The King is Dead - Long Live the King

A banner announcing the arrival of the Royal Barge carrying George I (looking very well for a man who has been dead for 287 years).

Tim Koch writes:

This year marks the 300th anniversary of the establishment of the House of Hanover, the royal dynasty that ruled Britain and Ireland from 1714 to 1901, that is from the accession of George I to the death of Queen Victoria via the reigns of Georges II, III and IV and William IV. To mark the tercentenary, ‘Historic Royal Palaces’, the charity that looks after the Tower of London, the Banqueting House, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace and Kew Palace, is organising a ‘Glorious Georges Season’. The Season consists of a series of events with the life of George I marked at Hampton Court, the life of George II at Kensington Palace and the life of George III at Kew Palace. Hampton Court was originally built for Henry VIII in 1514 and is sited on the Thames, 20 km from central London. Over the Easter holiday weekend, I was there to see ‘George I’ arrive in the Queen’s Row Barge, Gloriana, the magnificent vessel that HTBS has written about many times before.

Gloriana arrives at Hampton Court.

‘King George’ and his courtiers disembark.

George I (1660 - 1727) was a most unlikely British King. In 1714, at the age of 54, he had never been to Britain and ruled the lands belonging to the Hanover dynasty in Lower Saxony, now part of modern Germany. However, on the death of the British Queen Anne, George inherited her throne as he was her closest living Protestant relative. Although over fifty Roman Catholics had a closer blood relationship to Anne, the 1701 Act of Settlement prohibited Catholics from becoming Kings or Queens of Britain and Ireland.

History has not been kind to George but in recent years he and his reign has been seen in a more positive light. He was not popular with his British subjects who ridiculed him for his supposed stupidity and inability to speak English (though it is rather ironic that the largely monolingual English should criticise someone for not speaking a foreign language). In fact, George spoke good French and Latin and so had no problem communicating with important people. His shyness and the fact that ‘his heart was in Hanover’ may have been somehow interpreted as a lack of intelligence. Today he is seen as a progressive ruler in the Age of Reason, a time when ideas grounded in tradition and faith were challenged. During George’s rule the powers of the King diminished and Britain began the move to the system of government it has today. In the words of one biographer:

.....he ascended a precarious throne, and either by political wisdom and guile, or through accident and indifference, he left it secure in the hands of the Hanoverians and of Parliament.

Gloriana was not the only thing on the water at Hampton Court. These boats were from the nearby Kingston RC. Molesey BC is nearer to the Palace but its boats tend to stay upriver of this point on the other side of Molesey Lock.

The skiff is probably from Dittons Skiff and Punting Club based a little way downriver.

As an aside, most people tend to think of the Royal Family as the epitome of Britishness or Englishness. However, from 1714 to 1901, they were Hanoverians from the House of Brunswick and Lüneburg and, through Queen Victoria’s husband, were members of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a branch of the House of Wettin, from 1901 to 1917. In the First World War the obvious German ancestry was a bit embarrassing and the totally made up name of ‘Windsor’ was adopted. On hearing this, it is alleged that the German Emperor said that he would like to see the Shakespeare play, ‘The Merry Wives of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha’. In more recent times, Queen Elizabeth’s husband, Prince Philip, is popularly supposed to be Greek/Danish, but he is a member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. When the then Lady Diana Spencer married Queen Elizabeth’s son, Prince Charles, it was noted that she was far more British or English than he was. It could be argued that the Royals are as British as lederhosen made from bratwurst.

Strangely, when looking at the legacy of George I, most historians seem to concentrate on such things as Parliamentary Democracy and Cabinet Government or the forging of an anti-Spanish alliance and ignore his contribution to rowing, albeit a rather indirect one. In 1714, Thomas Doggett instituted a race with a prize of a coat and a silver badge to be rowed annually by six watermen within a year of completing their apprenticeships ...all which I would have to be continued yearly forever in Commemoration of His Majesty King George’s happy Accession to the British Throne...

George distrusted the conservative Tory Party and so the liberal Whig Party prospered under his rule and also for many years after. As a staunch Whig, Doggett was passionately devoted to the Hanoverians and laid down that the race was to be held each ‘1st day of August forever’ to commemorate the accession of George I on 1st August 1714, and had the 'running' White Horse, the symbol of the House of Hanover, embossed on the silver badge. Three hundred years later, the ‘Doggett’s Coat and Badge’ continues to be raced and the White Horse still adorns ‘The Badge’.

The 1982 Doggett’s winner, Gary Anness, at the 2013 Coat and Badge Race, showing the silver badge with the White Horse of Hanover commemorating the ‘happy accession’ of George I.

Malcolm Knight, the Events Manager for Gloriana, has more space than the average coxswain, but still uses a ‘cox box’ to give instructions to the eighteen rowers. As there is also a steersman in the stern, it could be said that there are two coxes on board – a rower’s nightmare.

Gloriana heads for home.

Photography © Tim Koch

The Head of The River Race 2014: Not Waiving but Drowning

Crew number 53, Griffen Boat Club, goes under.

Tim Koch writes:

The organisers of the Head of the River Race have put out the following announcement:

The Head of the River Race was abandoned this afternoon at 2:55pm after about 75 crews had passed the finish line. The organisers faced the difficult decision as to whether water conditions were sufficiently safe to start the race. The tide turned about 20 minutes late, and whilst most of the course enjoyed near perfect conditions, gusting winds made the finish marshalling area very difficult for rowing. After a 15 minutes delay to the start, and a reduced wind, the decision was made to start Divisions 1 and 2. However, it soon became clear that as crews in these divisions were struggling to cope beyond the finish line, the decision was taken to abandon the race. A number of times had been taken before the abandonment and these are now published for information only purposes. As the Race was not completed, the times have no official bearing. We are very disappointed that we were unable to provide rowers with the race they wanted, and thank you for your understanding in difficult conditions.

Boating from Hammersmith. It started well, it was ‘shirtsleeves’ weather with a light breeze.

Reading Rowing Club II goes afloat.

Balliol College, Oxford passes the many blades stacked outside Furnivall Sculling Club.

Boating from Putney. As can be seen, the river was a little ‘lumpy’ at high water, but the expectation was that it would calm down when the tide started to fall. The race is timed so the first crews get the fasted water, usually about an hour after the tide starts to go out.

The wind picks up.

Leander I were the first crew to pass the finish line which is just above the ‘UBR’ stone marking the start of the Oxford - Cambridge Boat Race. Their time was 18 minutes, 16 seconds.

Molesey I were the second boat to finish, but were the fastest crew overall with a time of 18 minutes, 5 seconds.

Conditions were worst around Hammersmith, about a mile and a half from the finish. However, crews such as Forward Morges from Switzerland found the going fairly rough along Putney Embankment as well.

The first indication for those of us at the finish that there were problems was when Crew 42, Karlsruhe Wiking from Germany, became an ‘unterseeboot’.

Karlsruhe Wiking are rescued.

Muelhei  Ruhr, also from Germany, managed to get the slipway below Waterman’s Green to empty several litres of the Thames out of their boat.

Suddenly, everyone was joining in. These Old Abingdonians seem stoical about the whole thing.

With the race abandoned, everyone who had started to race headed for the nearest land to bail out.

The top ten crews were:

1) Molesey BC I: 18 05 05
2) Leander I: 18 16 00
3) University of London: 18 36 70
4) Leander II: 18 40 51
5) Nerus (Netherlands): 18 45 11
6) Oxford Brooks I: 18 46 66
7) Leander IV: 18 56 63
8) Leander III: 18 59 03
9) Imperial College II: 18 59 16
10) Imperial College I: 19 00 11

London V puts the river back where it belongs.

While accepting that a potentially dangerous situation developed (though thankfully no one was hurt) it must be admitted that it was good spectator sport, perhaps more interesting than if the race had gone off as intended. I was reminded of a verse from “Albert and the Lion”, an old comic monologue by Marriott Edgar about a northern English family’s trip to the seaside holiday resort of Blackpool:

They didn’t think much to the ocean

The waves, they was fiddlin’ and small
There was no wrecks... nobody drownded

‘Fact, nothing to laugh at, at all.

Photography © Tim Koch

Sunday CUBC v Molesey BC Race

A photograph from a last year Boat Race fixture at Putney Embankment.

Tomorrow, Sunday 16 March, there will be another Boat Race fixture on the River Thames. Cambridge Blue Boat will race against Molesey Boat Club starting from Putney Embankment at 12:45. There will be live tweeting from @theboatrace during the fixture, and a race report will be posted online at www.theboatrace.org later that the day.

If you are at Putney Embankment half an hour earlier, at 12:15, you can watch Goldie go out against another crew from Molesey BC.

The two crews starting at 12:45 have the following line-up:
CAMBRIDGE
Bow: Michael Thorp
2: Luke Juckett
3: Ivo Dawkins
4: Steve Dudek
5: Helge Gruetjen
6: Matthew Jackson
7: Joshua Hooper
Stroke: Henry Hoffstot
Cox: Ian Middleton

MOLESEY BC
Bow: Sam Scrimegour
2: Pete Robinson
3: Matt Tarrant
4: Fred Gill (Cambridge Blue 2010, Goldie 2009)
5: Mo Sbihi
6: Phil Congdon
7: George Nash (Cambridge Blue 2010, 11 and 13, Goldie 2009)
Stroke: James Foad
Cox: Henry Fieldman (Cambridge Blue 2013)

Black and Blue: Molesey v Oxford

Oxford at Wandsworth. Will they have to dig deep?

Molesey at Wandsworth. Is the writing on the wall?

Tim Koch reports from the Thames in London:

The forces of nature combined with man-made engineering to produce challenging conditions for yesterday’s (1 March) pre-Boat Race Tideway fixture between Oxford University Women’s Boat Club (OUWBC) and women from Molesey Boat Club (MBC). From upriver, natural forces produced a huge flow of water from recent heavy rains while at the other end of the Thames, human intervention came with the opening and closing of the Thames Barrier. A spring tide added to the fun. The result was, at times, confusion as to which way the water was flowing and it called for the experienced judgement of London Rowing Safety Advisor, Tony Reynolds.

How London might be affected by flooding from the sea without the Thames Barrier. Someone on Twitter said that it looked like a manic version of the BBC soap, Eastenders. Graphic: The Environment Agency.

Determining flow was important as some navigation rules on the Thames between Putney and Brentford, unlike the rest of the water borne world, are not determined by ‘Colregs’. Here, rowers must do what the old watermen did and ‘work the slacks’. This means that when going against the flow of water they must keep close to the shore (where the opposing stream is not so strong). When going with the flow of water, rowers need to keep to the starboard side of the central navigation fairway.

Navigating the Tideway (or possibly a map of the Tokyo subway system).

Partly because of the conditions, the plan was to do four race pieces between Wandsworth Bridge (below the usual Putney start) and Chiswick Eyot (approximately the mid-way point of the Putney - Mortlake course). However, this scheme was abandoned after the first piece.

Piece 1: Five minute race from Wandsworth Bridge.

Molesey took an early lead but they looked rushed and were overrating a more relaxed looking Oxford who, in this and their other pieces bar one, rowed their own race. The Dark Blues soon had clear water over their rivals. Neither cox was in the fastest water but the MBC boat constantly stayed far from the stream and ignored umpire Judith Packer’s calls to move.

Initially it looked good for Molesey (on the right)....

...but Oxford were strong to the finish.

Piece 2: It was decided that the tide had turned so the second race was back in the opposite direction, from the Mile Post to Putney Bridge. It was another high rating start by Molesey but it did not take Oxford long to establish a convincing lead at which point their opponents heads went down and the fight ended.

Oxford take an early lead....

.... and reach Putney Bridge first.

Piece 3: Five minutes from below Putney Bridge towards Wandsworth. This was easily MBC’s best performance and showed that they were in fact a better crew than their pervious two performances had indicated. Their aggression seemed more controlled but perhaps Oxford were complacent regarding their ability to win while rowing at a lower rate. Certainly, in the latter stages of this close race the Blues had to work hard for their marginal victory.

No danger of a clash.

Close at Wandsworth Bridge...

.... close at the last stroke.

Piece 4: Five minutes from Wandsworth towards Putney. Going against the flow of water in a part of the river where the ‘keep to starboard’ rule applied meant racing close to the Middlesex side. The crew on the outside would be disadvantaged by having to row against a stronger stream and I would have put Oxford, the better crew, in this position. However, the opposite was decided. Not surprisingly, OUWBC took an early lead but the Molesey cox salvaged some honour by wisely taking her opponent’s station when Oxford inexplicably moved out into the stream. Coxswains steering a Tideway race must know how the river works. Here, more than anywhere, they can win or lose a race for their crew.

The last piece. The beginning...

...the middle (changing stations)....

...and the end. A moral victory for Molesey?

Oxford were as follows. Bow: Elizabeth Fenje, 2: Alice Carrington-Windo, 3: Maxie Scheske, 4: Nadine Graedel Iberg, 5: Amber De Vere, 6: Lauren Kedar, 7: Anastasia Chitty, Stroke: Laura Savarese. Cox: Erin Wysocki-Jones.

Oxford chief coach, Christine Wilson (right) and assistant coach, Natasha Townsend.

There were two other fixtures not followed by the press launch. Here, Goldie (Cambridge men’s heavyweight reserves) lead London Rowing Club.

CUBC lead Leander. Race reports should appear on theboatrace.org soon.

Oxford Looking Good...

Oxford should be confident.

Earlier today, a German eight with five gold medal Olympians from London 2012 and three other Olympians plus an U23 silver medalist raced against Oxford’s Blue Boat on the Thames. The Dark Blues, racing in an eight named after Acer Nethercott, the former Oxford Blue and Olympic cox who passed away on 26 January, also had some Olympians in their crew, Canadian Malcolm Howard and Constantine Louloudis, rowing for Great Britain. The Dark Blue beat the German crew, which led The Times rowing correspondent Patrick Kidd to write a tweet saying that Oxford University look like favourites for the Boat Race on 31 March. In another tweet, Kidd also writes that Cambridge won their final pre-Boat Race fixtures against Molesey on Saturday.

Read a report about today’s two races on the Thames here. Read tweets here.

Huskies v Tabs, Deutschland über Isis

The Press Launch pursues Cambridge, 2011.

HTBS's Tim Koch reports from London,

The 159th Oxford – Cambridge Boat Race is now less than six weeks away. It is claimed that over seven months the crews will spend two hours training for each of the 600 strokes in the race. Most of this preparation and testing is done in relative privacy but there are a few public appearances before the crews line up in front of 1/4 million on the river bank and 120 million people watching worldwide. Not bad for a ‘private match’.

The first public appearance of the potential competitors was for the pre Christmas Trial Eights. For this year’s race, they were held on 13 December, 2012, and the HTBS report is here.

The next exposure to public gaze will happen on the ‘Press Days’ on the weekends of 16/17 February and 16/17 March. This is an opportunity for the Blue boats and the reserve crews to race over the course against strong opposition and for the press to see what is probably the final line ups.

Cambridge’s Press Day will be on 16 February when CUBC will race the University of Washington (16.30) and Goldie (the reserve crew) will race the University of London (16.10). These races will be followed by a press launch. The following day, Sunday 17, Oxford will race the University of London (12.30) and Isis (the reserve crew) will race a crew yet to be confirmed (12.00). There will be no launch following the Dark Blue races, their turn to be pursued down the course by a boat full of journalists will be a month later, on 17 March, when OUBC will race ‘a German Eight’ (16.00). I hope to find out more about the Germanic opposition soon. Earlier, Isis will race Tideway Scullers School (15.30). The day before this, CUBC will race Molesey BC (15.45) and Goldie will race London RC (15.15). This will be Cambridge’s turn to be spared the following press pack.

Oxford’s race against the Germans may, or may not, be particularly exciting depending on the composition of the latter crew but Cambridge’s race against the University of Washington (‘The Huskies’) is going to be thrilling. At the US 2012 Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championship Regatta, UW won all five events, their fourth IRA Championship in six years. The (slightly biased) gohuskies.com claims this to be ‘... one of the most dominating seasons an athletic team has produced at the University of Washington’. Our good friend Bryan Kitch at the excellent website rowingrelated.com has found out who is likely to be in the Washington crew. Most notable amongst an already impressive line up is the man in the six seat, Conlin McCabe, 2012 London Olympic silver medallist in the Canadian Eight. Cambridge, already the underdogs for the Boat Race, should be worried, but this is not 2,000 metres on a buoyed course in a straight line on still water, this is 6,800 metres on a ‘living river’. As Bryan points out:

‘The question, as always, will be can the visiting crew adapt to both the unfamiliar environs and the “unpredictable” nature of the Thames well enough to take on an opponent well versed in such things...’

We will find out this Saturday.

Light Blues V. Black Death

CUBC v. MBC from Putney Bridge.

HTBS’s Tim Koch writes,

Following the previous day’s race between Oxford and Leander,
 Sunday 25 March saw Cambridge race Molesey Boat Club (a.k.a. ‘Black
 Death’). Peter 
McConnell’s race report is on the Boat Race website.
 In 
it he writes:



Racing a crew from Molesey who were 3rd in last week’s Head of the 
River Race but were defeated in two hard races by Oxford a fortnight
 ago, it was important for Cambridge to put down an emphatic marker
 during this fixture.



CUBC bow and 3 on stroke (port side), 2 and 4 on bow (starboard side). See more here.

In a busy race for the umpire, the Light Blues led Molesey by 1 ½ 
lengths at the St Paul’s School finish (just through Hammersmith
 Bridge). There followed a second race starting below Chiswick Eyot. At 
the Boat Race finish near Chiswick Bridge, Molesey won by ¼ length but
 Cambridge had earlier been obstructed by a cruiser near the Bandstand.



American Jack Lindeman, who once was struck by lightning.

Looking at McConnell’s report
 for the Molesey–Oxford race two weeks ago it seems that the Dark
 Blues won by greater margins on that occasion. How much significance 
can be read into this is debatable.



Thirty miles away, the ‘Henley Boat Races’ were held on the same day.
 The Heavyweight Women’s Race and Lightweight Men’s Race were won by
 Cambridge while Oxford’s Lightweight Women and Heavyweight Reserve
 Women were victorious in their events. Details are here.