J.H.D.Goldie was re-elected President for Cambridge and there were five Blues still in residence and willing to row.

After their performance in 1870, things looked encouraging, despite the fact that Oxford, although they had lost their good stroke, S.D.Darbishire, had most of the previous crew available.

Indeed, Oxford had an equally good stroke available in R Lesley, so that the loss of Darbishire was certainly not disastrous.

The morning of April 1st 1871 (the Race was to start at 10.00am) was a reasonable one, though the tide was a very poor and there was a rather modest north-west wind, which except for the stretch between the Mile Tree and the Crabtree, is not credited with any significant disturbance of the water.

Oxford won the toss and for some reason which was not clear to the cognoscenti, chose Middlesex. Certainly the weather conditions did not require this selection.

Cambridge moved ahead from the first stroke and this was a lead which they were to keep for the remainder of the race, with the Dark Blues not heading the race at all.

It could not ne described by any stretch of the imagination as an exciting race and was conducted by John Goldie in very much the manner that could be regarded as trade-marked by him.

After the first few swift strokes, which usually took his crew into the lead, he calmed them down into a long, steady powerful but slow rhythm, and from this he hardly altered the rating over the rest of the course, preferring to increase the power of the long telling strokes, rather than stepping up the rate, when action became necessary.

He gradually took Cambridge out to a lead of about 1/2 length by Craven Cottage and then, as they moved up the Crabtree Reach, increased this to 2 lengths at Hammersmith Bridge.

Lesley, the Oxford stroke, made several attempts to put in a push to come back on terms with their rivals, but all were ineffective, though on no occasion was it apparent that Goldie had even stretched his crew to resist the challenge.

Once he got to the two lengths lead by Hammersmith, he sat there watching for any action by the Dark Blues, otherwise Cambridge swept on majestically with the same long steady but powerful stroke which was the hallmark of Goldie stroked crews.

Indeed the only aspect of excitement in the contemporary newspaper accounts was some poor coxing by both coxswains at various stages of the race, but even these were not of sufficient moment to disturb the stately progression.

After Barnes Bridge, Lesley made one last determined spurt to try to draw level and managed to come up towards the Light Blues. Contemporary records say that Goldie, at last pushed up the Cambridge rating (it is suggested over the last 20 strokes, and even then never rated as high as Oxford) and came through the mass of spectators’ rowing boats thronging the final stretch, to win by 1 length in 23 minutes 10 seconds.

It is, hopefully not true, but the impression is created by the contemporary reports of the races which Goldie stroked, that he liked to play with his rivals in the way that many cats play with mice, just keeping them at arm’s length for fun.