Till 1856, it was the custom for the U.B.C’s, if they could not agree as to time and place for a match, to assent to meet each other in the Grand Challenge ; and such mectings ranked practically as University matches. Records of these vencontres of the U.B.C.’s will be found in tables at the end of this volume, together with a history of Henley past and future.
The ‘Seven-oar episode’ of 1843 was not a University match or meeting. The O.U.B.C. were entered at Henley ; Cambridge were represented by the ‘Cambridge Rooms ;’ but the C.U.B.C. was not officially represented by that crew, Just before the final heat, the Oxford stroke fainted, and the Cam- bridge reasonably objected to the introduction of a substitute. The Oxonians then decided to row with seven cars, They had a wind abeam, favouring the side which was manned hy only three oars. They eventually won by a length, or there- abouts.
In 1843 the Thames Regatta was started, and greatly supple- mented the attractions of Henley, ‘The mistake of this regatta was the rule which made challenge prizes the permanent pro- perty of any crew which could win them thrice in succession. By this means the Gold Cup for cights, the préce de résistance
Club, The regatta lingered on one year longer, shorn of its chief glory, and then died out.
Records of the winners of the chief prizes at it, amateurs as well as professionals, will be found in ‘Tables.’
In 1854 a new Thames regatta, called the ‘ National,’ was founded, It was supported by the ‘Thames Subscription Club,’ and died with that club in 1866. In the last year of its existence it introduced amateur prizes as well as the usual bonuses for professionals, In 1866 a very important regatta was founded--the Metropolitan. Its founders expected it to eclipse Henley, by dint of offers of more valuable prizes, but it never took the fancy of the University element, and for want of the wider-spread competition which strong entries from the U.B.C.’s would haye produced, it never attained the prestige of
