I note a rather marked tendency among the boat-race commentators
to write almost as if the honours this year belonged to Oxford. That seems a perverse view, except on the assumption that to finish anything less than three lengths behind Cambridge is a remarkable achieve- ment. Admittedly, Holdsworth rowed as fine a losing race as anyone could wish to see ; but Cambridge, with three old blues in the boat to Oxford's four, and in spite of the loss of Luxton at the key-position of six no more than a fortnight before the race, won with plenty in hand. What each crew is out for, after all, is to get to the winning-post first, and Cambridge, having accom- plished that, deserves all credit for the accomplishment. The real fact is, I suppose, that the long succession of Cambridge victories has created a kind of inferiority- complex about Oxford in the minds not only of Oxford men but even of detached critics.
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