The Boat Race 1984

Held annually, the event is a side-by-side rowing race between crews from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge along the River Thames.

[5] Originally scheduled to take place on Saturday 17 March, the Cambridge cox, Peter Hobson, steered their boat into a moored barge during the warmup, destroying the bow.

[7] The disagreement over the inclusion of Boris Rankov in Oxford's crew for the sixth time in the previous year's race had not been resolved.

Aggressive steering from Hobson resulted in warnings from umpire Mike Sweeney,[12] and by the mile post, Oxford held a two-second lead.

"[13] Oxford cox Seth Lesser said he was aware that his crew were setting a record-breaking pace: "I knew the record was on ... We made another burn at St Paul's School just to make sure.

"[12] As a result of Saturday's collision and the associated publicity, Sunday's race was viewed on British television by more than 12 million people.