Rowing Blazers by Jack Carlson Coming Soon!

From Downunder Louis Petrin writes:

Good news. The book on Rowing Blazers by Jack Carlson will be will be released in July 2014 in Europe and in September 2014 in the U.S., just in time for the 175th Henley Royal Regatta and the 50th Head of the Charles Regatta.

You can pre-order copies at www.rowingblazers.com

To order outside of the USA: the Henley Regatta Shop.

HTBS first mentioned the book on 19 October 2013.

The book has 256 pages making for some serious reading on the history of rowing blazers with 200 colour photos accompanied by histories, anecdotes, and captivating descriptions of the esoteric traditions behind each blazer.

I wonder if they have included photos of the HTBS Tie designed by Tim Koch?

Rowing to Government

Parliament House in Canberra, Australia.

HTBS’s contributor Louis Petrin in Australia writes,

Last week Australia saw a change of government. Why mention this in HTBS? Well the number of government leaders who had rowed is impressive – of the 28 Prime Ministers of Australia, seven were rowers! That is an amazing 25%.

Can any other country in the world claim their leaders to be rowers?

Here is a list of the rowers:

Edmund Barton – Protectionist Party – rowed in 2 seat for Sydney University at the very first inter-university boat race in Melbourne in December 1870 and won by Melbourne Uni. Barton was also a foundation member of the Sydney Rowing Club and our 1st Prime Minister in 1901.
 

Chris Watson – Labor Party – born in Chile (only Australian Prime Minister to be born outside of Australia, or the British Isles) he was Federal Labor's first leader and the 3rd Prime Minister, had little schooling but rowed in the 1890s like many workers did at the time.

Stanley Bruce – Nationalist Party – Captain Melbourne Grammar School Rowing & First VIII. Bruce also rowed and coached at Trinity Hall, Cambridge University. Australia’s 8th Prime Minister.

John Grey Gorton – Liberal Party – schoolboy at Shore (where he shared a dorm with Errol Flynn), then went to Brasenose College, Oxford University in October 1932 where he ‘majored in rowing’. The country’s 19th Prime Minister.

William McMahon – Liberal Party – Sydney Grammar 1st VIII in 1926; the 20th Prime Minister.

Gough Whitlam – Labor Party – St. Paul’s College and won a Blue at Sydney Uni 1938; the 21st Prime Minister.

Tony Abbott – Liberal Party – member of the winning 2nd VIII at the GPS Regattas in 1974 and 1975. Australia’s 28th and the current Prime Minister.

A Punishing Erg World Record Attempt by Two Aussie Rowing Champions

Record breakers, Sam Loch and Matt Ryan, a photo of the two after winning their fourth consecutive King’s Cups for NSW in 2011, and they have since added another two wins.

HTBS’s Louis Petrin writes from Australia,

Sydney University Boat Club (SUBC) legends and dual Olympians Matt Ryan and Sam Loch had a crack at the Concept 2 Tandem 24 hour Ergometer World record this weekend.
 
The challenge, beat the record of 366,836 metres (an average split of 1:57.7) held by Germans Stefan Verhoeven, 27, and Matthias Auer, 41, who set the record in Karlsrue on 23-24 February, 2013.

There is no rest during the challenge with Loch tweeting that they had changeovers occurring every 20 minutes and later in the challenge went to 30-minute changeovers.

One of the requirements for this challenge is that the flywheel cannot stop spinning ever until 24 hours has elapsed! Take a look at the requirements here.

The challenge took place at the Melbourne University Boat Club on Saturday, 15 June, 2013.

Loch posted a photo four hours after starting.

Later Loch tweeted, “Through halfway in 1:52.1. Will probably cruise at 1:54/1:55 for a couple of hours”.

What did they achieve at the end? They smashed the record and set a new World 24-hour ergo record:  380,274 metres or 236.3 miles! That works out at an average split of 1:53.6 per 500m! Remember, this was erging for 24 hours.

Photo by Sam Loch of the Concept2 Screen after 24 hours.

More importantly, they have raised AU$14,718 (US$14,150) for the Leukemia Foundation.

So the beauty is that this record was not done for medals but for charity! Steve Fairbairn said miles makes champions, but you also need a big heart.

More on Murray Bridge and ‘The Cods’

The News, 16 July 1924.

HTBS’s Greg Denieffe writes,

My fellow HTBS-arian and Australian rowing historian Louis Petrin has kindly contacted me regarding the recent post “The Case of Cod v Cods”. Louis writes:

‘Here is a voice recording of an interview in which Christine McRae (mother of James, a Murray Bridge rower who went on to the 2008 and 2012 Olympics) says that the Cods won the race in Ireland.  Sadly, Christine is mistaken, although it would have been nice for these guys to have won something after all their efforts.

I have also found a mention of the race on the front page of local South Australian newspaper, Bunyip for Friday 22 August 1924:

Glad to know that you were on the ball: there’s nothing worse than facts being wrong and repeated. I will endeavour to write to Christine and to the various local websites pointing this out.

My view was that these guys tried as best as they could but everything was against them and it was probably the case that they competed against better rowers anyway.

The facts are, that to travel to Europe, they had a lengthy boat journey, they did not have the best equipment, although it’s hard to know why because here in Oz we did have some good boat builders, and there was no money to pay for basic things like lodgings, food, etc. But in the spirit of good sports, they gave it a go. They were not the first, nor last, to face such challenges. We need more stories on “losers” as the way they behave in losing defines them as winners.’

The Tailteann Games and the progress of the Murray Bridge crew were widely reported in the Australian papers. On the 1 August, 1924, the Sydney newspaper The Arrow questioned the eligibility of the crew to participate in the Aonac Tailteann (Tailteann Festival). The Sydney Morning Herald on the 18 August, 1924, in an article very similar to that printed in The Irish Times, reported on the three international races between the Irish and Australian crews. A local newspaper The Register reported on 6 October, 1924, that the crew were ‘Home Again’ as follows:

There was a large crowd of enthusiasts it the Outer Harbour on Saturday afternoon to welcome the Murray Bridge rowing crew, who were, returning by the R.M.S. Mooltan from London after participating in the Olympic Games. Interviewed on board the vessel, Sir C. A. M. West (manager) said that although the crew were disappointed at not getting pride of place, they were by no means discouraged, and were as keen oars men as ever. Much had been said of their inability to secure the desired success, but he would say, to express the sentiments of the members of the crew, that the best eight won. The trip had been most beneficial in more ways than one. All were enjoying good health. The crew had not practised since the Tailteann Games at Dublin, in August, so were now well rested. At the Olympic contest he was greatly impressed at the fact that the crews favoured the swivel rowlock and that the Americans used a longer slide, which appeared to help the men in their, swing and reach. The crew were in England only a few days, and were not greatly impressed by the English summer, as it rained continuously. The Thames Rowing Club very kindly made the crew honorary members for the time of their stay, and offered them the use of racing boats. In the Irish sports the Australians generally were successful, and secured 29 medals. The crew were defeated by Derry after a grueling contest. After participating in the eights and fours Pfeiffer secured pride of place in the sculling event on the same day.

Thanks to Louis, I was able to find the voice recording made by ABC Adelaide and broadcast last March on their 891 Drive programme. The radio station’s website introduced the show as follows:

Murray Cods at Paris Olympics

In 1924 the Murray Cods, a team of rowers from Murray Bridge, also known as ‘the raggedy eight’, competed in the Paris Olympic Games. [Actually it was the Murray Bridge crew of 1913 that were known as The Raggedy Eight].

But to get there they had to overcome all sorts of problems - class snobbery, interstate rivalry, being past their prime, lack of finances and transportation. They even sold a bullock to raise cash for their journey, then busked on the streets of Paris for expenses.

Local historian Christine McRae, whose son is in training for the London Olympics, talked with Michael Smyth on 891 Drive.
 
Chris talks us through the period from 1913 to 1924 when Murray Bridge were the premier crew in Australia; through WWI in which the club lost eight of its members and through the very successful post-war period up to the 1924 Paris Olympics.

You can listen to the 12-minute programme here.

Photograph courtesy of the State Library of South Australia - PRG 280/1/29/198

As readers of HTBS will know, it was the City of Derry Boating Club and not the USA crew from Yale mentioned in the broadcast that defeated Murray Bridge. Nevertheless, it is well worth a listen. There are a couple of interesting callers to the show and a remarkable disclosure of true friendship shown by the crew to Wally Pfeiffer, who some people wanted banned from representing Australia. 

Chris and her son James after the 2012 Olympic quadruple sculls medal ceremony. Photo ©Stock Journal

The Stock Journal, a website that covers agricultural, political and general news affecting people and businesses in rural, regional and corporate Australia, reported on 7 August, 2012, as follows:

JAMES McRae has become the most decorated athlete in the 103-year history of the Murray Bridge Rowing Club after winning a bronze medal at the London Olympics.McRae and his Australian men’s quad scull team-mates… rowed their fastest race for the season to claim third place at Eton Dorney on Friday. The full article is here and you can watch the full race here.

I was lucky enough to be there to see James win his bronze medal and here’s my ticket for that momentous day.

James has now been selected for the Australian 2013 team as part of a coxed pair with fellow South Australian, Tim Conrad. According to the Rowing Australia website, “This crew may compete in the Coxless Pair, subject to them meeting determined performance criteria prior to 25th July.”  Who knows, he may even return to Eton Dorney in June for the Rowing World Cup.

Champions Rowing in Australia for their State of Origin

HTBS’s Louis Petrin, who volunteered during last week’s regatta, is here seen holding the most prestigious regatta trophy, the King’s Cup.

Whilst rowing in the UK has been affected by some severe weather conditions, rowing in Sydney, Australia, has had temperatures around 30°C (86°F).

The past seven days has seen a feast of rowing events and records made at the National Championships, the Interstate Regatta, Schoolboy and Schoolgirl Championships and the Samsung World Cup.

A great summary on these events can be found on this website.

Probably of more interest to HTBS followers will be the trophies presented to winning crews for the various Interstate events. These are simply races between crews made up of rowers from the seven of the states and territory of Australia.

Some pictures of the various Interstate trophies:

Interstate Regatta Trophies

Women’s Single Scull - The Nell Slatter Trophy
The Queensland Women’s Rowing Association donated the perpetual trophy in 1963 for as a tribute to the then Queensland President Nell Slatter.

Nell Slatter Trophy

Men’s Single Scull – The President’s Cup
Mr E.C. Watchorn, the first President of the Australian Amateur Rowing Council, donated the President’s Cup as the perpetual trophy in 1926.

President’s Cup

Women’s Lightweight Four/Quadruple Scull – The Victoria Cup
The Victorian Ladies’ Rowing Association presented this perpetual trophy in 1968.

Victoria Cup

Men’s Lightweight Coxless Four  - The Penrith Cup
The Penrith City Council provided this perpetual trophy in 1958.

Penrith Cup

Women’s Youth Four/Eight – The Bicentennial Cup
Presented by the New South Wales Rowing Association in 1988 for winning Coxed Four crews and changed to being presented to winning Eights in 1994.

Bicentennial Cup

Men’s Youth Eight – The Noel F Wilkinson Trophy
Donated by Noel Wilkinson, a long serving Treasurer of the Australian Rowing Council, in 1974.

The Noel F Wilkinson Trophy

Women’s Eight – The Queen Elizabeth II Trophy, formerly known as the ULVA Trophy
The United Licensed Victuallers Association (ULVA) of Queensland presented this unique trophy in 1921 for the winning Women’s Four. It changed to being presented to the winning Eights in 1999 and its name became the Queen Elizabeth II Trophy, or simply the Queen’s Cup. Its nickname is Bertha and is my favourite trophy of all.

Queen’s Cup

Men’s Eight – The King’s Gold Cup
In 1878, the first race between Eights from Victoria and New South Wales took place. From 1921, crews raced for the King’s Gold Cup. This cup was won by the Australian Imperial Expeditionary Force eight at the Royal Henley Peace Regatta at Henley-on-Thames in July 1919. The trophy was a substitution for the Grand Challenge Cup race for that year which was not raced due to the war.

King’s Cup

Queen’s & King’s Cup together

My good friend Barry Moynahan led a working group to commemorate the King’s Cup. It was installed at the SIRC course at Penrith and unveiled at a moving ceremony on Sunday, 17 February during the 2013 New South Wales Rowing Championships.

King’s Cup Commemorative Plaque

2013 Sydney International Rowing Regatta

Dawn at the Sydney International Rowing Centre, Penrith – Finish Tower on left.

HTBS’s Louis Petrin writes from Australia,

More than 2,000 competitors will take part in 110 events at the Sydney International Rowing Regatta – a meet that includes the 2013 Australian Open Rowing Championships, the Australian Open Schools Rowing Championships, the King’s Cup and the Queen’s Cup.

This week, 18 to 24 March, has seen some fine rowing in Sydney at the SIRC rowing course in Penrith, the course used for the 2000 Olympics, and continues until Sunday, 24 March.

Chatting to our overseas visitors from USA and U.K., they all comment on how wonderful to have temperatures of 27°C (81°F) with no wind – just perfect for a rowing regatta. We have visitors from other countries, too, such as New Zealand, Canada, Hong Kong, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Portugal, Hungary, Germany, Estonia, France and China.

Samsung World Rowing Cup
This year, the regatta is unique as it incorporates for the first time here in Samsung World Rowing Cup (round 1), the fifth time a global rowing event has been held in Australia. The events will be held from 22-24 March.

Live video streaming of the finals at no charge can viewed at www.worldrowing.com beginning this weekend (22-24 March). USRowing has entered a team of eight crews for this opening regatta of the 2013 international season, including six Olympic medallists. Great Britain, which topped the medal ranks at the 2012 London Olympics, will line up at the 2000 Olympic Games course with a record number of nine Olympic medallists, including five London gold medallists.

Other events to be rowed are the national Australian Rowing Championships (18-22 March), Kings and Queens Cups Interstate Regatta (23 March) and the Australian Open Schools Rowing Championships (22-24 March).

Australian Rowing Championships
The Australian Rowing Championships is an annual rowing event that determines Australia’s national rowing champions and guides the selection of Australian representative crews for World Championships and the Olympic Games. It is Australia’s premier regatta, with states, clubs and schools sending their best crews. The Championships commence with the National Regatta – men’s, women’s and lightweight events in open, under 23, under 19, under 17 and school age categories. Rowers at the National Regatta race in their local club colours with composite crews permitted.

The first proposal for a National Championship was submitted by NSW rowing association at the Australian Amateur Rowing Council meeting in 1946 and it failed to gain support outside NSW. Kevyn Webb of NSW was the driving force behind these proposals, being presented at each of the Council meetings up to 1960. That’s the persistence of a rower!

Kevyn Webb sculling in 1960.

(photo from www.rowinghistory-aus.info/national-championships/index.html)

Finally, a report was tabled at the 1961 Australian Rowing Council meeting prepared by Webb and the six States voted unanimously to hold the first National Championship Regatta on Lake Wendouree at Ballarat, in 1962. The National Championships became an annual event in 1974.

The Australian Women’s Rowing Council conducted their first National Championships events in 1968 and thereafter conducted the event annually. The men’s and women’s associations merged in 1979 but jointly conducted their Championships from 1976.
The Championships traditionally conclude with the Kings and Queens Cups Interstate Regatta – currently six events competed by state representative crews or scullers selected by the state rowing associations.

The King’s Cup – Interstate Men’s Eight
The King’s Cup is one of the most anticipated events in the Australian rowing calendar, and is competed for during the annual Interstate Regatta. With a history that dates back to the late 19th century, interstate rowing boasts some of the oldest and fiercest rivalries in Australian Sport. Rowers compete for their state in eight crews, men’s and women’s open and under 21 eights, single sculls and quad and four.

Victoria and New South Wales commenced inter-colonial racing in eight-oared boats in 1878 when the Victorian Rowing Association invited New South Wales oarsmen from the Sydney and the Mercantile clubs to boat crews for a race on the lower Yarra River over about four miles, with Victoria winning by two lengths.

Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania all showed an interest in entering crews from the mid-1880s but disagreements over definitions of amateur status resulted in inconsistencies in eligibility criteria in the early decades. New South Wales held firm to a view that not just professional sportsmen and those employed around boats would be deemed non-amateurs but also all manual labourers. Such debates were common around the world at this time and continued for quite a few years. The other states had relaxed this view by 1899.

Queensland and Tasmania first entered crews in 1885 and then Queensland raced regularly from 1890. From 1899 South Australia were racing annually. Following Federation the race became the interstate eight-oared championship with Tasmania and West Australia boating crews regularly by 1906.

However, since 1921 the crews have competed for the King’s Cup. The trophy had been won by an AIF crew at the Royal Peace Regatta held in London in 1919 following the cessation of hostilities at the end of WWI and was presented to the victorious eight-oared boat by King George V. In time, and in against dogged resistance from the Australian War Memorial, the Victorian Rowing Association petitioned the King to express his intention for the Cup, and at his command it became the perennial trophy to be presented to the winning state representative men’s eight at the annual Australian Rowing Championships.

King’s Cup

This year, the NSW crew will be stroked Dan Noonan crew as they try to set a new record of “six in a row” for NSW in this event.

The Queen Elizabeth II Cup – Interstate Women’s Eight
The result of the first Interstate Women’s Four Championship in 1920 was a win for South Australia. The next year, the United Licensed Victuallers Association (ULVA) of Queensland presented a unique sterling silver trophy to the Australian Women’s Rowing Council. The trophy was crafted by London silversmiths to depict Dorothy Arnold, the petite girl from Mannum who stroked the winning crew for South Australia. She is holding her oar and dressed in the rowing garb of her time, namely a floppy hat, sailor top and billowing bloomers.

Dorothy Arnold holding the trophy modeled on her at the time of winning the first race.

Up until 1998 the largest crewed boat was Fours. In 1999 the women’s interstate race was changed to an event for Eights with the ULVA trophy becoming the Queen Elizabeth II Trophy, or simply the Queen’s Cup, as the prize.

Australian Open School Rowing Championships
The events rowed include single sculls, coxed Fours, coxed Quadruples and Eights. This event has attracted international interest and successful overseas crews will come from Great Britain, the USA, Ireland and Italy.

Gavirate, South Africa’s St. Stithians College, Ireland’s St Joseph’s Galway College and British Abingdon School who will bring their National Champion schoolboy’s Eight, will take on the best Australian crews in the national schoolboy’s Eight. From the U.S., Saratoga, NY, has brought over their girls’ Eight, having won the prestigious Head of the Charles race in October. They will join Italian school Gavirate to contest the National schoolgirls’ Eight.

A Jolly Santa Row!

The start at the Opera House.

HTBS received Chrismas greetings from Louis Petrin our loyal contributor Downunder:



For a few years now the Sydney rowing community participate in the Santa Sprint – a 500-metre race from the Opera House to past the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The prize is telling families just waiting at home what a great row it was. All boats and crews are invited with singles to eights rowing. Santa comes along and tries, but always fails, to align the boats for a start.



 Past the finish line under the Sidney Harbour Bridge.

Yesterday, we had three rowers from various Tideway Rowing Clubs and it was great to share a good row. Our crew were leading but a Four that broke the start sopped us metres from the finish. Not a problem, everyone is a winner at Santa Sprints!

Blue Coat for Anness

Louis Petrin writes,

I do love the Doggett’s Race and I only just noticed that there is no report on HTBS of the Diamond Jubilee Coat and Badge Race. Its old news now, but then HTBS is a rowing history website.

On September 4, 2012, a special race to celebrate Her Majesty The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee was held by the Watermen’s Company.  The participants of this special race qualified from heats contested by 14 apprentices over 2,000 metres at the Royal Albert Dock.

The race from Shadwell Basin, the entrance of the Old London Dock, to London Bridge was won by Christopher Anness in a time of 12 min. 19.77 sec.

Result:
1. C. Anness                12:19.77
2. P. Spencer                12:31.68
3. D. Arnold                12:54.03
4. A. Anderson            13:03.18
5. S. Coleman              13:33.40

Unfortunately, Merlin Dwan, who had qualified for the race and had won the Doggett’s Coat and Badge earlier in July, was not able to take part through injury.

The blue Winner’s Coat was made to accompany the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Badge, the design of which has been based on the Deptford Apprentices Annual Regatta Badge of 1861, which is in The Company’s collection.

Photo: Tim Koch

The Riverview Regatta – Rowing for Gold

The Riverview Gold Cup.

This past weekend the row for the Riverview Gold Cup was held Downunder, HTBS’s special reporter Louis Petrin writes,

It was 127 years ago that Saint Ignatius’ College of Riverview organised the first of its annual rowing regatta. Now simply known as the Gold Cup, it is one of the oldest rowing events in Australia and the oldest New South Wales schoolboy regatta. It is also contested by club boats in the Men’s Open VIII, and in recent years by women and schoolgirl crews.

This past weekend saw the Riverview Gold Cup held along a 1,400-metre course on Sydney’s Lane Cove River. The course is locally famous as the only dogleg course on the NSW rowing calendar, making it a great test of cox and crew. The “Leaning Pile” course is where the famous rowing crash occurred as seen on YouTube:



The college was founded in 1880 by Father Joseph Dalton, first Rector of Saint Ignatius’ College. The “St. Ignatius College Rowing Club” (fondly called Riverview) was founded late in 1882 under the guiding hand of Father Thomas Gartlan. The first appearance by a Riverview crew in a rowing challenge was in the School’s Race for the Lord Mayor’s Cup in 1853, which it then went on to win in 1884.

The Rowing Club held its first regatta on Sunday, 20 June, 1885, with some 3,000 visitors to the College. It was recorded in many of the daily newspapers of the time and hailed as “the first College Regatta in the Colony”.  Its success was trumpeted, with one reporter writing, “such cheering and enthusiasm has rarely if ever before been noticed at an amateur meeting”. The winner of the “All Schools Race” silver trophy was Sydney Grammar School by four lengths from Riverview.

In the 1890 Regatta, a race was instituted called “The Lane Cove Challenge Eights”, won by Mercantile Rowing Club (not a school) which changed to the “Riverview Gold Cup Regatta”, now the name of the modern day Regatta.

In 1892, the Regatta Committee invited the residents of Lane Cove, regular spectators of the local race, and others interested in rowing to subscribe to a fund to acquire a suitable Gold Cup, as a trophy for this race. The result is the Riverview Gold Cup, as we have it today.

The Trophy took about three months to complete and was put on show in April 1893. At the time it was said to be the only gold cup for rowing in the world. According a local newspaper report:

The Gold Cup trophy, now awarded to the winning men’s open eight, was first competed for at the 27 May 1893 regatta, or 119 years ago. The Ignatius' Regatta for this year had nine crews competing in maiden fours, with North Shore winning by two lengths from Sydney, Glebe third, and East Sydney and Mercantile behind. The regatta itself was said to be a great success: “such cheering and enthusiasm has seldom, if ever before, been noticed at an amateur meeting”. It was not until 1929 that the first school crew, St Ignatius, competed in the Gold Cup Challenge Eights. The first schoolboy crew to win this open event was Sydney High School in 1938, 48 years after the first race. It was not until 1963 that Riverview won the Gold Cup!

The winners were originally each awarded gold medals and now they receive gold oars as individual trophies for this event. For the other events, winners receive a silver oar. Since the time of its inception, the Gold Cup has been looked upon as an outstanding trophy for rowing.

This year donations are being called for a new gold cup to be made for the women’s eight race to match that awarded to the men’s eight. The cost of the trophy including display cabinet will be around $16,000. The trophy will be made by sculptor Jennifer Mann. The female figure on top of the cup will be modelled on noted NSW rower Tess Gerrand. Tess is an Olympian – 2012 London Olympics Women’s Eight – and three times NCAA champion when at Yale. It will also feature an engraving of the 2001 Australian World Champion Women’s Eight.

On Saturday, 3 December, the regatta was held and the Women’s Challenge was won by Mosman Rowing Club (4m 45. 03s) and the Men’s won by University of Sydney (4m 03. 80s); Sydney was coxed by Toby Lister (Olympic Men’s Eight cox) which made it his eight win!

Sydney University wins the Women’s Quad Scull with Louis’s daughter, Nicole Petrin, in the bow seat.

The Leaning Pile – made famous by YouTube.

The Gold Cup returned to its secured cabinet.

How to Look Dashing!

 

Yesterday, HTBS received an e-mail from our dear friend Louis Petrin from Downunder. Louis just wanted to let us know that he had received his HTBS tie that he had ordered. He writes, ‘Please excuse my poor attempts at creativity but it was exciting and I wanted to do something to put the tie and the HTBS blog in context.’

Looking at Louis’s photographs, ever since I meet him, I thought he was a handsome-looking fellow, but with the HTBS tie on, he looks dashing!

Louis is looking smart, isn't he? Behind him, we can catch a glimpse of his rowing book library ~ very nice.

If you, dear reader, also would like to look smart, order your own HTBS tie, there are only a few left, as a matter of fact.

Rowing Downunder: The 2012 Sydney-Melbourne Boat Races

Melbourne on left clearly leads Sydney to the finish for the Women’s Race.

The excitement for the boat race between The University of Sydney (challenger) and The University of Melbourne on Sunday, 4 November was huge and will be talked about by athletes and spectators for years to come, Louis Petrin reports from Downunder. He continues to writes:

The race was revived four years after a rest for well over 100 years. The race is modeled on the great Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race, with the difference that the Australian race also has a women’s boat race challenge on the same day as the men’s race.

Ready for racing.

The four crews featured an incredible eight Olympians, seven of whom rowed for Australia at the recent London 2012 Olympic Games.

The day started with the Women’s race starting at 8.20 with fine weather. Visitors to Sydney will know it is a busy harbor with ferries transporting people along with working boats and pleasure craft and yachts. So the challenge was to shut down all traffic for this event.

Water was calm on top with crews feeling the undertows of the river. Melbourne had won the toss and chose the favoured North (bow side) station. After a brief wait the crews were off with Melbourne taking a slight lead racing towards a sweeping 20 degree bend about 200 meters from the start. Sydney was hard pressed to come around from the outside with Melbourne continuing to press their advantage. After 500 meters, it was Melbourne in the lead heading for the finish in another 4 km.

The spectators in ferries, water taxis and boats followed creating a huge wash which fortunately did not affect the race. Cheers were loud from supporters.

Melbourne Women continued their fine race, increasing their lead as they approached an old bridge to mark the last 100 meters of the race. Sydney Women pulled hard and upped their rate but all efforts were matched. The result, another win to Melbourne Women to take the Bella Guerin Trophy for the third time in a row. Melbourne covered the 4.3km in 16 min 54 sec, with Sydney finishing 23 seconds behind.

Melbourne University Women – winners 2012

The spectators turned their boats around and headed back to the start to watch the Men’s Race. This time, Sydney had won the coin toss and chose the same South (stroke side) station that the Sydney Women had started from, which surprising many. Once again the wait was not long and at 9.20 the race was on. Sydney came out rating over 40 and came around the Melbourne to take a lead of about a canvas. The cox from Sydney steered the boat so as to push the Melbourne crew to stroke side, away from the course. Oars clashed a number of times but neither crew had any fear of pressing on their course. The Umpire was quite busy flagging both crews away at various stages. Sydney continued to take the lead steering their boat across to stroke side, forcing Melbourne to fall in behind them. As they approached the finish the boats separated so as to take their lines through separate arches of the old Pyrmont Bridge.

Sydney leads Melbourne to the finish for the Men’s Race.

With about 400 meters to go, Sydney lowered their rate to 32 to take a brief rest and save what little was left in case they had to match Melbourne who made a huge push for the finish. In the end, two boats filled with crews who have just rowed 4.5 kilometers and given everything crossed the finish Sydney University taking the Edmund Barton Trophy in a time of 14min 0.2 sec, to win by 5.35 seconds. The result gave Sydney University Men’s a clean sweep of three wins.

Sydney University Men – winners 2012

The race returns to Melbourne’s home course, the Yarra River, in late 2013.