Note 16 — THE OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE ROWING STYLES.

I write this with full knowledge that many Oxford men deny the fact. I have rowed behind Cambridge, Oxford, and London strokes, and have several times taken the place (number 2 thwart) of a London waterman in a four (‘stroked’ by John Mackinney) training for the Thames Regatta. So that I have had ample opportunities for comparing different rowing styles; and I am satisfied that the main defect of the real Cambridge style was (and perhaps is) an exaggeration of the sound rule that a boat should be propelled rather by the body than by the arms. The very swing in a Cambridge boat shows that this must be so. On the other hand, the Thames watermen do too much arm-work; and hence seem to double a little over their oars. I once rowed with some Cambridge friends from London nearly to Oxford and back, taking a Thames waterman as ‘help.’ We set him, at first, for our strokesman, but we soon had to make him row bow, for we could none of us stand his gripping, arm-working style.