The Boat Race 1873

[1] The race was first held in 1829, and since 1845 has taken place on the 4.2-mile (6.8 km) Championship Course on the River Thames in southwest London.

[2][3] Cambridge went into the race as reigning champions, having defeated Oxford by two lengths in the previous year's race, while Oxford led overall with sixteen wins to Cambridge's thirteen.

[4] Although the use of sliding seats had been considered the previous year, the then-Cambridge boat club president John Goldie disallowed the Light Blue boat manufacturer Harry Clasper from fitting them.

[10] Oxford saw four former Blues return from the 1872 crew, while Cambridge's crew included three rowers who had participated the previous year, in James Brooks Close, Charles Stokes Read and Constantine William Benson.

[6] Oxford won the toss and elected to start from the Surrey station, handing the Middlesex side of the river to Cambridge.