04-08-2012, 09:22 AM
Ah yeah. John Garrett was the umpire, and Oldfield was indeed the swimmer.
The BBC announcer could be heard saying that the Oxford crew could have elected to not finish the race and thus force the result of the race to be recorded as "Did not finish" in order to memorialize the day's misadventures, but as Oxford did finish, Cambridge will be recorded as the winner, and the results will not reflect the swimmer or broken oar in any way. I think the crew did the right thing, though perhaps stopping after the broken oar may have forced the umpire's hand as to a restart.
The BBC announcer could be heard saying that the Oxford crew could have elected to not finish the race and thus force the result of the race to be recorded as "Did not finish" in order to memorialize the day's misadventures, but as Oxford did finish, Cambridge will be recorded as the winner, and the results will not reflect the swimmer or broken oar in any way. I think the crew did the right thing, though perhaps stopping after the broken oar may have forced the umpire's hand as to a restart.