Thoughts on the Battle Between the Bridges

Hart Perry

For nine years now there has been a fun rowing regatta in Downtown Mystic on the day before the so called Coastweeks Regatta, which is tomorrow, Sunday 16 September, at Mystic Seaport. The Saturday regatta that I am referring to is the Battle Between the Bridges, which HTBS has written about before. The BBB, as it is commonly known, was created by Hart Perry in 2002 as an American 'Henley Sprint' on a 500-metre course with room for two scullers match racing between the Railroad Bridge and the Drawbridge in Downtown Mystic. BBB would, thanks to Hart's contacts, attract America's top female and male scullers. They would come from all around, and some of them would come directly from the World Championships or even the Olympic Games to compete on the river in the tiny little village of Mystic.

As it was founded in 2002, today it was supposed to have been the 10th annual regatta. It was not to be. When Hart suddenly died on 3 February 2011, some of the institutions that he directed, or was an important part of, faltered, as his colleagues did not really know how to proceed or what to do. BBB was one of those events of which Hart was truly at the helm. BBB was organised last year, but not without difficulty.

Before I knew that the regatta was called off, I thought that, for the 10th anniversary races, I wanted to honour Hart in a special way. Many fine things have already been said about Hart on the web and in print in newspapers and magazines, but no poem has ever been written in his honour, if I understand it right. Of course, I am not really a poet, not even a versifier, but, alas, I decided to have a go. It took me quite some time to get it the way I wanted. Struck by hubris, I thought that my verse could even get published in the regatta programme. Well, with a no-show and no programme, I decided to throw it on HTBS instead. So, here it is, a poem about a regatta that was cancelled and about a great man, who is still very much missed by many of us.

Thoughts on the 10th Battle Between the Bridges in 2012
In fond memory of William Hartwell “Hart” Perry, Jr., 1923 – 2011

So, it’s time again
To walk down to the Mystic River,
On a beautiful September day, when
The sky has clouds with edges of silver,
And the leaves sway calmly in the trees.
Men and women in their boats will row;
While the beams of the sun will glow
Over the riverbanks – only to be cooled off by a quiet breeze.

A river scene:
Rowers racing from bridge to bridge
Is an annual view, we for years have seen.
Thanks to one man’s dream, an image
Of gathered scullers with bodies strong;
Two scullers rowing side by side, abreast –
Pulling, getting those oar handles to the chest
On a course five hundred metres long.

The sculler’s muscles flex
When she races on the water betwixt
The bridges.  No rower neglects
To keep her eyes steadily fixed
On an invisible point behind the stern.
Effortlessly the scullers go on their slides –
The victor’s shell under the drawbridge’s darkness glides,
Leaving the fighting opponent astern.

These athletes display
A finesse to scull in colourful shells,
Appearing as an Impressionist painting by Monet.
The solemn knell of a church’s bells
In the distance,
Remind us of one man: Hartwell Perry, our Hart,
Who turned his life in rowing into a fine art –
Today we honor him in his absence.

There was only one such man,
It was said when he died:
A coach, an umpire, a Henley Steward – a gentleman;
Calling him a friend, we still do with pride.
Again and again we asked for his advice,
It might have been about a boat, a crew, or Henley fashion;
His might came from within, a warm passion,
Which he is using now, I bet, coaching crews in Rowers’ Paradise.

Göran R Buckhorn

2012 European Championships Start Today!

 Photo: Claudio Cecchin/FISA

Today the 2012 European Championships begin in Varese, Italy. There is a record number of nations competing, 36, and FISA has posted a press release about whom we should watch during these championships. On FISA’s website it says:

Watch out for a huge representation at the beautiful Varese rowing venue in Italy for the 2012 European Championships.

A record 36 nations from throughout Europe are getting ready to race from 14 to 16 September. They will race in the 14 Olympic boat classes with a stack of London Olympians, including some of the medallists, lining up. Read on for who you should watch out for at this exciting European Championship regatta. To read the press release click here.

2012 World Rowing Awards

In a press release, FISA, the International Rowing Federation, announces that public nominations are open for the 2012 World Rowing Awards, and it continues:

This is a chance for the general public to have their say in who they believe had an outstanding performance in rowing in 2012 and who they would like nominate for the 2012 World Rowing Awards.

Nominations can be made in the following award categories:
World Rowing Coach of the Year
World Rowing Male Crew of the Year
World Rowing Female Crew of the Year
World Rowing Adaptive Crew of the Year
World Rowing Distinguished Service to International Rowing Medal

One nomination can be submitted for each award category. A crew can also be an individual rower in a single boat.

Once all of the nominations have been received the next stage will be a review by the FISA Council who will select the finalists. The finalists will then go to FISA's Executive Committee who will select the winners in the four categories by 15 October 2012.

 Alla Lysenko

Last year's winners were: 2011 World Rowing Female Crew of the Year: Christina Giazitzidou and Alexandra Tsiavou (GRE), Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls (LW2x)
2011 World Rowing Male Crew of the Year: Eric Murray and Hamish Bond (NZL), Men’s Pair (M2-)
2011 World Rowing Adaptive Crew of the Year: Alla Lysenko (UKR), AS Women’s Single Sculls (ASW1x)
2011 World Rowing Coach of the Year: Gianni Postiglione (GRE)
2011 World Rowing Distinguished Service to International Rowing Medal: Ricardo Ibarra (ARG)

To view all winners to date, please click here.

Nominations for the 2012 World Rowing Awards should be submitted here by 28 September 2012 at midnight CET.

The award winners will be publically announced and the winners presented with their awards at the 2012 World Rowing Coaches Conference Gala Dinner on 2 November 2012 in Limerick, Ireland.

Golden Oars Awards

Time for awards. NRF's website writes:

USRowing is pleased to announce the second annual Golden Oars Awards Dinner, presented by One Equity Partners. The dinner is scheduled for Wednesday, November 14 at the New York Athletic Club in New York City.

Co-hosted by USRowing and the National Rowing Foundation, the dinner will honor excellence in our sport during 2012 and serve as a fundraiser for USRowing’s national teams and its diversity, inclusion and adaptive programs. The celebration will feature the presentation of many of USRowing’s annual awards including the Fan’s Choice Awards, and will honor 2012 Olympians, Paralympians and U.S. national teams.

Read more here.

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.

HRR in T&C

Now and then, HTBS stumbles across a piece about rowing in a 'non-rowing' magazine, and, of course, we would like to share our find with you readers (despite that it might be a terribly poor written article, which we then tell you...). This time, it's a small, well-written 115-word piece in the September Town & Country, America's oldest magazine. For those of you who is not familiar with this publication, it's something like the British the Tatler.

In the Town & Country section called 'Social Network', the magazine writes about 'The Trio of Events' comprising the English social season (Ascot, Henley, and Wimbledon)...' It's clear that the writer of the article, Gillian Hearst Simonds, T&C's society editor (and yes, of the family who owns the magazine and 15 daily, 38 weekly newspapers and more than 300 magazines around the world), has talked to a rowing-knowledgeable person before writing the little piece. And, no, it was not HTBS this time...

Results 2012 World Rowing Master Regatta

The 2012 World Rowing Master Regatta held in Duisburg, Germany, which started on 6 September, ended today.

You will find all the results are here.

Below is a list of the age categories:

A    Minimum age 27 years or more
B    Average age 36 years or more
C    Average age 43 years or more
D    Average age 50 years or more
E    Average age 55 years or more
F    Average age 60 years or more
G    Average age 65 years or more
H    Average age 70 years or more
I    Average age 75 years or more
J1   Average age 80 years or more
J2   Average age 85 years or more

Ethel's Gold Medal goes for £17,500!

On 3 September, at Christie’s in London, an Olympic gold medal which was won by Raymond D. Etherington-Smith, the captain of the Leander eight which became Olympic champions in 1908, was sold for an astonishing £17,500 ($27,738). This solid gold medal, 25g, 15 carat gold, auctioned off by his family, was estimated to sell for £5,000 – £7,000 ($7,600 – $11,000).

Raymond Etherington-Smith (1877-1913), called ‘Ethel’ by his friends, studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he proved to be an incredible oarsman. He won the Colquohoun Sculls, the Lowe Double Sculls, the University Pairs and Fours, and rowed twice in the Head of the River. In 1898, Ethel rowed in his first Boat Race, and the following year he became President of the C.U.B.C., which was the same year he and his crew managed to break the Dark Blues’ nine-year winning streak. The 1900 Boat Race was also won by the Light Blues with Ethel in fifth-seat. He was Captain of Leander in 1903, 1905, 1906 and 1908, winning the Grand Challenge Cup in 1901, 1903 and 1905, and was the runner-up for the Diamond Challenge Sculls in 1902, racing against the mighty F.S. Kelly.

Ethel was a fine specimen of an oarsman, and Leslie Wars, ‘SPY’, wrote about him: ‘The finest and handsomest young athlete I ever drew as an under-graduate’.

In an article published by the Daily Mail about the auction at Christie’s, Ethel is likened to Sir Steven Redgrave. Read the article here. Incorrectly, the paper writes that Leander’s opponents in the Olympic final race in the eights, the splendid crew from Royal Club Nautique de Gand of Belgium ‘sunk and capsized’ during the race, but that is not true. Following is an account of the race in Henley Races (1919) by Sir Theodore Cook:

‘This proved a magnificent race. The Belgians, who had twice won the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley, and at this Regatta had defeated Cambridge University, were thought likely winners by many people. […] Along Temple Island both were rowing 38 a minute, Leander forging slowly ahead and having half a length to the good at the first signal-box. They gained another quarter length  by the time the second box was reached, in spite of a fine spurt on the part of the Belgians. […] At the Henley mile post Leander were rowing 35 a minute, and were a length and a quarter in front. Both crews rowed in to the finish very hard, Leander at 36 and the Belgians at 38 a minute, the former winning by a good two lengths’ distance in the very fast time of 7min. 52sec.’

The Leander eight had been Great Britain’s ‘second’ boat, and many of the oarsmen had their active rowing career behind them. Due to their age they were called the ‘Old Crocks’. So at age 31, Ethel jokingly told his crew mate Guy Nickalls who was 42 years old: ‘I suppose they have asked me because I am about half-way down the line between yourself and Bucknall in age’ [Henry Bucknall, the stroke, was 23 years old].

Sadly, Ethel, who became a doctor, died five years later, a week after he had turned 36, contracting peritonitis during an operation.

View the 1950 Empire Games in New Zealand

After I had posted yesterday's piece about the 1950 rowing at the British Empire Games in New Zealand, I received an e-mail from Tim Koch who happily reported that he had found an interesting film on YouTube about the 1950 Games (see above). Tim writes that there is six minutes of rowing in this film (and it starts at 4min 25secs into the film). Tim says: 'It's great stuff though the close ups must have been filmed during practice. It shows that England were never in contention in the eights and that Australia won on the very last stroke.'

The film also shows the single sculls, the doubles, pairs and the coxed fours races. As I neglected to mention the results in the doubles, pairs and coxed fours in yesterday's post, here you are: Double Sculls: M.T. Wood and M.S. Riley, Australia, beat D. Simonson and J. Schneider, New Zealand, and J. Brown and J.W. Tinegate, England. Pairs: W.J. Lambert and J.W. Webster, Australia, beat H. Gould and D. Gould, Australia. Coxed Fours: New Zealand (bow W. Carroll, 2. W. James, 3. J. O'Brien, stroke E. Johnson and cox K. Fox) beat Australia (bow K.T. Gee, 2. C.W. Winkworth, 3. E.E. Elder, stroke L.E. Montgomery and cox D. McGonagle).

Tim also left a comment in yesterday's blog post: 'A footnote for rowing nerds: This crew used "fixed pin" (as opposed to "swivel") rowlocks at Henley and in New Zealand. They were the last crew to win the Grand using these.' In Swing Together: Thoughts on Rowing Dickie Burnell discusses the merits of fixed pins and swivels in an Appendix. While many believe that fixed pins were used by 'Orthodox' crews and the crews rowing 'Fairbairnism' used swivel rowlocks, it is not the case. In the beginning, Fairbairn had crews using fixed pins and Orthodox crews later used swivels. Before the English eight went to compete on Lake Karapiro, the crew debated if they were going to use fixed pins or swivels. As Tim writes, they came to use fixed pins in the race on Lake Karapiro.

For those of you who might be uncertain what a 'fixed pin' is there is a great film showing a Cambridge practice for the 1948 Boat Race where the Light Blues are using fixed pins while they are 'tubbing' and training in the boat.

CAMBRIDGE CREW IN TRAINING

British Empire Games Rowing in 1950

The combination of oarsmen from Leander and Thames RC represented England at the rowing regatta at the 1950 Empire Games: bow A.S.F. Butcher (Thames RC), 2. P.A de Giles (Leander), 3. W.A.D. Windham (Leander), 4. H.W. Rushmere (Thames RC), 5. R.D. Burnell (Leander), 6. P.C. Kirkpatrick (Thames RC), 7. M.C. Lapage (Leander), stroke P. Bradley (Leander) and cox J.P. Dearlove. Photograph by G.F. Louden (in Dickie Burnell's Swing Togther).

On 31 August, Tim Koch wrote on HTBS about Jack Dearlove, ‘The Indefatigable Jack Dearlove’. Jack, who had lost a leg in an accident, showed the same fighting spirit as today’s rowers at the Paralympic Games in London. Jack coxed the Great Britain eight to an Olympic silver medal in 1948 and a bronze medal at the Empire Games in 1950. This is a short story about the 1950 Empire Games’ rowing regatta on Lake Karapiro in New Zealand.

The first British Empire Games (now called the Commonwealth Games) were held in 1930 in Hamilton, Ontario, by, as Hylton Cleaver writes in his A History of Rowing (1957), “a group of keen sportsmen and great believers in the Empire”. That year’s winner of the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley, London RC, beat a strong eight from New Zealand by half a length. Bobby Pearce, then still sculling for Australia, became the first Empire Champion in the single sculls, beating Jack Beresford of Thames RC. There seems to have been an Empire Games in England in 1934, but without rowing! So, at the next Empire Games where rowing was included, in 1938, a combination eight of oarsmen from London, Thames, Oxford and Cambridge overpowered an eight from Australia. And then came the War.

After a successful race in the 1949 Grand Challenge Cup final at Henley Royal Regatta, Leander captain Richard ‘Dickie’ Burnell was asked to gather a crew for the British Empire Games, which were to be held in Auckland, New Zealand, in February 1950. Knowing that not all of the members of the Grand Cup winning Leander crew would be available, Dickie began looking around for other ‘outstanding men elsewhere’, as he writes in “The Empire Games Crew, 1950”, which is a chapter in his book Swing Together: Thoughts on Rowing (1952). He did not have to look very far. In 1949, Thames RC had taken the Grand Cup at Henley, and some oarsmen from that crew were eager to swap out the English winter for a much warmer climate on the other side of the world.

In the beginning there had been 17 oarsmen invited to the practise, including also two each from London RC and Kingston RC, but on 23 October, 1949, the selected eight looked as follows:

Bow A.S.F. Butcher (Thames RC)
2. P.A de Giles (Leander)
3. W.A.D. Windham (Leander)
4. H.W. Rushmere (Thames RC)
5. R.D. Burnell (Leander)
6. P.C. Kirkpatrick (Thames RC)
7. M.C. Lapage (Leander)
Stroke P. Bradley (Leander)
Cox J.P. Dearlove (Thames RC)

Added to these nine men were two spare rowers: A.D. Rowe (Leander; who was also in the single sculls) and M.H.N. Plaisted (London RC). Team Manager during the trip was Jack Beresford.

At first, the crew had been coached by Wing Commander Hellyer – of ‘syncopated rowing’ fame – but his doctor put a stop to him participating in winter coaching, and instead ‘Gully’ Nickalls stepped in to coach the eight. Dickie writes that Nickalls’s approach to coaching a crew was, ‘that a crew should first achieve a true rhythm and length in its paddling, and then translate this into its rowing’. However, Dickie states there was not really the time to work this way. He writes:

‘A certain amount of speed has got to be achieved in order to race, and if a crew is held back in order to perfect its length and rhythm in paddling, there is a distinct danger that it will not be ready in time to race. […] When we left England our paddling was really good, and on numerous occasions we disappointed the critics by paddling beautifully and then becoming rushed and scrappy in our rowing.’

The 1950 Great Britain Empire Game crew. Dickie Burnell, sixth from left in a dark scarf, kept a ‘captain’s log’ during the crew's practise in England and later on Lake Karapiro. Picture © John Dearlove.

Dickie kept a ‘captain’s log’ during the crew’s practise at Henley, the trip to New Zealand and the practise there, and parts of it are published in “The Empire Games Crew, 1950”. The team left England on 23 January, 1950, and when they arrived they heard that their boat had not arrived yet, so they had to borrow an old Sims. The long trip took its toll on the English crew, who also had problems with the diet. Eventually, their own boat arrived and also the riggers. But at the race, on 6 February, it did not really help, ‘the race was naturally a bitter disappointment to us all’ Dickie states. The Aussies won – ‘they were strong and well together, and rowed in something very like our own English Fairbairn style’, Dickie writes.

In the Australian boat rowed: bow R.N. Tinning, 2. P.A. Cayzer, 3. A.P. Holmes, 4. B.H. Goswell, 5. R.L. Selman, 6. E.O. Longley, 7. E.O. Pain, stroke A.W. Brown and cox J.E. Barnes. New Zealand’s crew was young, a little inexperienced, but ‘exceptionally tough’ and had rowed on Lake Karapiro for several weeks. They raced hard and almost overcame the Aussies. New Zealand’s crew: bow E. Smith, 2. B. Culpan, 3. D. Rowlands, 4. G. Jarratt, 5. M. Ashby, 6. W. Tinnock, 7. K. Ashby, stroke T.C. Engel and cox D. Adams. English sculler A.D. Rowe came in second after M. Wood, the reigning Olympic Champion from Australia. The bronze in the single sculls was taken by I.R.G. Steven of South Africa. T. Hegglum of New Zealand came in fourth.

There were some lessons to be learned after the Englishmen’s trip to New Zealand, which Dickie also recognises in a follow-up chapter in his Swing Together.

More about the British Empire Games Rowing tomorrow, 7 September.

Ottobock will Fix it!

Danny McBride was the only oarsman representing New Zealand at the Paralympic Rowing Regatta at Lake Dorney.

While we admire the athletes competing at the Paralympic Games in London (and where the Rowing ended on last Sunday), it is easy to forget that these sportsmen and -women might be in special need of repairs, maintenance and technical support for their equipment. In rowing, it might be the rower’s boat or his or her wheelchair that he/she uses to get to the boat. Here is where Ottobock Healthcare steps in. This company provides technical service to the 2012 Paralympic Games, the website SourceWire writes in a interesting article. The website states that Ottobock Healthcare so far, after five days of competing, has completed 1,761 repairs.

One of the Ottobock Healthcare team members, Emily Harrison, tells SourceWire:

“The majority of the equipment we have repaired comes from athletes who are spending lots of time by the water. Damp conditions at the rowing means we have to provide regular maintenance to prostheses and wheelchairs such as wheel bearings and puncture repairs. As Technical Service Provider to the Games, our role goes beyond wheelchair, prosthetic and orthotic repairs. For example, we built an interface for a double amputee to prevent friction burns whilst rowing.”

Technical service by the numbers:


Total repairs to date 1,761

Orthotic: Day five 15, total to date 101

Prosthetic: Day five 18, total to date 247

Wheelchair: Day five 194, total to date 1,413

Number of athletes serviced: Day five 162, total to date 1,282

Number of countries serviced: Total to date 121

Read the full article here.

Results 2012 Paralympic Rowing Regatta

Great Britain takes gold in the Mixed Coxed Four (LTAMix4+) at the 2012 Paralympic Rowing at Eton Dorney: Lily van den Broecke (cox) [hidden], Pamela Relph, Naomi Riches, David Smith and James Roe.

Here is a link to the Results in the 2012 Paralympic Rowing Regatta at Eton Dorney. Click here.

Labor Day!

Today is LABOR DAY in the U.S.

and LABOUR DAY in Canada,

therefore HTBS will take a break.

Putting on the Garment of Water and Light

Photograph © Tim Koch

Putting on the Garment of Water and Light

It was as though a moment
Of actual magic had taken hold.
The air had taken on a golden glow,
As though light was about to become
A form one could touch.

Henley-on-Thames, early morn,
Just after the first wren had sung
Dawn into being,
And the still, still world
Was yet to waken.

To that perfection he brought
His shell to lay upon the water,
Slip into it like a sleek garment,
Take up his oars and row
Into the brightening light.

He was watched by a presence, spiritual,
By the ghosts of all
The rowers who had rowed before him.
He felt the spectral
Breath upon his back.

He felt the spectral
Oars pull him forward,
Felt the pulse of the spirit
Beating in the hallowed
Air through which he rowed.

He left behind the fair song of the wren,
Swept past the boatsheds
Edging the Thames, like embroidery
On a school's scarf,
Past the watchful windows

Of the buildings of the town
Waking, one by one,
As the light touched them.
By the spirits of all the rowers
Gone before him, he was pulled

Forward toward the point
Where he turned
To row back to where
He bagan, to realize,
Each morning, his benediction.

Philip Kuepper
(July 2012)

Fancy Rowing Ties

Those HTBS readers who have been around for a while might remember that I have a weak spot for ‘neckwear’: ties, bow ties, day cravats, you name it. Early on this summer, I received a nice e-mail from Madeleine Johnson, an American lady who lives in Milan, Italy. She was wondering if she might use images of two old cigarette cards that I had posted in one of my blog posts ‘Notes from a Rowing Tie Snob’ on her own website. Of course, I said yes, being happy to accommodate someone who was interested in ties, and, I would like to add, had a grandfather who was a Swede in Minnesota.

Madeleine request was not simply to satisfy her interest, no it was more than that, she has founded a company to make fancy hand-made knitted rowing ties! It all started when she wanted to present a gift to the Groton School’s varsity crew where her son is rowing. As it happens, Groton (in Massachusetts) has a rowing coach who is famous, Andy Anderson. Although, a splendid coach for the school, Andy is probably more ‘famous’ or known as ‘Dr. Rowing’, a columnist for the magazine Rowing News. ‘Andy has been a huge help in my little business’, Madeleine writes in her e-mail. He, for example, wrote about Madeleine’s company Old College Ties. If you have missed Andy’s, ‘Dr. Rowing’ piece, try to track down the April issue of this year of Rowing News – a most entertaining article.

But back to Madeleine’s ties. She writes to HTBS: ‘They are handmade in a historic factory here in Milan where I live. The factory makes ties for brands such as Gucci and Ralph Lauren, so the quality is high and the ties can be worn for style as well as spirit. The minimum order is 20 and they can be made in silk, cotton or cashmere and wool. The price ranges from $30 for cotton ties to $45 for silk. For an extra charge, we also do a nice commemorative label with the club’s name.’

Madeleine’s ties made their debut at Henley Royal Regatta this summer as Brunswick School (in Connecticut) varsity boat was wearing them, and so were Groton and Tabor Academy, the latter also from Massachusetts.

Brunswick School’s handsome varsity crew

The questions are now – how is HTBS going to round up 20 people, and which should be HTBS’s colours on its tie?