1882 was the fist year that the legendary (particularly for Jesus College Cambridge alumni) Steve Fairbairn, who had followed hid brother Charles (Cambridge Blue 1879) over from Australia, rowed in the Cambridge boat and it might be thought that his arrival would have excited great interest. In fact contemporary accounts record very little about him and the main interest during the training period was the difficulty experienced by both Presidents (E. Lambert at Cambridge and A.R.Paterson at Oxford) over finding a stroke.

P.W.Atkin who had rowed 4 in 1881 was tried first, but he was supplanted by S.P Smith. Then E.C.Brooksbank who had stroked Cambridge in 1881 came back into residence and resumed his place in the boat, only to be ordered by his dodtor to stop rowing, which mwant that Smith was called on once more and rowed in that position in the Race. Steve Fairbairn who weighed 13 stone was in the 6 seat.

At Oxford very much the same process was taking place. It was expected that West, who had stroked the boat in 1880 and 1881 would be available, but he could not come up, although he came back in time for the following race. They tried each of the trial strokes (A.H.Higgins and C.H.Sharpe) in turn and Higgins eventually got the seat. This was the year that G.C.Bourne, who had such a profound influence on Oxford rowing in future years first joined the Club and D.E.Brown, who had been in both the 1880 and 1881 crews came back into residence about a month before the race completing the Oxford line-up.

The day was fine and sunny and the Oxford crew broke with tradition as they came down the Boathouse steps to their boat by abandoning their jackets and rowing to the stake-boats in their guernseys. There was a breeze from the north-west but insufficient to disturb the water. Reports give no information about the tide, but it was probably quite a good one to judge from the relatively fast time. Cambridge won the toss, chose Middlesex and when the race had been started by Edward Searle, set off smartly to take advantage of their bend and quickly moved into a lead, which they only held for about a minute until their rivals came up beside them and about Craven Steps the Light Blues fell rather to pieces and looked very ragged. Oxford were already five seconds ahead when they reached the Mile Tree in 4 minutes 10 seconds and from there they moved on to reach Hammersmith Bridge in 7 minutes 40 seconds 3 lengths (10 seconds ahead.

Along Chiswick Reach, the north-west breeze produced some really popply water and Cambridge boat rolled very badly and the crew again became very ragged, allowing Oxford the opportunity to move out to a lead of 19 seconds at Chiswick Steps in 11 minutes 52 seconds. Cambridge never came back from this bad stretch and their rivals moved on to Barnes Bridge in 17 minutes 49 seconds with the same lead and to the finish in 20 minutes 12 seconds, to win by 20 seconds (7 lengths)