Talk:The Boat Race 1914/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Ritchie333 (talk · contribs) 10:52, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

I'll give this a go.

The main comment, unusually for a Boat Race GA, is there is not enough mention to its relationship with World War I. There is a film of the race held at the BFI, that Independent article mentioned on the talk page, a song "After the Boat Race 1914" and a collection of photographs held in Cambridge University Library here. I think what's in the article at the moment is spot on in terms of prose, referencing and neutrality (as I would expect), but the above would need to be considered before I think the article can meet the "broad in coverage" part of the GA criteria. Ritchie333 ^{(talk) (cont)} 10:52, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

Ok, I thought about this quite a bit. The First World War start several months after this Boat Race, and as such I'm not sure this article is the one to host anything more than a nod to "it was the last race for six years following the outbreak of the First World War" for instance. If you cast a glance at the 1920 article you can see if started to discuss the more pertinent details of the effects of the war on the race.... thoughts? The Rambling Man (talk) 11:48, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

I think I would also add four Cambridge and one Oxford participant died in the war (per the Independent source - it was important enough that a broadsheet newspaper ran an article on it 100 years after the event), and mention the song, as both directly relate to this race. "After The Boat Race 1914" isn't a likely search term, but it's a possible one, and this is probably the best article for a mention of it to go here. I think one more sentence mentioning those two things should do. Ritchie333 ^{(talk) (cont)} 12:48, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

I've expanded a bit more, but none of the links to the actual song work, and it seems quite non-notable. If you could find the lyrics somewhere, we could weave it in somehow, but to just say "there is a song called blah" without actually knowing what it was about or anything seems a little, well, meh. The Rambling Man (talk) 13:20, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

Ah, hold on, it's here. Turns out it wasn't related to this race at all... The Rambling Man (talk) 13:24, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

(ec) It's also in this book. All I'm really after is just a mention that it exists. While I'm here, this contemporary photograph held in the Museum of London archives is, I believe, PD for Wikipedia purposes and could be used, possibly in the infobox. Ritchie333 ^{(talk) (cont)} 13:25, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

Just seen the link. I see it's got nothing to do with this except the name, so let's leave it out. Ritchie333 ^{(talk) (cont)} 13:26, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

I'd love to upload that photo but I don't have the tools nor the expertise in the licensing arrangements. Could you, or do you know anyone who could? The Rambling Man (talk) 13:27, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

Crisco 1492 (talk · contribs) is a good person to ask about image copyrights, but this doesn't look too different to a 1963 government photo of a bus I used for Dartford Crossing's GA review, so I've repeated the procedure there. The image is now in the infobox, and with that, I can pass the review. Good show. Ritchie333 ^{(talk) (cont)} 14:20, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

Marvellous, thanks so much! The Rambling Man (talk) 14:20, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

Today seems very much like a day for remembering World Wars, so I'm glad we got that in there! Ritchie333 ^{(talk) (cont)} 14:22, 30 January 2015 (UTC)