 In the Official Centenary History it was noted that " it is too perhaps too much to expect , even from the stoical discipline of old Blues , a unanimous acquiescence in a verdict of " dead @-@ heat , " for no conclusion could be more unsatisfactory to the competitors themselves . " Oxford firmly believed that they had won the race by feet , but following a subsequent meeting in a law court with representatives of both universities and the umpire Chitty , the official result was declared as " Dead Heat " . Punch declared " Oxford won , Cambridge too . " W. W. Rouse Ball , a Fellow of Trinity College , Cambridge , writing in A History of The First Trinity Boat Club suggested that the broken oar was the deciding factor : " ... but for this Oxford would have won . " A correspondent writing in The Sydney Mail said both teams should " consider themselves lucky " that they did not lose , and speculated that the race would be looked back as " the great gooseberry " year . 
