The 157th Boat Race takes place on Saturday, 26 March 2011 at 16:30 (GMT)

The University Boat Race and The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race is a rowing race in England between the Oxford University and Cambridge University on the river Thames in London. The 4.5 mile course stretches from Putney to Mortlake.

Members of both teams are traditionally known as blues and each boat as a "Blue Boat", with Cambridge in light blue and Oxford dark blue.

History of the Boat Race

The first boat race was the result of a challenge issued to Oxford by Cambridge in 1829. It was rowed on the Thames at Henley.

The idea for a rowing race between the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge came from two friends - Charles Merivale, a student at Cambridge, and his Harrow school friend Charles Wordsworth (nephew of the poet William Wordsworth), who was at Oxford.