At Cambridge, the President H.E. Rhodes had only two old Blues on whom he could call and he had to form the rest of his crew from newcomers, the majority of whom were not of very great distinction.

During training their performance over short distances improved dramatically, but they found it impossible to keep up a good rate for any long distance. Although Oxford were also short of old Blues to form their crew, trials indicated that they had a substantial number of good newcomers, including H.P.Marriott, who was to become an outstanding stroke, and T.C.Edwards-Moss, who was not only a very fine number 7, but after graduation proved to be an extremely good coach for the University until his untimely death from typhoid fever in 1893.

There were certainly no doubts on the part of most people, that Oxford had the edge this year.

March 20th one of the early days for the Bat Race, was bitterly cold with a really unpleasant north-west wind kicking up a nasty slop along the Putney Reach against quite a reasonable tide. But aware of the possible difficulties inherent in rowing on Surrey against such a combination of wind and tide, Cambridge having won the toss chose Middlesex and went off very rapidly indeed pulling away from Oxford over the first minute or so.

Along Fulham Wall they almost went clear before Oxford with their longer and more controlled stroke got into their stride. Then Oxford took over command and gradually from Craven Cottage overhauled Cambridge, coming level with them by shortly after the Crabtree.

From here on Oxford were to take charge of the race and it became a procession. At no stage did Oxford look out of control with their steady long style and at no time did it ever seem that Cambridge would produce a problem for them.

Their lead gradually increased as the race progressed, so that as they passed the top of Chiswick Eyot, they were no less than 15 seconds ahead, this despite the fact that throughout just about the whole race, they had happen not increased their stroke rate above 35.

The only real difficulty for Oxford came along Corney Reach and as they approached Barnes Bridge for a group of barges and a steamer carrying spectators obstructed their path badly and both crews had to take evasive action in order to get round them. It was only after Barnes Bridge that J.P.Way the Oxford stroke, increased his rate to as much as 37 strokes per minute, and reached the finish in 22 minutes 2 seconds, no less than 10 lengths ahead of Cambridge.

Some accounts speak of Cambridge having damaged a slide before Hammersmith. This was certainly not reported by all observers of the race and there must be some doubt about whether it really affected their performance, if the damage did not produce any obvious effect. It appears to be far more likely that this was a good win by a much better crew.