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General knowledge · Sport

The Boat Race

First raced 1829

Sport — rowing

The annual eights race between Oxford and Cambridge universities, rowed each spring on the Championship Course of the tidal Thames between Putney and Mortlake, a distance of 4 miles and 374 yards. First contested at Henley in 1829 after a challenge between two school friends, it has been rowed at Putney since 1845 and has been a fixture of the British sporting calendar ever since. The women's race, begun in 1927, has been held on the same day and course since 2015.

How to spot them

  • ▸Dark blue versus light blue; a tidal course from Putney to Mortlake
  • ▸4 miles and 374 yards; Hammersmith Bridge, Barnes Bridge, Chiswick Bridge
  • ▸The winning presidents toss an 1829 sovereign for stations
  • ▸Crews of eight with a cox; no prize money and no trophy beyond the race itself

Key facts

Four miles and 374 yards of tidal Thames from Putney to Mortlake

The Championship Course, used since 1845; the stations are called Surrey and Middlesex

Presidents toss an 1829 sovereign to choose the Surrey or Middlesex station (1829)

The coin dates from the year of the first race; the choice is decided by the wind and the bends

Dark blue against light blue, with eight rowers and a cox in each crew

Oxford dark blue, Cambridge light blue; a competitor who rows in it earns a 'Blue'

First contested at Henley in 1829 after a challenge between two school friends (1829)

Charles Wordsworth of Oxford and Charles Merivale of Cambridge; Oxford won

A protester swimming in the Thames stopped the 2012 race, which had to be restarted (2012)

Trenton Oldfield swam into the path of the crews; the restart ended with an Oxford oar snapped and a collapsed bowman

In 2026 Cambridge's men won a fourth in a row and Oxford's women won for the first time since 2016 (2026)

Rowed on 4 April; the men's tally moved to Cambridge 89, Oxford 81

Quick-fire facts

  • •The first race was rowed at Henley-on-Thames in 1829; it moved to the Putney–Mortlake course in 1845
  • •The course is 4 miles 374 yards (6.8 km) and is rowed on the flood tide so the crews travel with the current
  • •The 2021 race was moved to the Great Ouse at Ely because Hammersmith Bridge was unsafe
  • •Crews that lead at Hammersmith Bridge win about four times in five
  • •The men's course record is 16 minutes 19 seconds, set by Cambridge in 1998; the women's is 18 minutes 33 seconds, by Cambridge in 2017
  • •Only one race has been a dead heat, in 1877, when the judge 'Honest John' Phelps declared it so
  • •Both crews sank in 1912 and Cambridge sank in 1978 and 1984
  • •The women's race began in 1927 and has been rowed on the same day and course as the men's since 2015
  • •As of 2026 Cambridge lead the men's series 89–81 and the women's 49–31

Drill it — 10 cards

1 / 10new card

Sources