1863 was a difficult year on which to derive any indication of the abilities of the crews and their development during the training periods.

Neither of the Presidents, Walter Hoare for Oxford and William Smyly for Cambridge, kept any records of their training period.

The only points that are clear are that Smyly only had John Chambers and Francis Archer as old Blues to assist him, while the Oxford included no less than 5 of the 1863 victorious crew in addition to the President (William Jacobson, Allan Morrison, Charles Carr, Walter Woodgate and Frank Hopwood, the cox) and that at Putney it was clear that Oxford arrived as the favourites, though the odds in their favour shortened when their performances against local crews was less encouraging than those of the Light Blues.

The struggle between the steamers and the crews over this period produced an un-remitting and insoluble problem.

The time of the tides this year were inappropriate and in consequence, a decision was taken to row it from Mortlake to Putney on the ebb. One of the problems with a race in this reverse direction was that the short reach at the start before the first bend meant that the crew on Middlesex was greatly favoured by the early bend in their favour.

It was therefore decided to bring the start back to ‘Bartons Rails’. The exact position of this landmark is now not clear but it is described as being 3 minutes extra rowing which implies that it was probably approaching 800 yards above The Ship.

The start was timed for 9.30 am when the ebb tide was over an hour into its progress, but when the crews embarked there were no less than 14 steamers at Mortlake and four or five refused to get behind the crews and crews and umpire (Joseph Chitty) refused to start.

As the water fell, one of the steamers took to the mud, and the rest of the captains relented allowing the race to be got under way at 10.25.

Oxford won the toss once more and racing on the ebb tide naturally chose the Middlesex station. Oxford set off briskly and by the end of the first minute were clear, moving off to a lead of 2 lengths before they reached The Ship, with the first bend in their favour still to come.

Cambridge were already beaten and drew in behind them for the procession over the rest of the course. The Dark Blues steadily moved further ahead and at the finish in 23 minutes 6 seconds, the winning margin was 45 seconds.