Boat Race predictions are notoriously `unreliable, but prophets have not
often been quite as wide of the mark as they were last week. Cambridge won by eight lengths, and could no doubt have improved on that if there had been any reason to. The forecasts of the daily paper experts on the morning of the race are worth tabulating. Oxford would win, said The Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Express, the Daily Herald. The Daily Mail declined any prediction at all. The Manchester Guardian was certain Only of one thing, that whoever won—and the writer came down hesitantly on the side of Oxford—it would be a very close race, possibly a dead heat. One critic who (audaciously, as he admitted) foresaw a Cambridge win, was Conrad Skinner, a former Cambridge cox, in the News Chronicle. Unfortunately he did not leave it at that, but predicted a ding-dong battle, with Oxford ahead at the start and the crews all square at the mile- post. Nothing of that kind happened; Oxford were behind after the first half-dozen strokes. But this prediction, this interpretation of practice-form, is a strange business. The pro- fessional prophets were perfectly convincing'in the reasoning which led them to forecast an Oxford victory. Yet an old Oxford rowing man—Oxford be it noted—said ten days or more before the race that " This writing-up of Oxford was all ballyhoo " ; Cambridge were much the better crew and would win bands down. What did he see that no one else saw ?
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