Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/The Boat Race 1993/archive1


 * The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by Ian Rose via FACBot (talk) 08:03, 26 October 2014 (UTC).

The Boat Race 1993

 * Nominator(s): The Rambling Man (talk) 18:19, 16 September 2014 (UTC)

I'm trying hard to make sure The Boat Race articles are all represented and of a decent quality. This, the 1993 version, is a personal favourite of mine, but I've hopefully done the right things before coming here. I created it as a stub a while back and took it through to Good article status. I asked for a peer review and received rather lame results (no disrespect to the two editors who made a handful of comments, but it wasn't quite what I'd hoped for), so it seems there's no other course of action other than to nominate it here, for better or for worse. It was a fast race, it featured new technology in the blades and some bloke called M. Pinsent was a participant. A losing one. Rare. Thanks, as ever, to anyone who contributes to this process and to the time and energy expended in wading through the article. Regardless of the outcome, it's always very much appreciated. The Rambling Man (talk) 18:19, 16 September 2014 (UTC)

Image review
 * File:Oxford_University_Coat_Of_Arms.svg needs a US PD tag. Nikkimaria (talk) 18:45, 21 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Done, I think. Thanks for the interest. The Rambling Man (talk) 19:53, 21 September 2014 (UTC)

Support Comments from SchroCat
I was the reviewer at GAN and thought it would end up here! It was close then, and seems to have had a tweak or two to strengthen it further since then. I've made a few copy edits: please feel free to amend or revert if you don't like them. A couple of comments:

Minor fare, considering, and a pleasure to read. - SchroCat (talk) 19:19, 24 September 2014 (UTC)
 * "Bangert, Gillard and Behrens"; as we've given the first names of Pinsent and Gore, (and as it's before the table) we should give the full names here.
 * Fixed. The Rambling Man (talk) 19:48, 24 September 2014 (UTC)
 * "men's eight" ... "coxless pair": are there links for these? (Yes, I have been too lazy to do a search myself!)
 * Nope, just a previous link to rowing at the Barcelona games I'm afraid.... The Rambling Man (talk) 19:48, 24 September 2014 (UTC)
 * "It was noted": slightly inelegant and could be tweaked. "Noted" isn't the best word to use, and it does beg the question of who noted.
 * Quite so. Attributed to the journo.  The Rambling Man (talk) 19:48, 24 September 2014 (UTC)
 * My thanks, for everything. The Rambling Man (talk) 19:48, 24 September 2014 (UTC)

All good – one final tweak made, and I'm happy to now support. Cheers – SchroCat (talk) 19:54, 24 September 2014 (UTC)

Comments from Harry Mitchell
— HJ Mitchell &#124;  Penny for your thoughts?  00:37, 5 October 2014 (UTC)
 * The lead seems a little thin to me. It's not a massive article, so it might just be personal taste (it's a part of writing articles that I find quite difficult personally, so mine tend to be quite long) ... YMMV, to borrow Dank's phrase.
 * I will work on this. The Rambling Man (talk) 09:44, 5 October 2014 (UTC)
 * I've added a bit more. The Rambling Man (talk) 19:43, 5 October 2014 (UTC)
 * cleaver blades were selected by Cambridge Is there a way to rephrase this to avoid the passive voice?
 * I tried, and failed. I'm not entirely sure it's a major problem.  The Rambling Man (talk) 09:44, 5 October 2014 (UTC)
 * I've made an attempt to reorganise it to make it more 'active'. How does it work for you?  The Rambling Man (talk) 19:43, 5 October 2014 (UTC)
 * That looks fine to me. HJ Mitchell  &#124;  Penny for your thoughts?  22:57, 5 October 2014 (UTC)
 * but on the day itself they opted to remain with the macon blades. What I know about rowing you could fit on the head of a pin; what do weather conditions have to with the choice of blade?
 * The cleaver blades are more susceptible to striking the surface of the water if the conditions were rough, the macon blades are more... forgiving. The Rambling Man (talk) 09:44, 5 October 2014 (UTC)
 * while Oxford welcomed back five former Boat Race rowers That strikes me as editorialising; can it be re-phrased?
 * Indeed, I have done so. The Rambling Man (talk) 09:44, 5 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Is there anything more to be said about the creatine supplements? Was this controversial? Had they been used in previous Boat Racs? Were they used in subsequent Boat Races?
 * In all honesty, it was just a nugget of journalism that I discovered. I have looked around for other sources and can't find anything particularly interesting, it was just that the supplements came to prominence in the previous year's Olympics and weren't illegal... The Rambling Man (talk) 09:44, 5 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks so much for taking the time to provide some comments. I'll certainly continue to work on them to your satisfaction.  Cheers. The Rambling Man (talk) 09:44, 5 October 2014 (UTC)
 * You're welcome. It was only nitpicking really. It's an excellent article and I'm certainly satisfied with the changes you've made, so I'm happy to support. HJ Mitchell  &#124;  Penny for your thoughts?  22:57, 5 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Support – One in a series of what I hope will be a featured topic one day. The nominator clearly has an educated interest in the subject which benefits hugely by his admirable expertise. I have read through this fine article and can see no underlying issues. I suppose one, although purely aesthetically, would be the ugly white space on an iPad between the Pinsent photo and the text.  I suspect this will be down to the device and not the software, but worth a mention, if only to see if it is a wiki thing or not.   Cassianto talk 10:40, 5 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks so much for your interest and kind comments. I'm not sure there's anything I can do about the whitespace other than move the Pinsent image up alongside the text preceding the table.  There'd be even more whitespace by the table then, but that may be preferable to whitespace between a table and an image?  The Rambling Man (talk) 10:46, 5 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Comments – this is a fine article, and I hope it will be one of a complete family of FAs in due course. A few quibbles, though, before I add my support:
 * You vacillate between the Americanese/tabloidese false title and a respectable English construction with the requisite definite articles. Thus, "… was Canadian Olympic gold medallist and former Oxford Blue Mark Evans…" and "Cambridge Boat Club president Behrens claimed…" (bad) but "The journalist David Miller…" and "Cambridge's boat club president Behrens…" (good).
 * Lead: "…saw changes in both their rowers…" as they have more than two rowers, I think this might be better phrased without the "both".
 * "They put right a lot of mistakes the have made in the past" – …they have made…, I assume.
 * not clear why "Mile Post" is capitalised but "finishing post" isn't.
 *  Tim riley  talk    23:37, 6 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks Tim. Am away from suitable editing tools e.g. A proper keyboard and mouse, until Thursday so I will get to your comments as soon as I can. Thanks for your time and interest! The Rambling Man (talk) 06:16, 7 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Hah, found some time and some internets... so I've addressed your first three comments, but as to your fourth, even the official website is inconsistent in its capitalisation of "finishing post" but always capitalises "Mile Post". I don't really mind either way, consistency is a good thing I agree, but if the RS are split on it, who knows?  What do you think?  The Rambling Man (talk) 12:25, 7 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Tim, did you have any more to add before I look at closing this? Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 07:50, 26 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Apologies. I wasn't paying proper attention. Very happy to support, and not fussed about the capitalisation of posts and content to leave it to the nominator to decide.  Tim riley  talk    07:56, 26 October 2014 (UTC)

Source review - spotchecks not done Nikkimaria (talk) 04:01, 25 October 2014 (UTC)
 * You include an issue number for most Times refs but not all - why?
 * Probably an oversight or they aren't provided in the sources I have. I've "synthesised" the missing one.  The Rambling Man (talk) 07:58, 25 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Missing page numbers for FN17, 26, 28
 * Not provided in the sources I have. Will seek.  The Rambling Man (talk) 07:58, 25 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Provided where available. The Rambling Man (talk) 11:49, 25 October 2014 (UTC)
 * FN31 should have accessdate.
 * Added. The Rambling Man (talk) 07:58, 25 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks. The Rambling Man (talk) 07:58, 25 October 2014 (UTC)

Ian Rose (talk) 08:03, 26 October 2014 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.