The Boat Race 1972

[1] First held in 1829, the race takes place on the 4.2-mile (6.8 km) Championship Course on the River Thames in southwest London.

[15] However, Oxford rowed a number of record practice times, while Cambridge met with several "disasters" (including catching some "mammoth crabs" and experiencing outings "spoilt by shipwrecks").

[12] Both boats contained four Blues; Oxford saw Keith Bolshaw, D. d'A Willis, Andrew Hall and J. Hawkesley return, while Cambridge's crew included Chris Baillieu (whose grandfather had rowed in the 1913 race),[16] Neil James, David Maxwell and Graham Hughes.

[20][21] Along with Cadwalader, Oxford cox Fred Yalouris was American, while the Dark Blue bow Michael Magarey was Australian; all the other participants were British.

[12] Oxford won the toss and elected to start from the Surrey station, from which the previous ten winning crews had commenced, handing the Middlesex side of the river to the Light Blues.

[8] Within a minute of the start, Cambridge held a lead of a canvas length and despite reducing their stroke rate, they continued to pull away from Oxford.

[8] In the tenth edition of the reserve race, Cambridge's Goldie beat Oxford's Isis by 2+1⁄2 lengths in a time of 19 minutes and 19 seconds, their sixth consecutive victory which made the overall record 6–2.

[6] In the 27th running of the Women's Boat Race, Cambridge triumphed, their tenth consecutive victory, and their fifteenth in eighteen years taking the overall record to 17–10 in their favour.