The 1860s had been a disastrous period for Cambridge, for they had lost all nine Boat Races from 1861 to 1869 and this despite attempts to remedy the situation by changes in the Cambridge domestic competitive rowing arrangements which are described thus in ‘The Bumps (p22)’

"During the period from 1835 to 1859 the Lents and Mays continued to be rowed as one single continuing race, that is to say the position at the end of the Lents was the starting position of the Mays and so on. As time went on, however, pressure for change built up. The reason for this was the University Boat Race, originally started in 1829. Those more interested in this event wished the better oarsmen to hold themselves available for the university rather than rowing for their colleges in the Lents.

"The top boats would therefore row only in the Mays and the lower boats would only row the Lents, boats in the middle division would row in both events. Naturally the proposed change had the effect of reducing the Lents to a second-class event and the races departed from the original idea. This development was eventually to lead to the complete separation of the Lents and Mays in 1880.

"The 1860s system was intended to improve the chances of Cambridge in the Boat Race by making the best oarsmen more readily available to the CUBC. It did not however improve Cambridge’s performance. From 1860 Oxford had an uninterrupted series of victories and the decline continued until J.H.D.Goldie as President of CUBC halted it in 1870."

Goldie had come up from Eton in 1869 and as the account of that race shows, though Oxford won the race it could easily have been the first Cambridge victory for nine years. Now he had taken over as President. Not that his election as President excited very much attention in the press before the race.

They were more interested in the fact that the Thames Conservancy had: ‘abolished that intolerable nuisance, the fleet of steamers, which without any regard for decency of order, madly struggles after the eights, often with the destruction of life and always with the discomfiture of those most intereted in the struggle.’

This year the race was graced by several members of the British and foreign Royal families including the Prince of Wales, the Prince of Teck, the Prince of Leiningen and Prince Hassan of Egypt, all of whom were accommodated in the Umpire’s (Mr Chitty) steamer.

Virtually nothing is said in any of the accounts about the conditions, save that the tide was very slack and that when they reached Corney Reach they ran into a headwind and some rough water. It clearly must have beed a rather modest south-west wind with occasional gusting. Oxford who had won the toss chose Surrey.

Each of the University races with which Goldie was involved show very great similarities, indeed it is very difficult to distinguish them, apart, perhaps from the weather and this, the first in which he was President is no exception.

Both crews got off well from the stake-boats, but Cambridge rating some two strokes less than their rivals but with greater power, moved almost immediately into a lead of a few feet.

The description of the beautifully controlled Cambridge stroke is also very much the same – the clean catch, the long draw, but above, all the constant rating, with extra speed achieved by exerting greater power not increased rate. In more than one place in these contemporary accounts attention is drawn to the fact that this was like the Light Blues of Egan’s (the great Cambridge coach of the early days) time and totally different from the ragged crews that had been seen in the 1860s.

In this particular race the crews were in much closer order over most of the course than they were in the subsequent races in which Goldie was Cambridge President.

Oxford tried to gain ground on the Light Blues, but each time a little extra pressure was exerted, off Cambridge went again. One can not help feeling sorry for the Oxford stroke, the great SD Darbishire, who was clearly pulling his body to bits making spurt after spurt.

The real end of the battle came along the Devonshire Meadows, where with a magnificent drive of some 30 strokes, still rating lower than their rivals, Cambridge stretched their lead to one with quite a substantial amount of clear water between the two boats as they came past the Bathing Place.

But even then Oxford would not give up and came back again along the final reach. The extent of their effort is not clear. Contemporary accounts speak of the time at the finish being 22 minutes 6 seconds and the distance separating the crews anything between 1/2 and 2 lengths; the official record 1 1/2 lengths and 22 minutes 6 seconds, differences which may be quite expected when it is realised that there was no marked finish and that the river at the finish was crowded with every form of river craft.