Oxford University retained the Truelove Bowl for the third year running after a dominant display at the Town Hall.

The Dark Blues roared into an unassailable 5-0 lead by the interval before Cambridge found some solace in their eventual 7-2 defeat.

Oxford head coach Des Brackett said he was confident of securing a hat-trick of wins before the 101st Varsity Match.

Our picture shows Oxford Ben Shacham slugs it out with Cambridge's Will Rees.

But he could scarcely have believed his charges would secure it after just five bouts.

Oxford's impressive light-middleweight Stuart Garman struck the decisive blow, although there was a touch of anti-climax as Cambridge's James Gray became the first of four disqualifications.

Gray was clearly rattled by his opponent and received a standing count in round two, but the referee lost patience after the fighter's mouthguard popped out for the fifth time.

With a half-hour interval to follow, Cambridge had time to gather themselves and avoid a whitewash, but they were well-beaten.

The crowd, which included boxing pundit Steve Bunce and England rugby star James Haskell, were given a pulsating opening bout in the featherweight division.

Oxford's returning Blue John McCarthy had his face covered in the blood by the end of round one, but consistently landed the better shots against Tom Land.

McCarthy got the hosts off to the best possible start with a unanimous verdict and they never looked back.

Cambridge lightweight Taras Gout had won a silver medal in the English Universities Championships in December and started well against Jimmy Robertson.

Robertson showed great tenacity to claw his way back and gain a majority verdict, which was a decent scalp.

Light-welterweight Ben Shacham came out flying at the bell against Cambridge's Will Rees and really found his range in the second round.

Rees was given a standing count and battled back in a more even final round, but lost the majority verdict.

Oxford captain Tom Hughes lost last year, but came out hard in his bid to avoid a double defeat.

Welterweight Hughes failed to press home his advantage against Rob Chapman, but his control sealed a unanimous decision.

Garman's victory wrapped up the match for Oxford, but there was still some decent entertainment to come.

Middleweight Luke Smith bagged Cambridge's first victory of the night in a fairly scrappy bout.

Oxford's Ron Highet landed a great right hand to Smith's head at the end of round two, but too many infringements eventually saw him disqualified.

The rule-breaking clearly came from Cambridge's Alex Trevaskis in the second middleweight contest with Carl Walton providing all the boxing.

Trevaskis, who barged Walton after round one had ended, was eventually disqualified by a frustrated referee.

Cambridge could draw some consolation from having produced the best individual display of the night in light-heavyweight James Mahan.

The US Naval Academy graduate stopped Neil Robertson inside the first round with a power-packed onslaught.

Last up, the heavyweight bout pitted giant basketball Blue, Peter Anderson, against Cambridge's James Wellwood, a rugby Blue and former Wales and England under 21 international.

Anderson used his greater reach to dominate Wellwood, who was knocked down in the first round and disqualified in second after attacking with his head.

But it was Oxford's night. as the jubilant scenes afterwards demonstrated. RESULTS ROUND-UP f=Helvetica s=6.3Featherweight: J McCarthy (Ox) bt T Land unan pts.

Lightweight: J Robertson (Ox) bt T Gout maj pts Light-welterweight: B Shacham (Ox) bt W Rees maj pts Welterweight: T Hughes (Ox) bt R Chapman unan pts.

Light-middleweight: S Garman (Ox) bt J Gray disq.

Middleweight A: L Smith (Cam) bt R Highet disq.

Middleweight B: C Walton (Ox) bt A Trevaskis disq.

Light-heavyweight: J Mahan Cam bt N Robertson rsc1.

Heavyweight: P Anderson (Ox bt J Wellwood disq.

Score: Oxford 7, Cambridge 2.