Oxford cox Nick Brodie said he was ‘gutted’ to be on the losing side at the 153rd Boat Race, sponsored by Xchanging.

The Dark Blues finished second best to a powerful Cambridge crew, losing by one a quarter lengths.

Brodie said: “It was a good race, but we lost, so I’m gutted.

“We knew there were going to go out and try to do something in the first six minutes, so our aim was to go out harder, stick with them and try to break them down in the second half of the race.

“But they seemed a lot stronger than we thought in the second half of the race,” he added.