Trial Eights
The University Crew.- Thus far all reference to the selection of the University Crew has been avoided.
The University rowing year, as opposed to the College rowing year, begins early in the summer term. The President of the Oxford University Boat Club for the ensuing year is then elected by the representatives of the colleges assembled at a Captain's Meeting. The selection of the University eight rests entirely with the President, whose labours begin in the summer term with the selfimposed duty of watching the various college crews in the hope of discovering promising material. Throughout the October term that follows, men from every college in the University are tried in Trial Eights each college sending in to the President the names of two or more of its best oars. By this means all with any pretensions to merit are given a trial. At the eight which is to row against Cambridge is chosen in the following term.
R. P. P. ROWE.
ROWING AT CAMBRIDGE. -There is an old joke at Cambridge that the man who first rowed on the Cam must have been a lineal descendant of the hero who first swallowed an oyster. Uninviting the narrow stream has always appeared, and despite the fact that a new drainage system has partially cleansed its muddy waters, it is still far from a thing of beauty. Yet, as if in defiance of nature and municipal sanitation, the river for over seventy years has been one of the most famous in the rowing world. There is probably not an athlete amongst English-speaking people who is not to-day perfectly familiar with the name of the Cam.