THERE have been collisions, sinkings, even two mutinies, but only one dead heat in the University Boat Race. Did the judge fall asleep under a bush 131 years ago today and call a tie to avoid embarrassment?

That's one version. More probable is the alternative: he was in a skiff, barged on the water, and his view was obscured by steamers. Besides, two finishing posts did not exist, so there was no defined finish line.

We will never know for sure, but The Glasgow Herald the following day devoted more space to the story than any other. Those of an Oxford persuasion believe that professional waterman "Honest John" Phelps pronounced the result "dead heat to Oxford by five feet".

Phelps, and representatives of the universities, met the umpire, a QC, in his robing-room at the Law Courts, and the barrister confirmed the official record: "dead heat".

Contemporary reports say the Oxford bowman caught the top of a wave and damaged his blade so badly that they were partially disabled. Cambridge rallied, "putting on a magnificent spurt at 40 strokes to the minute . . . the two eights raced past the flag alongside one another, and the gun fired amid a scene of excitement rarely equalled and never exceeded.

"Cheers for one crew were succeeded by counter-cheers for the other, and it was impossible to tell what the result was until the Press boat backed down to the Judge and inquired the issue."

Phelps said: "The noses of the boats passed the post strictly level, and that the result was a dead heat."

The heaviest man in either crew weighed less than 13 stones. Last year's Cambridge crew contained Thorsten Engelmann, who weighed just over 17st. He's not only famous for being the heaviest ever. He was not awarded his blue for 2006 and 2007 because he did not complete his academic course and returned to Germany's national squad to prepare for this year's Beijing Olympics. A rule stipulating that only students on courses lasting at least two years should be eligible to race is being considered.

The race dates back to March 12, 1829, when it was conceived by friends at the rival universities: Charles Merival at Cambridge, and Charles Wordsworth, nephew of the poet, at Oxford.

Cambridge sank in 1859 and 1978 (voted among the top 100 televised sporting moments) while Oxford went under in 1925 and in 1951. Both sank during a gale in 1912. The most recent sinking was in 1984, when Cambridge rammed a barge before the start. The wreckage of that shell now adorns a Cambridge public house.

Apart from such as Olympic gold medallists Matthew Pinsent, Tim Foster, Ed Coode, and former sports minister Colin Moynihan, other celebrities to have won blues include Lord Kelvin, Lord Snowdon and Hugh Laurie.

Edinburgh and Glasgow stage Britain's second-oldest universities' boat race, on the Clyde. The first was in July 1877, year of the Oxbridge dead-heat, as a result of which posts were installed, and it was the last time a waterman acted as judge.