Rowing hopes ride on Avon

Press, 25 February 1977, Page 28

Rowing hopes ride on Avon

By

TIM DUNBAR

Wellington rowing officials will be keeping their fingers permanently crossed during •the six-day national championships at Lake Horowhenua next week.

Last season a major regatta — the Wellington championships— was held on the lake for the first time in many years and conditions at the venue, situated near Levin, brought a few grumbles from the competing oarsmen.

Among the critics were senior members of Christchurch’s top club, Avon, who were particularly unhappy about the amount of weed in the lake.

Fortunately the weed problem no longer exists. Colin Iremonger, the Wellington Rowing Association’s publicity officer, said this week that only “one very small patch” remains in the lake. Doubts still remain about the venue, though, as it is very exposed and side-winds are reputed to vary the conditions from lane to lane. Two Union club members — Steve Menzies and Mark Borgfeldt — competed at the recent Wellington championships a few weeks ago and found the lake “fair all over” but the organisers of the national regatta will still be

hoping fervently that the long-range forecast of fine weather is correct and there is as little rough water as possible. Christchurch rowing supporters will be looking to the Avon club to make the most impact at Horowhenua but its chances of pulling off the “big double” for the second successive year look slim. Certainly Avon could still retain its champion eights title as it finished second, only three-quarters of a length behind a very strong Waikato crew, at the Auckland championships last week-end.

But the Avon coxed four of Dave Lindstrom, Ivan Sutherland, George Keys and Ken Divers struggled into third place, a length and a half behind Petone and Waikato in the same regatta. Both these crews will certainly figure prominently on finals day and a much improved effort will also be expected from Avon’s experienced coxless pair (Lindstrom and Sutherland) which finished seven lengths and a half behind the surprise winner, Waikato (David Rodger and Danny Keane), at Lake Karapiro. Of the three Christchurch clubs, Avon is taking by far the largest contingent to Horowhenua, with 30 oars-

men and one sculler (Grant Nolan) making the trip. Avon’s junior four (Sam Le Compte, Tony Brook, Steve Donaldson and John Smyth) and its novice eight can be counted on for good performances in the lower classes. Both had good wins in the recent South Island championships at Lake Waihola and must rate chances of bringing back a national title. Another promising young I crew is the maiden coxed I four of Martin Hickley, ! Chris Douglas, Kelvin Moore 'and Mark Meates but a cutithroat battle is assured in this event with 48 crews entered. , , . The Canterbury’ club is sending only two crews — a junior eight and a maiden coxed pair — up north but much is expected of both.

George Paterson, a member of the Oamaru gold medallist four at the 1972 Perth Commonwealth Games, is coaching the Canterbury junior eight and says he "sure as hell expects them to make the final.” , “They rowed very poorly in the South Island championships but were drained ;out after a lot of heavy jwork and seem to be coming [back now’. | “If they row to their full

.potential they’ll do very well — I consider it the fastest eight the club has produced — but they are either good or very bad.”

The maiden coxed pair of Chris Duncan and Chris Mayhew is unbeaten in the South Island this season but will have a tough task to come out on top, as there are 35 entries in the field. Union is sending three crews — a light-weight single (Seamus Ward), a maiden four (Richard McCall, Brendan Dooley, Glenn Hardwick and Phil Proverbs) and a junior-sen-ior pair of Menzies and Berigfeldt. Trevor Sullivan, one of the club’s coaches, said it was very difficult to assess the potential of any of the crews because of the absence of competition in the South Island,

Preparations at Lake Horowhenua Domain for the championships are almost complete. Teams have started to arrive, the course is nearing completion, shower and changing sheds have been erected, and toilet facilities installed. The regatta will run for six days, and more than 1000 oarsmen will take ipart-