3-082-409 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Universities' Boat-Race: the Cambridge crew at practice - putting in the boat, 1895. 'Of perennial interest is the aquatic contest between Oxford and Cambridge on the Thames. The daily doings of the crews are followed by schoolboy and senator alike...On the Continent, in India, and in our Colonies the same earnest consideration is given to the rival claims of Light Blue versus Dark Blue, and the result is soon made the common property of the civilised world...the prowess of young athletes is of national importance just as it was in the far-off days of the Olympic Games. This year the cold weather has created a serious difficulty in the practice of the Blues, but fortunately milder weather has lately prevailed, and allowed the usual work to be accomplished on the river...The Cambridge crew was coached by Mr. S. D. Muttlebury; they went as far as Mortlake, showing undoubted improvement'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.