The Boat Race 1936

[7] He went on to report that while Cambridge still looked "remarkably neat", they "have actually got slower"; at the same time Oxford "improved their pace, if not their appearance, in a measure that most critics would have thought quite impossible".

Cambridge's crew contained five former Blues, four of whom were making their third appearance including cox Noel Duckworth,[11] and Jack Wilson and Ran Laurie, who would win the Coxless pairs Gold medal at the 1948 Olympics.

[11] Cambridge made the quicker start, out-rating the Dark Blues, but struggled in patches of rougher water such that Oxford held a slight lead by the end of the Fulham Wall.

With the bend in the river against them, the Dark Blues held a half-length lead as the crews passed the Mile Post and, according to former Oxford rower E. P. Evans, writing in The Manchester Guardian, "were going well ... and seemed to be forging ahead at every stroke".

[5] E. P. Evans wrote that "no praise is too much for the gallant Oxford crew" while of Cambridge he noted "though they may not have produced their best form in the early part of the race they made up for it later".

[7] The rowing correspondent for The Times stated that "it was an exciting race over the first half of the course" and praised the Light Blues saying "all credit is due to the Cambridge crew for the manner in which they recovered themselves after being led through such bad water".

[17] William Beach Thomas, writing in The Observer, claimed "Cambridge were described as the best crew in the chronicles of rowing kings, and Oxford the very worst".