Putney to Barnes

A dozen and a half tense young gentlemen sat in two boats on the River Thames. They were divided evenly, had come there to row a race. There was nothing noticeable about these young gentlemen save that half wore the dark blue of Oxford, half the light blue of Cambridge, and that they had more hyphens and initials among them than ordinary folk. There was P. W. Murray-Threipland, for instance, an old Etonian in the bow of the Oxford shell, and M. F. A. Kean, an old Haileyburian, in the Cambridge bow. The stalwart on the Cambridge stroke-thwart was E. C. Hamilton-Russell. The bird-like little coxswain before him had a plain name, J. A. Brown, but J. A. Brown was impressive enough for the Oxonians. J. A. Brown had already steered two Cantab crews to victory in as many years and Sir James Croft, the mouse-eyed little man in the Oxford stern, peeked over at him nervously. But Sir Jeremy could have been by no means so nervous as two others present: R. T. B. Craggs, Cambridge No. 4, who had been substituted at the last minute for a man down with measles; and

H. R. A. Edwards, Oxford No. 5, who was only a freshman and had no idea what he was up against in a ifour-and-a-quarter-mile Varsity race.

The Thames is a most messy river at the point (between Putney and Barnes) where it is still customary to hold these annual races. But this day it was calm, at least not torn with tide-rips as it was last year when the Oxford shell water-logged and sank. And one's family could get a halfway decent look at the show this year, for it was held in the morning before the plebs were turned loose from the factories to swarm the banks and rowdy on the bridgeheads.

The Oxford men were a shade the heavier. As they swung off from the start, aided by the Surrey-side current that Stroke Pitman had won in the toss, they drew three-quarters of a length ahead with a short, strong stroke, beating 36 to the minute against the 34 of the Cantab boat. Here was work for J. A. Brown. His beautiful steering helped bring Cambridge, rowing smoothly, almost abreast. The Oxford-heavies tried a spurt. At the mile the bows were dead even. Without hitting it up, the smooth-stroking Cantabs drew ahead, pricking Oxford to a fresh spurt that shot her under Hammersmith Bridge, leading by a third of a length. Cambridge stuck to her steady stroke of 28 and all was even again at the two-mile mark.

Now a bend in the river favored J. A. Brown and Cambridge. Hugging the, bank, he called for 31 to the minute. Oxford hit up a game 32 and rowed it nicely if strenuously to stay in the race. Then the watchers on the shore saw something happen to Oxford. H. R. A. Edwards, the freshman No. 5, appeared to pull his chin down on his chest turtlewise. His shoulders sagged forward, his oar dragged. In a bit, he was rowing well again, but the race was over. Gliding along four lengths ahead, Cambridge spurted at the end, came within a minute of the record (18 min., 29 sec., established in 1911), shook hands all around as fresh as fresh.