LONGEST - Surviving Sporting Challenge, Fulham, London, UK
N 51° 28.029 W 000° 12.605
30U E 693777 N 5705467
This mosaic, dedicated to the annual boat race between Oxford and Cambridge universities, is at Riverside Walk on the north side of the River Thames at Fulham. It tells us that the boat race is "The World's Longest Surviving Sporting Challenge".
Waymark Code: WMKG95
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 04/11/2014
Views: 5
The Boat Race website tells us:
The race came about because two friends from Harrow School, Charles Wordsworth (nephew of the poet William Wordsworth), of Christ Church College, Oxford, and Charles Merrivale of St. John’s, Cambridge, met during the vacation in Cambridge, where Wordsworth’s father was master of Trinity.
Wordsworth went rowing on the Cam, and the two school fellows decided to set up a challenge. On February 10 1829 a meeting of CUBC requested Mr Snow of St John’s to write immediately to Mr Staniforth of Christ Church stating ‘that the University of Cambridge hereby challenge the University of Oxford to row a match at or near London, each in an eight-oared boat during the ensuing Easter vacation.’
Staniforth and Snow had been schoolfellows and boating comrades at Eton.
Consequently some of the arrangements changed so the first race eventually took place on 10 June 1829 at Henley on Thames.
Oxford won this first race easily, their winning boat can still be seen in the River & Rowing Museum in Henley.
The mosaic is semi-circular in shape and is set into the riverside footpath. Along the top, curved edge of the mosaic is the wording "The World's Longest Surviving Sporting Challenge". Along the flat, bottom edge are the words "Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race Since 1829".
The mosaic is a picture of the River Thames with an arch of Putney Bridge in the background. The Oxford and Cambridge boats are shown racing towards the bridge. The river is depicted as being an "oily" calm and swans, other water birds and fish are also shown. The colours are all pastel shades.