With reference to the post below, I am grateful to Andrew Bostom for sending me the following:

The Shi'ite Iranians of the Qajar dynasty (1724-1925) had a sport called 'Jew Bashi'. C.J.Wills (in Persia As It Is 1887, p. 23.) provides an acerbic description of this egregious form of public degradation suffered by the Jews throughout the 19th century:

'At every public festival-- even at the royal salaam [salute] before the King’s face -- the Jews are collected, and a number of them are flung into the hauz or tank, that King and mob may be amused by seeing them crawl out half-drowned and covered with mud. The same kindly ceremony is witnessed whenever a provincial governor holds high festival: there are fireworks and Jews.'

Clearly, the sport at Oxford and Cambridge this week is an anglicised version of this old Islamic entertainment.