Watch the 2013 Boat Race live on the BBC on Sunday, 31 March, 2013, at 15:15 BST. Extensive coverage of the 159th Varsity battle will be available across all BBC platforms. Defending champions Cambridge lead Oxford by 81 wins to 76 with one dead heat.
Watch BBC reminder video here.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
The ‘Other Boat Races’
Tim Koch reports from Dorney Lake,
As reported on HTBS on 23 March, the organisers of the Henley Boat Races, (the Oxford - Cambridge races for heavyweight, reserve heavyweight and lightweight women and lightweight men) moved the event to the 2012 Olympic course at Dorney Lake because of the river conditions at Henley. This gave Oxford a few extra miles to tow their boats but, by the end of a very cold day, they were not complaining as they had won all four varsity races convincingly.
In the main event, The Newton Women’s Boat Race, Oxford’s heavyweights beat their Cambridge opposition by 1 3/4 lengths in 7 minutes 21 seconds. Going off at a much higher rate, Cambridge led until just after the half way mark but they could not respond as the stronger Oxford crew rowed them down.
There was an even worse result for the Tabs in the heavyweight reserves race where Osiris (Oxford) beat Blondie (Cambridge) by a good 6 lengths in 7 minutes 41 seconds. Blondie had a bad start in the strong cross wind and, despite rating higher than their rivals, could not get in contention with the Dark Blues who had a more relaxed and effective style.
Oxford won again in the Lightweight Women’s Boat Race, beating Cambridge by 4 3/4 lengths in 7 minutes 33 seconds. Up to the half way mark it was more of a race, but after that point the Light Blues faded and their opponents extended their lead.
If Cambridge were hoping that their Lightweight Men would succeed where the women had failed, they were disappointed, losing by 1 2/3 lengths in 6 minutes 49 seconds. However, overrating Oxford they never gave up and raced spiritedly to the finish.
Writing in the race programme, Chris Dodd (who has seen ‘about forty’ Boat Races from the press launch) used his knowledge both as rowing historian and as a rowing journalist to produce some interesting thoughts on the Oxbridge heavyweight women getting equal funding with the men and their race moving to Boat Race Day proper in 2015. The men, in his view, ‘struggled for 180 years to make a really good, nail-biting contest of it for 4 miles and 374 yards’. He says that, until they received proper funding and professional coaching in the 1980s, the men were not fit enough to race the full distance. The result was a mad scramble to reach Hammersmith Bridge, by which point the winner usually emerged and the loser followed in their puddles in the long row to the finish. Chris says that this has now changed and the Boat Race ‘has come of age as a superb event’. He continues:
‘The women’s clubs now enjoy what the men have had since the late 1980s – sponsorship and professional coaching... Two major changes face them in 2015 and thereafter. The first is the distance and the second is the wholly different nature of the course.... It is a great thing that the women’s race is joining the men’s on Boat Race Day on the Tideway. What a shame it will be if we have to endure the years and years of procession from Hammersmith before the female race gets up to speed.’
Chris wrote this before the 2013 Henley Races. The results of the women’s events indicate that that we may well see ‘a procession’ in 2015 and beyond. Is two years enough time to avert this possibility? We will have to wait and see.
Clean Sweep for Oxford
Photo: www.theboatrace.org
Despite bad weather, the Henley Boat Races were held this past Saturday, but not on the usual Henley Course. Instead, the races had been moved to Dorney Lake as mentioned before by Tim Koch. The whole affair – four races – ended with a clean sweep for Oxford. Read the report on The Boat Race website here, and the article by Rachel Quarrell of the Daily Telegraph, here. Quarrell also has a little sprinkle of news from this year’s first World Cup regatta in Sydney, Australia.
A more detailed report from Tim Koch will follow.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
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
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
Monday, March 25, 2013
Going Underground with the Boat Race and Boat Racing
1911 poster for Saturday 1 April.
HTBS’s Greg Denieffe writes,
In a post called ‘Don’t Miss…’ on the 11 January, 2013, HTBS reported about an exhibition at the River & Rowing Museum, Henley-on-Thames. The exhibition, ‘Stuck Up – Early 20th Century Thames Poster Art’, has now ended, but it did contain a number of London Underground posters depicting The Boat Race.
On 9 January, 2013, London Underground celebrated 150 years since the first underground journey took place between Paddington and Farringdon on the Metropolitan Railway. Through posters by some of the finest artists of their day, the Underground became the people’s gallery and thanks to the London Transport Museum on-line collection we can view most, if not all, the posters produced to promote The Boat Race.
The first Underground Boat Race poster came out in 1911 and was a simple blue on white print by Charles Sharland. The on-line collection gives details of the artists, printers and formats of the posters commissioned and you can even purchase photographic reproductions of all but a few of them.
This year’s Boat Race is on Sunday the 31 March at 4-30 p.m. The only poster matching that date that I could find was for the 1928 race. Reproduction posters and postcards of this print are also available on eBay.
The posters of the 1930s were some of the finest produced and some like the one for 1934 actively encouraged Londoners to take sides, although it could just as easily be blondes verses brunettes!
Some Boat Race posters also promoted the Head of the River race and in 1938 and 1939 the ‘Head’ had its own posters which you will find here.
Regattas too had Underground posters, among them Twickenham (1910), Richmond (1912), Kingston (1914) and Molesey (1924, 1925, 1927 and 1928) with the latter being particularly colourful.
On 6 July 2005, the IOC awarded London the right to host the Games of the XXX Olympiad. Transport for London, of which London Underground forms a part, supported the London Bid with a poster called Rowing in 2012 by Tube, bus, DLR and river. Although the poster was issued in 2005, in promoting the successful bid for the 2012 Olympics, it in a sense completes a century rowing posters on the London Underground.
One of my favourite posters is in fact quite plain when compared to those produced between the two world wars, but nevertheless it did what it was designed to do: get people using the London Underground. It was for the World’s Professional Sculling Championship race held on the 21 July, 1913, between Ernest Barry and Harry Pearce and was also by Charles Sharland. HTBS reported on this race in an article called A Gentleman on the Towpath. There will be plenty of people on the towpath on Easter Sunday when Oxford take on Cambridge in this year’s Boat Race. Let’s hope they all stay out of the water!
Saturday, March 23, 2013
A Blow To The Head
HTBS's Tim Koch reports from London,
On the day before four hundred men’s eights, many from overseas, were due to race the Mortlake to Putney course in the 2013 Head of the River Race, the organisers’ website made the following announcement:
The Committee of the Head of the River Race regrets to advise that the 2013 Race on Saturday 23rd March has been cancelled. After detailed consultation and consideration of the weather forecasts, the Committee consider the river conditions over parts of the course could be unsafe due to the expected strong easterly winds throughout the day.
The Veterans (Masters) Head, due to be held the next day, was also cancelled. The British Rowing website expanded on the HoRR’s decision:
Organisers of the HoRR announced this morning (Friday 22nd) that the race would not be run, due to the combination of wind direction and speed, the strength of the stream, and the low temperatures forecast over the weekend. The stretch of river between the bottom of Chiswick Eyot and St. Pauls School was of particular concern to HORR organisers, with easterly 15-30mph winds, freezing temperatures and strong stream leading to potentially dangerous conditions for the 400+ crews taking part in the event - many of whom have little experience rowing on the Tideway.
The race has been cancelled due to the weather and stream conditions twice before, in 2004 and 2007. The organisers were no doubt influenced by the experience of the Hammersmith Head held on 10 March. This was run from Mortlake to Hammersmith (i.e. just over half of the traditional Mortlake to Putney ‘Championship’ Course) and attracted 100 men’s eights. Despite having the most experienced people on the Thames Tideway in charge of safety, the water around Chiswick Pier unexpectedly became very rough, very quickly and the result was that most boats filled with water and at least three had to be rescued. Not surprisingly, the craft that suffered the most seemed to have buoyancy tanks that were not water tight. In one case this was because holes had been drilled in the tanks to allow cox box wiring to be threaded through!
The unusually cold and wet winter has badly effected rowing in the UK. Just looking at 2013, head races including Weybridge, Boston, Northampton, Stourport, Peterborough, Durham, The Severn, Hampton, Henley, Molesey, Worcester, Burway, and Cardiff have been cancelled due to stream and weather conditions. The Environment Agency (the body responsible for Britain’s rivers) have ‘red boarded’ most of the none tidal Thames. This means that they strongly advise powered and non powered craft to stay off the water. This has severely curtailed rowing at clubs such as Marlow, Molesey, Maidenhead, Henley, Staines and Kingston. There is no procedure for ‘red boards’ on the tidal Thames below Richmond Lock but this does not make it any the less hazardous. I have coxed the Tideway for 25 years and there have been a few times this winter when the strength of the stream has required all my experience to keep control.
The organisers of the Henley Boat Races, the Oxford - Cambridge races for heavyweight, reserve heavyweight and lightweight women and lightweight men, have pre-empted the problem and, on 20 March announced:
The organising committee... has made the decision to move this year’s event to Dorney Lake. In view of the strong stream conditions at Henley and the forecast direction and strength of wind for race day, Sunday 24th March, it was deemed unlikely that conditions will improve sufficiently by the weekend for a safe event to take place.
Dorney was, of course, the venue for the rowing events in the London 2012 Olympics. While not as an attractive venue as Henley, it does mean that the event is fairly certain to take place. All this gives rise to the question, could THE Boat Race, due to held on the Tideway on 31 March, be cancelled? I think it unlikely. Even with a higher risk to both boats than would normally be tolerated, the ‘danger’ would probably be accepted as there is obviously a massive rescue operation available.
The women have had more luck with the weather. The 73rd Women’s Head of the River Race was held on 9 March, a mild day with little wind. Race Co-ordinator Guin Batten wrote on the WHoRR website:
The 73rd Women’s Eights Head of the River was the largest in the event’s history and coming one day after International Women’s Day, highlights that women are out there doing sport and doing it to a very high standard. On a rather dull day the stream was fast and the wind slight, allowing number of records to fall. Well done to the pennant winners, the 200 volunteers and marshals, to the 90 women’s novice crews and their coaches and to the 2,727 rowers that made it over the course, in such style.
Imperial College BC ‘A’ came ‘head’ in a time of 18:16:57. Other results are here.
The School’s Head also managed to take place on the Championship Course on 7 March with Hampton going ‘head’. Other results are here.
It has been a long, hard winter. Let us hope that those clubs who have spent a lot of time on the ergos and little time on the water will have a better summer.
Mara Ford Named NRF Associate Director
The National Rowing Foundation writes on its website about the organisation’s new director, Mara Keggi Ford:
Mara Ford has been named Associate Director of the National Rowing Foundation, NRF. Ford, from Middlebury, Connecticut, will be responsible for the management of the foundation’s fundraising administration, marketing initiatives and event planning and execution. Ford has previously worked with the NRF as the Director of Operations and an Event Marketing Consultant.
“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to increase my responsibilities with the National Rowing Foundation”, said Ford. “It is a true privilege to work each day to support our National Rowing Teams. With the beginning of the Rio Olympic Quadrennial, the NRF is committed to increasing our support in an effort to put more US crews on the awards dock in Rio.”
Ford’s experience in the world of rowing includes her personal rowing career and her professional career. She rowed at the University of Wisconsin, and upon graduation went on to become a member of the U.S. National Rowing Team, a 1988 Olympian and finalist in the Women’s Pair. Ford returned to rowing in a professional role, as the Competition Manager for Rowing at the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. Ford’s success in Atlanta earned her the Federation Internationale des Societes d’Aviron (FISA) Medal of Honor for running the best Olympic Rowing Regatta.
“The NRF is fortunate to have Mara Ford’s strong abilities and energy helping us achieve our 2013 fundraising goal. Her promotion to Associate Director is well deserved for all her work for the London 2012 Olympics. As an Olympian and former National team member she knows first-hand how important the work the NRF is to meeting the needs of our National Team athletes.”, said Co-Chairs Marcia Hooper and Jamie Koven.
The National Rowing Foundation is a non-profit 501 (c) 3 organization dedicated to raising funds to support the U. S. National Rowing Teams. Founded in 1966, the NRF has been supporting Olympic athletes for more than four decades. The funds raised support year round training, development, competition and preservation of rowing history through the Hall of Fame and Rowing Museum.
“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to increase my responsibilities with the National Rowing Foundation”, said Ford. “It is a true privilege to work each day to support our National Rowing Teams. With the beginning of the Rio Olympic Quadrennial, the NRF is committed to increasing our support in an effort to put more US crews on the awards dock in Rio.”
Ford’s experience in the world of rowing includes her personal rowing career and her professional career. She rowed at the University of Wisconsin, and upon graduation went on to become a member of the U.S. National Rowing Team, a 1988 Olympian and finalist in the Women’s Pair. Ford returned to rowing in a professional role, as the Competition Manager for Rowing at the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. Ford’s success in Atlanta earned her the Federation Internationale des Societes d’Aviron (FISA) Medal of Honor for running the best Olympic Rowing Regatta.
“The NRF is fortunate to have Mara Ford’s strong abilities and energy helping us achieve our 2013 fundraising goal. Her promotion to Associate Director is well deserved for all her work for the London 2012 Olympics. As an Olympian and former National team member she knows first-hand how important the work the NRF is to meeting the needs of our National Team athletes.”, said Co-Chairs Marcia Hooper and Jamie Koven.
The National Rowing Foundation is a non-profit 501 (c) 3 organization dedicated to raising funds to support the U. S. National Rowing Teams. Founded in 1966, the NRF has been supporting Olympic athletes for more than four decades. The funds raised support year round training, development, competition and preservation of rowing history through the Hall of Fame and Rowing Museum.
Friday, March 22, 2013
An Act of Waugh
Sebastian, Charles and Aloysius on the river.
Tim Koch writes,
The recent HTBS item ‘Among Hard Drinking Hypocrites and “Eight Good Men”’ gives me the excuse to write about a favourite novel and to speculate why the 1981 Granada Television Production of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited is one of the very rare examples of a film or TV series that does justice to a much loved book (unlike the 2008 film of the same name). Using an old HTBS trick, I will then justify my self-indulgent ramblings by pointing out the rowing references.
What then is the attraction of Brideshead? Well, the prose is beautiful, the descriptions of lovely things and places are delightful and the personalities are richly drawn. It produces a form of ‘nostalgia’ for something that most of us never knew and that few of us would attempt to justify. The Granada TV production staring Jeremy Irons, Sir John Gielgud and Sir Laurence Olivier fully complements the novel. I saw the television series before I read the book. You could do it the other way around. Either way is satisfactory, a rare achievement.
The few rowing references in Brideshead are, not surprisingly, in the Oxford scenes. The opening ‘flashback’ starts during the four days of ‘bump’ racing known as Eights Week, an event which drives the two young aesthetes (Sebastian and Charles plus teddy bear) to flee the town. Ryder’s college servant, Lunt, complains:
“..... What do they want with dancing? I don’t see the reason in it. There never was dancing before in Eights Week. (The Founder’s Ball) now is another matter being in the vacation, but not in Eights Week as if teas and the river wasn’t enough. If you ask me, sir, it’s all on account of the war. It couldn’t have happened but for that.” For this was 1923 and for Lunt, as for thousands of others, things could never be the same as they had been in 1914.
On his arrival at Oxford, Ryder is given fatherly advice by his cousin Jasper: ...he was in his fourth year and, the term before, had come within appreciable distance of getting his rowing blue... a considerable person in college.
Waugh writes that Jasper wears a Leander tie and the 1981 TV production has him in a Leander ‘city’ tie, dark blue with little pink hippopotamus motifs. This minor detail is perfect – in 1923 one would not ordinarily wear the famous cerise ‘regatta’ tie with a suit. Jasper’s advice (you either want a first or a fourth.... go to a London tailor; you get better cut and longer credit..... don’t treat dons like schoolmasters; treat them as you would the vicar at home... beware the Anglo Catholics...) goes largely unheeded.
The most amusing rowing reference comes from the flamboyant Anthony Blanche, ..... the ‘aesthete’ par excellence, a byword of iniquity from Cherwell Edge to Somerville..... who, after an alcohol fuelled luncheon in college:
....stood on the balcony with a megaphone which had appeared surprisingly among the bric-á-brac of Sebastian’s room, and in languishing, sobbing tones recited passages from The Waste Land to the sweatered and muffled throng that was on its way to the river....
And then, stepping lightly into the room, “How I have surprised them! All b-boatmen are Grace Darlings to me.” Watch that scene below:
A pure delight.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
2013 Sydney International Rowing Regatta
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.
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!
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.
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.
‘Sons of the Thames’ – Won a Race Already in 1840
Regarding last Sunday’s post about the Sons of the Thames RC, rowing historian Bernard Hempseed writes from New Zealand:
According to page 111 in The Aquatic Oracle, published in 1852, there was a crew who rowed in a boat called the “Sons of the Thames.” The boat was four-oared. They won the first prize of 1,000f (franc) at Havre Regatta in July 1840. The crew were Robert Doubledee, Robert Newell, John Doubledee, Robert Coombes at stroke, and David Coombes as cox.
Whether this crew had any connection to the later group of the same name would require more research. I suspect that “Sons of the Thames” would have been some sort of generic name. The Aquatic Oracle is a mine of information on early professional races and can be downloaded off the net, here.
An interesting aside would how the club got its shield or nominal coat of arms. It’s a bit of a mixture – a horse designed by a committee!
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Charlie Pitcher Sets an Amazing Record!
Worldrowing.com reports:
Pitcher started in La Gomera, Canary Islands, and followed the trade winds across the Atlantic finishing in Port St Charles, Barbados.
Boat speed is hugely dependent on weather conditions. In 2010, as part of the Woodvale Challenge, Pitcher set out to cross the Atlantic in record time but it ended up taking him 52 days with ten of those days spent being blown backwards. This crossing inspired Pitcher to do it again with the belief that if he got the right weather conditions then he could break the record.
The solo record was then broken by Andrew Brown during the 2012 Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge. Brown finished in 40 days 9 hours 41 min, just 26 minutes slower than the overall Challenge winners, a men’s double.
Pitcher’s time of 35 days, 33 minutes ranks him as faster than the fastest four and fastest double to row the Atlantic.
Right from the start Pitcher set out to break the World Record for a solo row of the Atlantic aiming to go under 40 days. After reaching Barbados, Pitcher wrote in his log, “As for the World record attempt? It was successful. I dreamed of being the first person to break 40 days to cross the Atlantic solo rowing.”
As well as ocean rowing Pitcher, 50, has completed ultra-running challenges including the Marathon des Sables across the Sahara desert. Pitcher plans to return to ultra-running.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Trois hommes dans un bateau (sans parler du chien)
Hélène Rémond's interesting piece earlier today on the history of rowing in Brittany included a nice picture of a dog in a treble scull. The great coach, Steve Fairbairn talked about 'the endless chain movement' in the rowing stroke. Perhaps this boat practised the endless chien movement? ~ T.K.
History of Rowing in Brittany
It is not possible to write about the current rowing activities in Brittany without mentioning the historical practices that form the foundations of rowing in Brittany. They are: sea fishing in dory boats and skiffs, as well as sea rescue and its mystical stories, and the sailing and rowing boats used by port pilots which have stood out in the history of rowing in this region for centuries.
Between 1867 and 1979 there were only these two clubs which offered the practice of rowing in Brittany. The development of the activities was expected by the appointment of a regional technical advisor in 1974. Five years later, in 1979, two new clubs – Redon and Quimper – joined the BAO league (Bretagne - Anjou - Orléanais, numbered on the old English map below).
Departmental* committees gave an impetus at a local level, in terms of sporting activities and training of sports administrators. The implementation of a Pôle Espoirs – offering facilities to enable youngsters from 13-14-year-olds to 17-18-year-olds to combine their school curriculum with high-level sport training in the best conditions – training centers given a seal of approval, a national center for sea rowing, and all the organizations, have contributed to the emergence of Breton rowing.
North Finistère has been the birthplace of this sport. This is where boat builders and the first sea rowing clubs settled. At the beginning, there was a limited number of rowers, but soon the organization of specific competitive events led to a chain reaction, with the acknowledgement of the practice by the Breton rowing league and the French rowing federation Fedération française des sociétés d'aviron which has regarded it as a fully-fledged sport.
For the sea rowing events, a triangular course has been unanimously chosen in order to row on different tacks.
In Brittany, clubs have acted boldly in organizing original regattas: cross-business challenges, a regional championship, open regattas, cross-university challenges, etc. Normandy, the Mediterranean, Atlantic and North coasts then joined in.
The first French sea rowing championship was held in the Aber Wrac'h, North Finistère, in 1997, whereas the first world championship was held near Cannes, in the south of France, in 2007.
Today, the four departmental committees comprise about 40 clubs and 2,300 members – among them are France and World champions. Brittany stands in the top 10 leagues of France (in third position considering the number of clubs).
People of all ages can practice rowing in the region. The offer spans from Olympic rowing to sea or river rowing (leisure or competitive) with school or university events, adaptive rowing and indoor rowing.
The Breton league aims at developing youth practice, reinforcing its organization and communication, improving the sporting level and the quality of the rowing events.
This text has been adapted from an article written by Ivi Ceillier, regional technical advisor at the Direction Régionale de la Jeunesse, des Sports, et de la Cohésion Sociale de Bretagne (Directorate of Youth, Sports and Social Cohesion in Brittany). Jean-François Botrel, president of the Société de régates rennaises, kindly agreed to share the photos with HTBS. The four included old photographs above feature the Société des Régates Rennaises from 1900 to 1920. The rowing club, which opened in 1882 in the west part of the city (Saint Cyr), moved to the east part of Rennes (Plaine de Baud) in 1977. Jean-François Botrel has written a text about the history of the SRR (in French) which will be found here.
My thanks to both of them.
See also here.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Among Hard Drinking Hypocrites and 'Eight Good Men'
Right now I am reading Paula Byrne’s book Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead (2009; Am. ed. 2010). It is a good book if you are interested in Evelyn Waugh and his best known novel Brideshead Revisited. And do not mind, it should be added, ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’ and hanky-panky stories about some of the Oxford students, including Waugh, during the 1920s. There are also some juicy tales about poorly behaved members of the English aristocracy and one member of the Royal family. But back to Evelyn Waugh’s Oxford. Being banned from entering the city’s pubs, there were many ‘drinking clubs’ at the university, and Waugh belonged to the hard drinking Hypocrites’ Club.
The Hypocrites’ Club soon became associated, Paula Byrne writes, ‘with flamboyant dress and a manner that had the distinct smack of homosexuality’. This set them apart from other clubs at the university, ‘let alone the rowing and rugger clubs’, she writes. In her book it is the oarsmen that are the bad boys, attacking and often beating up members of the Hypocrites. No names are mentioned among the rowers probably because they are all just one brutal force in the eyes of the author.
In 1912, he was appointed to the King Edward VII Professorship of English Literature at Cambridge, and was also elected to a Fellowship of Jesus College. I have read some verse and books by Q and also two biographies about him, Freddy Brittain’s Arthur Quiller-Couch: A Biographical Study of Q (1948) and A. L. Rowse’s Quiller-Couch: A Portrait of ‘Q’ (1987). Nevertheless, I was surprised to find a ‘rowing verse’ in Mad World, written by Q:
Once, my dear – but the world was young then –
Magdalen elms and Trinity limes –
Lissom the blades and the back that swung then –
Eight good men in the good old times –
Careless we, and the chorus flung then
Under St Mary’s chimes!
(from “Alma Mater”)
In the early days of HTBS, in July 2009, Q is mentioned in an entry together with his friends, Freddy Brittain and Steve Fairbairn. Re-read it here.
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