Elated Avon eight wins national title at last

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34097, 8 March 1976, Page 30

Elated Avon eight wins national title at last

(From

TIM DUNBAR)

LAKE KARAPIRO.

Champagne corks were popping before Avon s champion eight oarsmen had even put their boat aw 7 ay at Lake Karapiro on Saturday and no-one could blame them for not wai ting any longer.

After all. the South| Island rowing fraternity has waited nearly 40 years for a national eights title to go to them and some members of the crew have been trying to win the premier title for five. Last season the Avon eight, which contained six of the present crew, lost the national final to Whakatane by just 24 inches but there was no doubt aboui who was going to win on Saturday. Avon started off at a rating of 42. never fell below 36, and maintained a rate of 37 from the 1000 m mark, when it put its nose in front first. It powered away in the last few hundred metres to beat Waikato by threequarters of a length with Whakatane, one quarter of a length back. It was very hard to pick who was the most delighted member of the crew but Athol "‘Little Joe” Earl prob-, ably took the decision by; half a head from Charlie Flanagan, with the other five marginally behind.

‘Feels good’ h i Earl, with Trevor Coker a member of the Munichl, Olympic eight, summed up I the feelings of the crew! * when the boat crossed the < finish line. He collapsed dramatically and waved a feeble arm in exultation asi he disappeared from sight. Twenty minutes later Ear! 1 , still had a smile as wide as;! the lake across his face as ' he said: “My God that feels:' good.” Several hours later,; as the crew celebrated in a 1 Camoridge hotel, he still had! that smile. Charlie Flanagan was onei of the survivors of the 1972 > senior eight which finished', fourth and a more dedicated) 1 rower could not be imagined; he probably got the. most pats on the back. One crewmember, Gordon I Scott, the 6ft 6in American,: certaily has something tocrow about when he gets: back home and will ob-l viously be in the trials next! month for the United States; rowing team for the Olym-j, pics. Coker said that he would rather have had this title 1 than an Olympic gold medal. 1 “Your club-mates mean so much to you and we did it 1 all by ourselves. We’ve been after that title for five years." For one of Avon’s most:; famous former oarsmen,' 1 George Lindstrom, it was a i great triumph. Thirty years) ago exactly he and his) brother, Ted, had won their) first red coat at Wanganui. ; One of the Avon crew: members was George Lind-) strom’s son, Ross, aged 19: 1

] another was Ted’s son, David, the stroke: and a further man, George Keys, a 16 ■ year-old St Bede’s College | pupil, is George Lindstrom’s :nephew. Fulfilled George Lindstrom claimed )on Saturday that 30 years ; ago when he won that title 1 he had told the North Island rowers that “if we can’t beat I you we 11 send someone that can” and his prediction was ) fulfilled. Two in the eight, David ' Lindstrom and Ivan Sutherland. have already won red I coats for North Island | crews; Lindstrom was a . member of the champion Whakatane eight in 1970, and 1971 and Sutherland, ) brother of the All Black, i crewed the Waikato eight II which won in 1973. The final gesture of the I crew before leaving the regatta site, which saw a near record crowd of 9500, was the traditional gesture of , throwing the winning coxswain, Dave Simmons, the ) proud winner of the Alan i Boycott i rophy, into the lake. He did not resist.

The 'arge Christchurch contingent had gone wild earlier at the lakeside as Avon rowed back to receive the congratulations of Mr Thomas Keller the president of the international rowing body, F.1.5.A., and called “we want Fred.” But the! coach was nowhere in sight. I

Stretch field When he eventually) turned up in the boat park, Mr Strachan, who deserves a lot of credit for the victory, was far frcm verbose. “Well, that’s that,” he smiled tiredly. “The boys were supposed to stretch the field a bit more than they did but even half a length is pretty good in that sort of class,” ’ he ; added. I Tom Reid, the coach of the Whakatane crew, cham- ; pion for the last two years, ) was more than willing to ; admit that Avon deserved to I win. “Our boys had as good i a row as they’ve had this : season but Avon was cerI tainly on the job today.” 1 Seven hours earlier, Avon's ;oxed four of Coker, 1 Sutherland, Earl and David Lindstrom and another magnificent race to hold off the gritty Petone crew by two-thirds of a length for its third successive title The rare double had not seemed possible earlier when Petone decisively beat Avon but as Coker said: “we learnt a few lessons during i the week.” “It pays to be scared.” he I told Mr Strachan, who had a smile on his face for the I first time that week. “We I rowed them like they rowed I us on Tuesday, using our heads and keeping it steady,

and then pouring on the power ail the way through before going flat-out at the 1500,” he added. “You can't beat an old horse for a hard row and that was their last together as a crew. ’ said Mr Strachan. One of the most encouraging signs for the future of rowing during the regatta was the resurgence of the Petone club It has not won a champion title for 23 years but on Saturday its top oarsmen, Viv Haar, lan Boserio, lim Logan and Des Lock took three titles between them and club rowers in other classes added another three. Haar and Boserio combined to deservedly take the coxless noirs from the much more experienced, Dick Joyce and Ross Collinge (Wellington); Logan and Lock clearly won the coxed pair; and the whole four clicked together superbly to gain another red coat each in the coxless fours. Easy win Its maiden sculler, John Argue, dropped from the four this season, showed his talents in other fields with a great race to win his final easily from Laurence Eade (Invercargill) and John Stuart (Avon). Later Argue was second in the junior singles and the club’s maiden four had an excellent win. A feature of the club's performance generally is that it has no senior coach but it obviously exists weil without one. Several observers at the regatta had expected the veterans. Murrav Watkinson and Dudley Store (West End), to take the double sculls, even though their combination is a relatively new one. However, the younger double of Tony Hurt and

csiCKea rogetner superoiy to gain another red coat each in the coxless fours. Easy win Its maiden sculler, John Argue, dropped from the four this season, showed his talents in other fields with a great race to win his final easily from Laurence Eade (Invercargill) and John Stuart (Avon). Later Argue was second in the junior singles and the club’s maiden four had an excellent win. A feature of the club’s performance generally is that it has no senior coach but it obviously exists weil without one. Several observers at the regatta had expected the veterans. Murrav Watkinson and Dudley Store (West End), to take the double sculls, even though their combination is a relatively new one. However, the younger double of Tony Hurt and John White set a scorching

pace which their club-mates could not match and they went on to win their fifth successive final by two lengths and a quarter. Apart from Ted Hale (Sydney), the surprise winner' of the singles sculls, the most impressive crew from outside New Zealand was the Balmain-Drummoyne lightweight four (Sydney) which has probably earned a trip to the world championships in Austria next August with its effortless win at Lake Karapiro on Saturday.

Surprise The finest effort from the lower-classed Christchurch crews was the surprising performance from the Avon junior coxless pair of Greg Smithson and Mark Gebbie, which lived up to Gebbie’s prediction several days before that the crew would win the final. It crossed the line a clear length ahead of Gisborne. The Canterbury club had one of its best days at a national regatta for some years with a good second, a fourth, and a fourth-equal in lower class finals. A great row by the Canterbury novice eight, the future of the ciub. saw them finish the race only a length and a quarter behind the classy winner. Auckland, who surged ahead at the 1000 m mark.

Canterbury’s crew of Brian Lloyd, Andrew Powers, John Armstrong, Ralph Dickson, Mathew Sole, Peter Sole, Marcus de Kort. George Robinson and Steve McKenna (coxswain) included two boys of 15. and had it not had a shortage of time together and competition, mav well have won. Other Christchurch results were: Canterbury youth four (fourth); Canterbury light-weight eight (fourth equal); Union junior four (fourth); and Avon double scull (Grant Nolan and Jeff Lopasj, fourth.