It is with some trepidation that I put pen to paper on this emotive subject, such is the maelstrom that it always seems to conjure up, with differing opinions, both informed and not and it is only recently that the School has finally decided the colour on which it will hang its hat.
To get a true idea of what this is all about one has to look back into the mists of time to understand why the subject has bought such heated debate.
Before 1860, there was no sporting colours other than the costumes worn by the oarsmen in the Procession of Boats on the 4th of June and Eton blue, worn first by the VIII in the 1820s and the XI in the 1850s.
How the colour was arrived at is a matter of conjecture and myth with several stories in circulation. They were undoubtedly invented by a 'Wet Bob' (the term used for those who row at Eton). Here are two of them:
One has it that around 1820 Eton and Westminster rowed for the right to choose their school colour, nobody knows who won, but Eton chose light blue.
The second is that the same two schools rowed for the right to wear pink (after the Leander Club). Eton lost, Westminster chose pink and Eton, light blue.
