The Boat Race 1982 fellow at St Hugh's was persuaded back into the crew by the Oxford boat club president Nick Conington. Rankov was rowing in his fifth consecutive Boat Race, alongside Steve Foster whom he supervised in classics. Oxford's crew also contained the Clay twins, Robert and Hugh. River conditions were calm: Jim Railton of "The Times" described the course as "a smooth and flat Queen's highway from Putney to Mortlake." Michael Muir-Smith was the umpire for the race, for which Oxford were "heavily favoured". They won the toss and elected to start from the Surrey station. A good start from the Light
Mortlake, Victoria is located in Mill Street. In the late 1870s, an area of swamp was drained and established as the Mortlake Botanical Gardens, which at its height covered nearly . As a present to the township in 1988 (Australia's Bicentennial) a new lake was constructed by the State Government. This lake is now known as Tea Tree Lake. A branch railway line connected Mortlake with Terang from 1890 until 1977. There are two schools in Mortlake, both co-educational. The largest school is the government school Mortlake P-12 College, with approximately 300 students ranging from Prep to Year 12. There is also