This was a year of misfortunes for Cambridge and they failed to overcome
them. Hubert Sanger had been elected President and he had available three
other old Blues from 1904, ostensibly providing a good basis for a crew,
although one of these P.H. Thomas was not available at the time of the
original selection. Among the potential newcomers was an Etonian
W.P.Wormald who had acquired a good reputation at school, but who had to
give up rowing for medical reasons and who never competed for Cambridge. At
Putney another old Blue (S. M. Bruce) had to drop out of the crew, though
theoretically this was not a great loss because P.H. Thomas who had rowed
and won in three previous Cambridge crews (1902-1904) and was a very
competent oarsmen, was now available and could replace him. In the event
however this was probably a factor in the Cambridge poor performance,
because he had just returned from a prolonged expedition to Africa, was
certainly not rowing fit and had virtually no time to fit into the crew or
its style of rowing.
The Oxford President A. K. Graham had been de facto President in the late
stages of the previous year, and set about forming his 1905 crew quite
early. There were five members of the 1904 Oxford crew available for
selection and among the newcomers was H. C. Bucknall, who subsequently
stroked the victorious Great Britain Olympic VIII of 1908. Unlike Cambridge
they suffered from no major setbacks during the training period, but as a
crew it never became a really cohesive force.
Cambridge won the toss and invited Oxford to row on Surrey in a fairly
strong south-west wind, a very modest tide which was not impeded by any
significant amount of land water. The wind had very little effect along the
Putney Reach but it could obviously adversely affect the rowing in the
second half of the Race.
This was one of the races of which the result became clear from the end of
the first minute. Oxford went off the stake-boat faster than their rivals
and despite the fact that the Light Blues had the advantage of the first
bend, Oxford reached the Mile Post in 4 minutes 5 seconds with a length of
clear water behind them (7 seconds lead). They could now entirely dominate
the Race, reaching Hammersmith Bridge the same distance ahead in 7 minutes
34 seconds and then, without undue effort keep out of the rather choppy
water to reach Chiswick Steps in 12 minutes 10 seconds having gained
another second since Hammersmith. By Barnes Bridge (16 minutes 59 seconds)
they had gained a further second and they completed the course in 20
minutes 35 seconds ahead of Cambridge by 11 seconds which was recorded,
rather kindly to Cambridge as 3 lengths.
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