Once again the Xchanging Boat Race produced an epic encounter yesterday, even if the event did not have the sustained excitement of a vintage year because Oxford won by six lengths, defying the wind and rain which swirled along the banks of the Thames. The appalling rowing conditions meant that the winning time of 20min 53sec was the slowest since 1947.

For the first half of the event, Cambridge stuck to their task with dogged grimness. But Oxford’s greater power and experience, exemplified by their American Olympian Mike Wher-ley, aged 36, the oldest man ever to row in the event, overwhelmed their opponents in the second half of their 154th annual encounter. Oxford now have 74 wins in the series with Cambridge on 79. There has been one dead heat, back in 1877.

The key moment on the four-mile, 374-yard course from Putney to Mortlake came opposite Chiswick Eyot after Cambridge briefly took the lead but Oxford responded superbly in the rough water and pulled away to win by 22 seconds as the water became calmer.

Oxford, by virtue of having the heavier crew, had always been the favourites this year but holders Cambridge, who won the toss and chose the Surrey station, held on to the opponents for much longer than had been expected by many observers.

Nick Brodie, the Oxford president and cox, admitted that Cambridge had a terrific first half but they simply were unable to sustain their pace. When the rough water came between St Paul’s School and Chiswick Eyot, it was Oxford’s better watermanship and power which were predominant. Brodie said: “I looked across and Cambridge looked tired and their stroke was shortening.” Duncan Holland, the Cambridge coach agreed, saying: “We were just never quick enough. We just seemed to run out of endurance.”

This was scarcely surprising since they had virtually matched their opponents stroke for stroke until that point shortly after Hammersmith Bridge. But by the end, they looked a very tired crew while Oxford grew in stature, their rhythm becoming more fluent as the race progressed.

As Ryan Monaghan, the Cambridge stroke who had been promoted into the seat when Shane O’Mara dropped out with a heart problem last Wednesday, pointed out: “We kept putting in our best shots but they kept going well. We made our final push and they countered it. We then faded a little bit and they took the advantage and capitalised on it.”

Sean Bowden, the Dark Blues’ coach, had wanted a strong aggressive start and he got it because he knew how quick the rivals could be off the stake boat. He said: “It all went pretty much to plan. Perhaps our rating in the early stages was rather down.”

He attributed this to concentrating on training over the last three weeks on rowing into a headwind rather than with a tailwind they had to Hammersmith. He described the Cambridge crew as “gutsy guys, who knew what they had to do”.

Bowden, who has such an impressive record in always getting the best out of the material he has available, described the conditions as probably the worst in his 14 years involvement with the event. He explained: “Both 2000 and 2006 were tricky but the difference this time was the rain.”

Both crews took time to settle off the stake boat but it was Cambridge who went off at the faster rate of 43 to 39 strokes per minute. Then Oxford accelerated up to 49 and held a firm line, pushing Cambridge across the Thames.

At the mile post, Oxford had a lead of almost three seconds but Cambridge refused to give way and held on as the Surrey bend began to favour them opposite Harrod’s Depository.

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