Hammer Smith Fighting Dirty Business

Who is Hammer Smith?

Hammer Smith is at it again! ‘What?’, you say if you never heard of this hero, whose fight against injustice within the noble sport of rowing has been going on for decades. Rumour has it that he has sworn to devote parts of his life to the destruction of piracy, greed, cruelty, and injustice in all their forms in rowing. No one knows who he is – it’s a assumed he’s a gentleman – but I might have met him once, at least, at the 1987 Rowing World Championships in Copenhagen. I believe that the poor Danes forever lost any chance to organise another really big international rowing regatta as the 1987 rowing show was so terribly unfair due to bad weather which led to every boat racing in lane 1 (or was it lane 6?) inevitably coming in dead last. It became a very unfair regatta, indeed. Now, I have to confess that it has slipped my mind if there ever was any hullaballoo in writing about these championships, but if there was, I am certain Hammer Smith wrote it.

For myself, I and some dear rowing friends from my Swedish rowing club witnessed a day’s races at these Championships from the comfortable area of the marvellous restaurant overseeing the regatta course. Now, the Danes know how to make a dinner last forever, as long as there is enough snaps – and there was at this occasion… When we finally found our way back to Sweden (I vaguely remember a trip with a ferry), it seems our club’s treasurer had bought the USA men’s eight, a Vespoli. I don’t know if the old boy purchased the Americans’ boat before or after the dinner at the restaurant.

But back to our hero Hammer Smith, on 17 June he had an interesting article published in the Rowing Voice. Read and enjoy Hammer Smith’s article about dirty rowing business in ‘Olympic watch: dirty deeds in the docks’.

The Olympic Torch

In 1952, an eight from Malmö Rowing Club, in the south of Sweden, picked up the Olympic torch in the habour of Malmö and rowed the flame on the canal in to the club house. From there it was further transported to Helsinki.

For the Olympic Games in London next year, the Olympic torch will be transported on an 8,000-mile (12,874 km) tour around Great Britain. The flame will also arrive to Henley-on-Thames on 10 July, the local newspaper the Henley Standard mentions in an article. Thereafter, it will be rowed from the River and Rowing Museum to Reading, and then go on a journey around England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and outlying islands. “The relay will conclude with the flame travelling along the River Thames to reach the Olympic Stadium on July 27,” the newspaper writes.

The names of the rowers who are taking it to Reading have not yet been publicized. Of course, the town of Henley has a great Olympic tradition, being the host of two previous Olympic regattas in 1908 and 1948. The River and Rowing Museum is celebrating the Olympics and Paralympic Games with an exhibition called “The Perfect Rower — 100 Years of Racing for Glory”. Read the whole article in the Henley Standard here.

For the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, the Olympic torch was fetched in the habour of Malmö by an eight from my rowing club, Malmö Roddklubb. The oarsmen elegantly rowed into the canal and to the club house, where it was picked up by the local canoe club. When I began rowing in the club, the older members, whether they had been in the crew or not, still talked with pride of carrying the Olympic flame – a great honour for the club, indeed.

A Long, Cold Winter Ahead...

The snow came early this winter in many parts of Europe. E-mails and phone calls from Sweden are saying the same thing: the snow came way too early. I still remember the cold, long winter of 1993/1994 in Sweden. My friend Per Ekström and I were working on the issue of the rowing magazine Svensk Rodd that was due for March. All the articles and images were in place and the printers were more or less waiting at the presses, but we still lacked a picture for the cover. Per and I met at the rowing club in Malmö to try to find something ‘snowy’ that we could take a picture of. In the boat house we found a bow from an old wooden single that had just been cut up. We borrowed the bow and placed it on the frozen canal (yes, the water was frozen stiff so you could actually walk on it). We threw a life saver around it, and took a couple of pictures. The result you see on the right.

I have a feeling this is also going to be a long, cold winter. I don't like it!

The New Zealand Connection

I cannot really let go of the World Championships, or maybe more correctly, New Zealand. This great rowing nation had a significant impact on my rowing club in the beginning of the 1970s. This is how the story goes: In the end of the 1960s, there was no activity at my rowing club in Sweden, Malmö Roddklubb. The club did not have a functioning committee, hardly any rowers, and everything seemed to go rapidly down the pipes.

Malmö Roddklubb was founded in the late 1883 in the city of Malmö, in the south of Sweden (although, officially the rowing activities began 1 January 1884). In 1905, one of its members created a flag, with two white and two blue fields, that was used at all kinds of different club events. The flag was also on the oarsmen's clothes when they were racing, which happened frequently.

But then in the end of the 1960s, the club was dying. This came to the attention of some old rowers who had rowed for the club in the 1950s. They decided to save the club and restart the activities again, which happened around 1971. At the 1972 Olympic rowing events in Munich, New Zealand very surprisingly took the gold in the eights (all the other gold medals in rowing went to East Germany and the Soviet Union). The committee of Malmö Roddklubb thought that the New Zealanders had the spiffiest colour ever, black, so they decided that from then on Malmö Roddklubb's racing colours should be black and yellow (while the club's colours should still be white and blue). Added to the black and yellow was the griffin of the City of Malmö in yellow.

So, these were the colours my friends and I wore during regattas; photo above is from 1983, when the club eight is getting ready for the race between the cities of Kungälv and Göteborg, a 20k race. (I am not in the picture). And to this day, these are still the racing colours of the club! (See also HTBS 15 March 2010)

Rowing Trophy: Found And Lost...

The other day I read a nice article from the Liverpool Daily Post about a 22-year old student, Simon Parkinson, who had found a Victorian silver trophy at Battersea market. Parkinson realised that it was an old rowing trophy and, as he is a collector of silverware and his parents and sisters are members of the Runcorn RC, he bought it for £8. After a good cleaning, he could read the engraved text: “Mersey Rowing Club, Captain’s Pairs, Sept 5, 1891, W T Wood, J Snape, Stroke”.

When members of Runcorn RC went to a fundraiser event at Mersey RC, they brought the Victorian trophy along, and to make a long story short, the race has now been revitalised. To read the full article, please click here.

After reading this nice story I came to think about a very beautiful trophy that my Swedish rowing club, Malmö Roddklubb, used to be the owner of, the Nordic Rowing Federation’s Championship Trophy for Eights, which was instituted in 1911 (seen on the right). After several victories when crews from my club, trained by Jack Farrell of London RC, became Nordic champions, my rowing club became the owner of this gorgeous pot in the 1910s.

Then, during the 1980 and 1990s the club house was struck by burglaries. The club’s collection of medals and trophies were locked up, but as the club’s committee was afraid that we would maybe lose these prizes, the committee decided to let the little sport museum in Malmö have them on a loan. A short time afterwards, the Nordic Rowing Federation’s Championship pot was stolen from the museum! Thereafter, it was sold at an auction in Stockholm, and sadly, vanished into thin air.

Perhaps, some decades from now, it will show up in a bric-a-brac sale…

French Victory In Malmö

Last weekend, on 17-18 July, the Swedish Rowing Sprint Championships were held in my old hometown of Malmö. The 600-metre course was a straight stretch on the Malmö Canal in the centre of town. As the canal is very narrow and can only take two boats abreast several heats were needed to get to the two finalists in each class. My good, old club, Malmö Roddklubb, was the host, together with the regional rowing federation, Skånes Roddförbund. The event went very smoothly, the weather was great, and all the races were televised by the major Swedish national TV-station. I hope that Swedish rowing will get a real good boost out of all this hoopla.

One of the hardest races was in the men’s single scull, lightweight, where Kevin Hermansson (Kungälv RK) met Philippe Romé (Mölndals RK). Romé, who is from France and living with his Swedish girlfriend and their daughter in Göteborg, gave everything he had, and a little more, to become the Swedish Champion in the single scull, lightweight.

Below you can watch the race. The commentaries are in Swedish, and one of the voices belongs to rowing expert Henrik Nilsson, an old Blue who rowed for Oxford in 1998 and 1999, the only Swede who has competed in The Boat Race up to this date.



Following is a short interview in English with Philippe Romé.



Enjoy Hélène!

Home Again...

At last, we are home in Connecticut again after a two-week visit to Sweden. It was supposed to have been only an eight-day stay, but ash clouds from the volcano Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland closed most airports in Europe. To be honest, I am not complaining as we stayed at my mother’s place in Malmö, in the south of Sweden, so we did not have to camp-out at an airport or sit in an over-crowded bus for two, three days to go to an open airport, or any other horror story that there are plenty of in the wake of Eyjafjallajökull erupting. Not even when our flight from Copenhagen to Boston was changed to go via Glasgow airport, instead of via Keflavik airport in Iceland, did I get disturbed. Instead, I saw it as a great opportunity to get some of those British magazines that are hard to find here in the U.S. Well, although the news agency at Glasgow airport had a ton of magazines, they did not, for example, have Literary Review which I was looking for, and the ladies working there had not even heard of it.

There was also one disappointment in Malmö: the doors at my local rowing club remained closed during my visit. My mother’s flat is only a couple of blocks away from the canal where the boat house is located, so I had the opportunity to pass the house several times. At one time it was open, so I could at least go in to get a whiff of the boat house, but there was no activity, maybe due to the chilly weather, who knows?

An Oarsman's Dress Code

Above is a wonderful photograph from 1886 of some distinguished oarsmen of Malmö Roddklubb, my Swedish rowing club. At that time, the colours of the club shirt were yellow and dark blue, with blue pants, and a blue cap. The club was officially founded two years earlier, in 1884, but rowing had been going on in town several years before the club saw the light of day. The picture is from a prize celebration at the restaurant in Kungsparken [the King’s Park], a park that open in 1872. When I rowed in Malmö, you could row on the canals that surrounded the Old Town, which was a 4,5-kilometre (2.8 miles) long stretch. A part of the canals actually runs through the lovely Kungsparken and you can see the restaurant from the water. Nowadays it has been turned into a casino.

With an old club like this come a lot of good stories and anecdotes. One is from the 1930s and involves the restaurant in Kungsparken. The club’s most prominent oarsman during this time was Sture Olsson, who became Swedish Champion in the single scull three times, in 1929, 1934, and 1935. (Olsson is seen in the photograph on the left, just having received a championship wreath after winning one of those finals.) At one of the summer club banquets, the members were all dressed up in ‘top hat, white tie, and tails’ and gathered outside the restaurant in Kungsparken. They were waiting for Sture Olsson, who seemed to have been delayed. Suddenly, they could hear something approaching the restaurant from the canal side. There was Olsson, sculling in his shell; he had rowed from the boathouse in the dress code of the evening: top hat, white tie, and tails.

And these days, you have a problem getting all the men in the club to wear a tie for a club dinner!

For 'Bravery'

Talking about rowing medals, to be really honest, during my active time as a competitive oarsman in Sweden, I did not win any grand pots or medals. I did, however, on a few occasions, receive marks of honour for valuable work in the service of the sport on club, regional, and national levels.

Above are two of the medals I was given. The one on the left is my club’s highest honour, Malmö Roddklubb’s gold medal, showing the seal of the city of Malmö, and the band in the colours of the club, blue and white. One of the regulations for this medal is that it can only be given to someone who has received the bronze and the silver medals, but in my case, it seemed, the club committee made an exception.

Earlier the same year, 1993, I received the medal on the right, För Tapperhet i Rodd anno 1993 for my work with the Boat Race between the Universities of Lund and Uppsala. This race is equivalent - well sort of - to the races between Oxford and Cambridge, or Yale and Harvard, as it is between the two oldest universities in Sweden. Before this year, the medal (‘For Bravery in Rowing in [the year] 1993’) had never been handed out, nor has it been offered to anyone thereafter. Of course, this piece of tin is an academically feigned curiosity that different intellectual, literary, sport, etc. groups at the University of Lund furnish among the students and researchers.

The medal was handed out to three of us chaps who had coached the crews, organized the race, supplied the boats and the manpower to see that the race was accomplished without any obstruction, and to raise awareness on a high university level which allowed us to end the race day with an ostentatious tail-coat banquet at the Academic Society’s ‘castle’ in the middle of the medieval small town of Lund. After dinner, and rather tipsy, I have to admit, I received the medal in the men’s loo, together with my two accomplices.

Shame On Me!

Today, Sunday the 5 July, it was the final day at the Henley Royal Regatta in Henley-on-Thames. Although, I have been to the town of Henley several times, for rowing business or vacation, I have to confess that I have never been to the Henley Royal Regatta - and for that I am embarrassed. A friend of mine, a rowing fellow in London, expressed in an e-mail, when he heard that I had not attended the regatta, how shocked he was that I had not been to “Henley Royal”. And I agree. I mean, I regard myself to have a fairly good all-round education, but not having been to Henley (the regatta) leaves my education with a big dent. Last time I was in Henley with my family to visit the River and Rowing Museum – and what a lovely tribute to rowing it is - my then 19-months old daughter was sick and our stay ended up to be the worst holiday ever!!!

But, as I wrote, today was the last day of the “Henley Royal”. Although, I was not there, I like to know the results of the different events. This year there were some world-class scullers competing in The Diamond Challenge Sculls, and I was curious which of them would end up in the final heat. Early on, when it was clear that the Diamonds holder from 2008, Ian Lawson of Great Britain, was overpowered by the Kiwi Duncan Grant (lightweight single world champion), the trophy was going to be between Olaf Tufte of Norway, Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand, and the young, very talented British sculler, Alan Campbell. All moved up through the heats, and in the semi-final it was Tufte against Campbell, and the British sculler won. According to the British newspapers, it was a thrilling race, perfectly executed by Campbell. However, in the final race Drysdale was too difficult to beat. If you would like to get all the results from this year’s Henley, please click here.

The excuse that I had not to go to Henley this year is a good one. My friend Per Ekström and his family were visiting us here in Connecticut during the “Henley Days”. Not only is Per a dear friend of mine and a fellow of the Swedish rowing club where I am a member, Malmö Roddklubb, he is also the editor – or, Editor-in-Chief, if you like – of the Swedish rowing magazine Svensk Rodd, which we started in 1990. So I took all the Ekströms to the National Rowing Hall of Fame and to the rowing exhibit “Let Her Run”, and gave them a VIP-tour of the Boat Storage Space of Mystic Seaport Museum where the National Rowing Foundation’s nice collection of Pocock shells are hidden. They all seemed to like it.

Now, I have been thinking how I am to illustrate this entry to give it both a little dash of “Henley Royal” and a dash of Per Ekström and me. Spring in 1997, I think it was, my rowing club in Sweden bought a new eight, a British Aylings. For the première outing, we were nine fellows all “dressed up” to show her off on the water. From the bow: Jan Andersson, Bengt Ryberg, Håkan Christensson, Per Ekström, Ian Nicholls, Timo Ulfskans, Thomas Barge, Peter Kauranen (stroke), and Göran R Buckhorn (coxswain). And yes, the club got some publicity in the local newspapers as buying a new eight is always something special.

It is special to go to the regatta in Henley, too. And one of these years, I am going to go, by golly.

Time of Glory

On May the 14th 1911, James Farrell of the London Rowing Club arrived in Malmö, Sweden. He was invited by the Swedish Olympic Rowing Committee, which had been formed for the forthcoming 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm. In the previous Games, Sweden had not taken part in the rowing events, but it would look bad if the host nation did not have any oarsmen competing at their own Games. Farrell’s task was to visit some of the Swedish rowing clubs to select rowers and train them for the Olympic regatta on the waters of Djurgårdsbrunnsviken.

At an Olympic conference in Budapest earlier that year, Sweden’s suggestions of boat types at the regatta had been approved: single scull, coxed outrigger four, eight, and, for the Olympics, the very odd coxed inrigger, a boat type that was used in the Nordic countries on the sometimes rough waters along their coastlines. The inrigger, the origin of which was a gig, was a wide boat with the oarlocks attached directly on the gunwale, and the four rowers sitting in a zigzag way. Germany and Great Britain had protested as they also wanted double sculls, coxless pair, and coxless four to be represented at the Games. The congress said no. The British sport magazine The Field wrote sourly that an inrigger had no business in an Olympic regatta. This boat type would never again appear at an Olympic rowing event, and has to be regarded as an Olympic curiosity.

It was not a coincidence that Farrell’s first stop was Malmö in the south of Sweden. It was some distinguished members of the local rowing club in town, Malmö Roddklubb, that had suggested to the Swedish Rowing Committee to contact Farrell. The club had asked Farrell to stay for three weeks in Malmö, to train some of their oarsmen, before he was to travel to other rowing clubs in the country. The club paid him three pounds a week and gave him free board and lodging, probably something that violated ARA’s amateur rules back home in England.


When James Farrell - Jack to his friends - came to Sweden that spring, he was 54 years old. He had joined the London RC in 1873 and had rowed in the bow seat in fours and eights at the Henley Royal Regatta on six occasions. In 1880, he was in the eight that won Thames Challenge Cup. He had also raced three times in the Diamond Challenge Sculls, and made it to the final in 1884. In 1892, at the age of 35, he rowed his last single race at Henley. On August the 5th, Farrell started his first rowing camp in Malmö. The Rowing Committee had decided that Farrell and his oarsmen were to concentrate on the eight and the inrigger, the latter being crewed with the four best rowers, C. Brunkman, W. Bruhn-Möller, T. Rosvall, stroke H. Dahlbäck, and coxswain W. Wilkens. Lack of funding, forced them also to row in the eight.

James Farrell went back to England later that autumn, only to return to Malmö in April the next year for a pre-Olympic training camp. On the first day, Farrell gathered the rowers around him, and said: ”Well, gentlemen, from now on, no boozing, smoking or dancing!” It did not come as a surprise to the rowers that their coach put a ban on liquor and cigarettes, but dancing? Farrell explained: when you dance you are using muscles that you do not use in rowing, and this will disturb your rowing muscles - so no dancing!

The Olympic rowing event of 1912 was to that point the world’s largest regatta, 45 boats from 14 countries. All the major rowing nations, except USA, had come to Stockholm. The first Olympic race on July the 17th was the inrigger four. As the 2,000-metre course only had room for two boats, several heats were needed. Farrell’s crew easily defeated a crew from Norway. In the semifinal they had to work harder for the victory beating a second team from Norway. In the final the next day, they were to meet last year’s Nordic champions from Denmark. But a couple of hours before this race, the Swedes had to row in the eight. Their opponents were New College. The Oxford boat had the lead from start to finish, not allowing the Swedish eight to come closer then half a boat length. Slightly more than three hours after the Swedes were beaten by New College, the Swedish inrigger four sat at the start again. The Danish boat got a brilliant start leaving the young Swedes behind. The Swedish crew fought bravely but it was extra hard with the eight race still in their bodies. At the end of the race, the Swedes put on a spurt, but the masterful Danes held the lead and took the first Danish Olympic rowing gold, leaving Sweden with a silver.

The day after the Olympic Rowing, the Swedes got their revenge. At the Nordic Championships, which were held on the Olympic course, the Swedish eight won without trouble. During 1914, 1915, and 1916, Jack Farrell was coaching Sweden’s eight (a club crew from Malmö RK), helping them becoming Nordic champions all three years. This was the time of glory for Swedish rowing.