DARK BLUE SPECTACLES
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR;—We Cambridge sausages are quite accustomed to being cooked in Oxford frying-pans ; as we eat pretty crisp and satisfactory we don't much mind. Hence when we see at the top of an athletic column : "Fine play by Oxford," or "Grand up-hill fight by the Dark Blues," or perhaps "Oxford's bad luck," we look at the bottom and finding—usually in very small print—" Cambridge won," we smile.
Still, the comments on the football, the sports, and above all the Boat Race, have been what popular preachers would call "a bit thick." As to the last we are told that both boats were much below the average, and that Cambridge won by a fluke. As Cambridge won as they liked I wonder how the correspondents can possibly tell. The test is after-all the race, not what is written about it. Those who—why I cannot make out—had been prophesying for weeks that Oxford was going to win had to say something, and one of the reddest of their red herrings was the suggestion that Cambridge ought to have won by more than five lengths. They forgot that if you are to give a man a friendly lead he must be able to see you. The reason for all this praising of Oxford, in season and out of season, may be found perhaps in the well-known American story. A visitor expressed surprise that—was it ?- Seattle could maintain four newspapers. "Why, you see," was the reply, "it takes at least four newspapers to maintain Seattle." I rather fancy that poor old Oxford requires pushing elsewhere than on the river. It gets it whether it requires it
Previous page
