The First Henley Regatta Programme

Earlier this summer, Tom Weil, famous rowing historian and collector, rowing writer and aquatic connoisseur par excellence, donated a real gem to the River and Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames: a copy of the first Henley Regatta programme from 14 June 1839 (when the regatta was not yet 'Royal'). Weil had bought the one-page programme from the estate of Hart Perry, together with a copy of the 1840 programme, in March when there was a fund-raising event at the Rowing Hall of Fame in Mystic, Connecticut. I was present when he bought it, and one could really feel that an important rowing history act was taking place.

A British lady, Philippa Ratcliffe, has elegantly written about this important donation to the River and Rowing Museum, you can read her piece here.

The London Olympics’ Rowing Programmes, Official and Unofficial!

Photo: British Rowing

HTBS’s Greg Denieffe went to the Olympic Rowing at Eton Dorney and could not find an official rowing programme. A kind lady with a rowing mad friend saved him. Here is Greg’s story:

1908, 1948 and 2012. The three years when the Olympics were held in London. Of course, the rowing was held outside the capital each time; Henley-on-Thames had the honour in 1908 and 1948, and Eton Dorney in 2012. Now imagine looking forward to the Games for seven years and imagine looking forward for seven years to be at the Olympic Regatta, and imagine getting tickets for the rowing in the lottery. Yes, I would go to the ball!

On Sunday 29 July, we joined the other thousands and thousands of people on the shuttle buses and on the long walk to the course. Once inside we passed the queues for the toilets, the water pumps, the food sellers and the souvenir stalls. We would buy our programme further up the course. There were lots of programme sellers and they were selling The London 2012 Olympic Games Official Programme for ten pounds and The Official Olympic Games Daily Programme for five pounds. All very nice, lovely glossy magazines with loads of articles about what were happening at all the Olympic venues; but I would like The Rowing Programme, please! “Sorry sir, but we don’t have a sport specific programme”. Don’t worry readers, I got over it, but it rankled, just a bit. You see, I’ve been to a few big rowing events and I’ve always had a programme, but not this time it seemed.

The 1908 regatta was held at Henley-on-Thames on July 28 and the three following days and they had a daily programme. That’s the way to do it.

The cover of the official 1908 rowing programme for Wednesday 29 July.

Even in 1948, at the so called Austerity Games there was a different colour programme for each of the four days of the regatta held on the 5, 6, 7 and 9 August. Did you notice the crowds in the BBC production of Bert and Dickie, all waving the correct programme on finals day?

The cover of the official 1948 rowing programme for Monday 9 August, finals day.

Alas, 2012 was different. No official rowing programme. There was one for sailing, and one for football and daily ones for the athletics. Now, I think a sport that produced two gold, two silver and two bronze medals for Great Britain in Beijing and promised to deliver more in London deserved, at least, a programme.

The following day we returned to Eton Dorney for a very short day’s racing. Like sheep, we found our place on the course as close to where we had been the previous day. Making ourselves as comfortable as we could, we waited for the first race and as soon as it finished, I noticed a young girl in front of me with what I thought was, you’ve guessed it, a programme! I politely enquired of the young girl’s mother as to where this seemingly magical document could be found. “Oh” she said, “a rowing mad friend made it for my daughter”. So that was that, I thought. Not so. Seeing the look of disappointment on my daughter’s face (and mine!), the kind lady produced a spare copy from her bag and handed it over. What luck?

The week before we set off to Eton Dorney, I bought I-SPY FLAGS to keep my six-year-old busy and it certainly did. With the flags of all the competing countries fluttering over the grandstand, she was busy spotting and ticking and for the medal ceremonies there were more flags and even people wandering around draped in flags. We even spotted the correct shaped flag of Switzerland!

The Cover of the ‘Official’ I-SPY FLAGS.

This is what ispymichelin.com has to say about their little books:

‘Do you remember the popular Michelin I-Spy books? If you were a child in the 1950s and 60s the answer will probably be yes.The iconic book collection was back on the shelves for Christmas 2009 for the first time since 2002, encouraging children of all ages to get out and explore the world around them.

‘Created by Charles Warrell in 1948 the pocket-sized picture books were designed to develop children's curiosity, powers of observation and sense of discovery. Each book was based on a specific theme I-Spy Cars, I-Spy in the Country, I-Spy on the Road, I-Spy Below your Feet and so on. Within the 40-page books were illustrations of things for children to spot which earned them a certain number of points.

‘During its heyday Michelin I-Spy had a cult following with more than 1.5million children becoming members of the I-Spy 'tribe', headed up by Big Chief I-Spy, Warrell himself. Once children had 'spied' all of the items in the book they sent it to Wigwam-by-the-Water (later Wigwam-by-the-Green) in London and completed books were rewarded with badges.’

What we now had in our (yes our) possession, was another ‘spotting’ book, The completely unofficial I-SPY book of Olympic Rowing 2012. A very well thought out 16-page booklet that the author should be very proud of. The ‘programme’ has a nice introduction, followed by details of all the Great Britain crews, including photographs. Next are seven pages of blade colours. Throw in a few specials like Jürgen Grobler and a rigger jigger and there were hours of fun to be had.  Of course there is a spotting box to tick and the I-SPY points for each ‘spot’. The last two pages are a race schedule and maps of the course. The only snag was how would I keep my six-year-old from filling in the boxes until I had a chance to copy it? Bribery of course!

I hoped to meet the kind lady who gave it to us and find out who the compiler was, but although we returned for two more days of racing, we never saw her again. Here are a few pages for HTBS readers to enjoy.

It was great to be part of the Olympics and see some of the best rowers in the world at their peak.  Let’s hope someone down Rio way has the good sense to be reading HTBS and is in charge of the Olympic Rowing in 2016.

Bookseller Selling Irish Rowing History Books

For those of you who are interested in Irish rowing history, I just came across a nice little collection of books and regatta programmes at a bookseller in Dublin. Listed at Dublin Bookbrowsers in Dublin are: Raymond Blake’s In Black and White: A History of Rowing at Trinity College Dublin (1991), Michael Johnston’s The Big Pot: The Story of the Irish Senior Rowing Championships 1912 – 1991 (1992), and T. F. Hall’s History of Boat-Racing in Ireland (1939).

This bookseller also has several different Irish rowing regatta programmes from the 1950s. And something I have never heard about, a programme on Third Annual Smoking Concert Four Courts Hotel, 13 March, 1908 published by Dublin Rowing Club.

If you would like to take a closer look, the list of these rowing books and regatta programmes can be found here (hurry up to take a look before they are all sold).

Isis - Troubled Water

Click to enlarge

It is May which means that it will soon be time for ‘Summer Eights’ or as it is also called, Eights Week, the bump races on Isis which is the biggest intercollegiate rowing event at the University of Oxford. However, some of the colleges have run into trouble as they have not been able to train on the river due to an extremely high water level, The Oxford Student wrote the other day. The newspaper has talked to some rowers who think it is unfair as some colleges’ rowers have been able to train outside of Oxford. Read the article in The Oxford Student here.

Reading this article about this four-day regatta, which has been rowed almost every year since 1815, except 1820, 1821, 1823, 1829, and during the War years, reminded me that I had an old programme, or ‘race chart’, from 29 May, 1929, showing the order of starting for the different crews.

One fun thing with these old ‘charts’ is the advertisements. In mine from 1929 you will find ads from ‘Grimbly, Hughes & Co.’ the food experts and wine & spirit merchants; the ‘New Theatre, Oxford’ is presenting “The Desert Song”; ‘The Oriel Restaurant’ on High Street has a full page ad; and so has ‘Arthur Shepherd & Woodwards’, the tailors, who has a special ‘flannel trouser offer’; E. M. Staniland is pushing for ‘King Weed’, which should be smoked in one of his ‘natural briars’; a couple of car dealers are selling ‘dependable used’ cars; buy flowers and fruit at ‘John Mattock’; or have your photograph taken by ‘James Soame’; or stay at ‘The Castle Hotel’ or ‘Becket House Hotel’, or see the Eights from ‘Salter’s Steamer’ where you of course can obtain tea on board; and ‘Elliston & Cavell Ltd.’ in Magdalen Street, which was established in 1823, offers ‘Everything for Ladies and Children’s wear’.

I am ashamed to say that I have only witnessed Eights Week for half a day in May 1998….

Two Old Henley Regatta Programmes

After posting yesterday’s entry about the 1920 Henley Royal Regatta programme, I remembered that at the fund-raising party in March in memory of Hart Perry, which HTBS wrote about on 10 March, two old Henley programmes were up for auction. They had belonged to Hart and were not only ‘old’, they were the two oldest ones in the history of the regatta, programmes from the 1839 Henley Regatta and the 1840 Henley Regatta (at that time, the Regatta was not ‘Royal’ yet). Both programmes – they were only a sheet each – were framed together, and one bidder bought them for the starting bid: $3,000. Very gracefully the bidder allowed the programmes to stay in the display case in the rowing exhibit at the NRF’s National Rowing Hall of Fame, at least for now.

1839 Henley Regatta Programme

1840 Henley Regatta Programme

See also this HTBS post on an old Henley programme from 1851.

Two 1920 HRR Debutants

Although there had been a four-day regatta organised on the Henley Reach in 1919 - the Royal Henley Peace Regatta - it was never recognised as a real Henley Royal Regatta due to the fact that many oarsmen were still serving in the armed forces. Instead, the first official Henley Royal Regatta after the War, where the usual Henley trophies were presented, was in 1920.

Henley Stewards 1920 - click to enlarge

As a matter of curiosity, in my small collection of rowing memorabilia is a Henley Royal Regatta Programme for the regatta’s first day, Wednesday 30 June, 1920. The list of the Stewards is literally a list of famous oarsmen’s ‘Who is Who’ with names such as Desborough, Ampthill, Pitman, Lehmann, de Havilland, Rowe, Gold, Steward, and Burnell. It is also in this programme the rowing world for the first time would lay their eyes on the name of a 21-year-old who would bring glory to his club and country for decades to come: Jack Beresford Jr. of Thames RC, who was racing against The Hon. The Master of Gray of Viking RC, in the first heat of the Diamond Challenge Sculls, Beresford on the Berks side and Gray on the Bucks side. Beresford would eventually win the final of the Diamonds beating Donald Gollan, First Trinity, Cambridge by three lengths.

Gully Nickalls

There was another 21-year-old debutant at the 1920 Henley Royal who would do well and serve British rowing for decades to come, and he had, just as young Beresford, rowing in his blood as his father, too, was a well-known oarsman. Of course, I am referring to Guy Oliver ‘Gully’ Nickalls, who rowed for Magdalen College, Oxford, both in the college’s eight in the Grand Challenge Cup and in the Silver Goblets & Nickalls’ Challenge Cup (coxless pair, with Richard Lucas). Magdalen won the Grand by beating Leander by two lengths, and Nickalls and Lucas won the Silver Goblet by easily over-powering a crew from Thames RC with Ian Fairbairn (son of Steve Fairbairn) and Bruce Logan. It is noteworthy that Gully’s victory in the Silver Goblets marked the twelfth triumph in this event for a member of the Nickalls family.

Both Beresford and Nickalls would later in 1920 take two silver medals in the Olympic Games in Antwerp, Beresford in the single and Nickalls as a member of the British eight.