | Cancer Research UK |
| Trophy | The Boat Race Trophy |
| Number of wins | |
| Cambridge | Oxford |
| 82 | 79 |
| Note: There has been one dead heat, recorded in 1877 | |
The Boat Race is a set of annual rowing races between the Oxford University Boat Club and the Cambridge University Boat Club, rowed between eights on the River Thames in London, England. It is also known from 2015 as the University Boat Races and the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Races, or by a title that includes the name of its current sponsor (from 2016, the Cancer Research UK Boat Race, BNY Mellon having donated its sponsorship to the charity). The most recent race was the 2016 race which took place on Sunday 27 March 2016.
The first race was in 1829 and the event has been held annually since 1856, except during the First and Second World Wars. The course covers a 4.2-mile (6.8 km) stretch of the Thames in West London, from Putney to Mortlake. Members of both teams are traditionally known as blues and each boat as a "Blue Boat", with Cambridge in light blue and Oxford dark blue. As of 2016 Cambridge has won the race 82 times and Oxford 79 times, with one dead heat. Cambridge has led Oxford in cumulative wins since 1930.
Upwards of 250,000 people watch the race from the banks of the river each year. In 2009, a record 270,000 people watched the race live. A further 15 million or more watch it on television; currently no other non-country-representative rowing races are broadcast by a television station.
The tradition was started in 1829 by Charles Merivale, a student at St John's College, Cambridge, and his Old Harrovian school friend Charles Wordsworth who was studying at Christ Church, Oxford.Cambridge challenged Oxford to a race at Henley-on-Thames but lost easily. Oxford raced in dark blue because five members of the crew, including the stroke, were from Christ Church, then Head of the River, whose colours were dark blue. There is a dispute as to the source of the colour chosen by Cambridge. The second race was in 1836, with the venue moved to a course from Westminster to Putney. Over the next two years, there was disagreement over where the race should be held, with Oxford preferring Henley and Cambridge preferring London. Following the official formation of the Oxford University Boat Club in 1839, racing between the two universities resumed on the Tideway and the tradition continues to the present day, with the loser challenging the winner to a rematch annually.
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Wikipedia