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National Geographic : 1936 Sep
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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE denote not only membership in some par ticular college but also some athletic achievement, such as membership in the cricket eleven or the Rugby football team. Most coveted is the pale blue blazer which only those who have represented the University in athletics are entitled to wear. For the remainder of their lives these for tunate ones will be remembered as Cam bridge "blues." There are "half-blues" for the less arduous sports, such as shoot ing or even chess! "Blazers" owe their very name to Cam bridge, for this was the term quite naturally applied to the scarlet coats which the Lady Margaret Boat Club, of St. John's College, adopted as its uniform. Sports in general hold a high place in life at Cambridge., Rugby and Association football-known as "rugger" and "soccer" - are popular in the winter, while in sum mer cricket and tennis take their turn. But the sport of sports at Cambridge is rowing (page 336). The races are rowed on a section of the River Cam below the actual town. The stream is so narrow even there that it is impossible to row abreast, so here, as at Oxford, a system of "bumping" races has developed. From the spectators' point of view this is perhaps an advantage, for they can watch the spectacle of a straining procession of eight-oared boats chasing each other at in tervals of 150 feet. Some "bumps" are mere touches; others are really violent blows. I well remember rowing in a boat which was hit so hard it sank outright in the middle of the river, whereupon our dis comfited crew had to swim and wade ashore as best they could. "THROWING AWAY A RACE" There is also the well-known Cambridge rowing story, perhaps apocryphal, of the excited coxswain who almost literally "threw away a race." The atmosphere was electric. Eight oars were poised, ready to be dipped like a flash at the boom of the gun; eight pairs of eyes were concentrated on the coxswain who was counting feverishly the seconds before the start. In his left hand he held the stop watch; in his right the wooden bobbin of the spacing chain which keeps each boat at its correct distance from the others. The great moment arrived, the shot echoed across the river, and with a dramatic gesture he cast the watch into the water and clung to the anchored chain. Need I add that his boat failed to score a bump that day? The last day of the races is celebrated by "bump suppers" in each college, ending often in a wild dance around a huge bon fire in the grounds of the college that has won, or kept the "Head of the River." Four bumps entitle a man to keep his oar as atrophy. I would not recommend for weak diges tions the breakfasts found necessary in the strenuous training for both the Lent and May Week races. They are no mild meals of grapefruit and coffee, but, starting with fish and bacon and eggs, they continue with large portions of rare steak. The toast and marmalade that followed was often dif ficult to face. The "May" races are the principal event, coming as they do after the examinations at the end of the scholastic year when all Cambridge goes gay and celebrates a social season of its own. Both banks of the river offer then a bright picture. They are crowded with friends and relatives of the crews and the whole scene is animated by undergraduates in bright blazers cycling or running along the tow-path to shout en couragement to the boats of their colleges (page 336). Automobiles are forbidden to under graduates in their first year, and this is a blessing to those who do own cars, since the narrow streets of the town are already crowded by innumerable bicycles. I soon found that this was the most con venient form of transport to and from lec tures. Indeed, the popularity of individual lectures can be accurately gauged at a glance by the number of bicycles parked outside. The absence of hills makes this a cyclist's paradise. Cambridge in no place rises more than fifty feet above sea-level, and even the oddly-named Gog and Magog outside the town hardly deserve the name of hills.* From time to time the monotony of study is relieved by "rags" organized by the undergraduates. The fun is usually harmless, and entered into in good spirits by participants and onlookers alike. I recall one night when field guns awarded to Jesus College as * See "A Tour in the English Fenland," by Christopher Marlowe, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, May, 1929. 338
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