South Brighton wins life-saving battle

Press, 20 February 1979, Page 10

South Brighton wins life-saving battle

By

RAY CAIRNS

When Taylors Mistake and New Brighton staged their great two-way battle for Canterbury surf life-saving supremacy at Tayiors Mistake two years ago, it .seemed that new heights of tclose competition had been reached in the pennant championship. However, South Brighton has joined those other two clubs in the Coca-Cola carnival, again at Taylors Mistake, and outlasted them both to win the pennant in the first full-blooded threeway contest in living memory.

All day long in the beaming sun and gentle breezes these three tussled for the pennant, first South Brighton easing into a little lead, the New Brighton slipping up to parity, while Taylors Mistake was champing at the bit, waiting for its first points to come.

The computing of the march-past points virtually made Taylors Mistake and South Brighton the only protagonists, for New Brighton. in a position to take third in each of the marchpasts, could only earn fourth and no points.

The club was not finished, however, for John Koens, one of the day’s outstanding competitors, led two of his club-mates, John Dimick and Gavin Dixon, across the line in the junior surf race, and to a handsome 15 points. Bvt that effort came just too late, and as it subsequently happened South Brighton started the senior surf race still five points in arrears of Taylors Mistake, though it was popularly believed at the time that South Brighton actually led by a point. However, Bryce Ward, for ■so long a stalwart and magnificent competitor for South Brighton did not let his team down. His unyielding effort to finish second

behind Geoff Walker (Waimairi) — the latter becoming the first man since Kevin Canyon (South Brighton), 11 years ago, to win the surf race twice, for he won in 1973. — brought South Brighton up to first equal. Then Robyn Barry did a similar job in the women’s surf race, the final event of the dav.

As is almost always the case, surprises were common throughout the day. Waimairi kicked off on the right note with its slightly surprising senior surf relay victory over the favourite, New Brighton. Things did not go completely right for New Brighton in those relays, for while it won the junior race by landslide proportions, its A team was almost too strong at the expense of its B team.

North Beach was pressed rather more severely than expected in the women’s relay by Waimairi, but it had too much finishing power in the form of Jill Clarke, who joined Walker and Koens as one of the day’s top performers. She and Koens both won their surf races, the neoprene tube rescue, and were members of surf relay champion teams.

Walker, for his part, had daylight behind him in the surf ski final, teamed expertly with Kevin Baker for an equally clear victory in the ski relay, and won the ski rescue by another wide margin. He thus extended his tally of Canterbury titles to a handsome 36.

The canoe races provided some of the day’s highlights. First, New Brighton’s thirdranked — and smallest — junior crew won a clear victory from Sumner; while history was made by the venerable Taylors Mistake B crew, all of whom are over 30 and were not slow to mention that their senior title completed an historic first double of canoe rescuecanoe race.

The dumping surf played a big part in the two male tube rescues. Carl Immers (Taylors Mistake), only a whisker ahead of Geoff Barry (South Brighton) in the senior event, was thrown across the line, patient on top, by a latebreaking wave — though Barry was subsequently disqualified.

Then Koens, after a brilliant start and the first to turn, found himself swimming through a dead flat sea while at the other end of the buoys, Kelvin Bishop was picking up breakers and closing the gap. Koens kept clear.

Richard Boyle (North Beach) repeated his treatment of the rest at, the

South Island < championships by outfinishing Evan Morgan (South Brighton) in the junior surf ski final; and in both senior and junior ski races the real battles were for the minor placings. In the juniors, Dougal Holmes (Taylors Mistake) edged out Graham Hamburger, while the redoubtable Darryl Neate, also of Taylors Mistake, had too much finishing power for Kevin Baker (Waimairi) in the senior tussle for second. South Brighton finished with its expected domination of the march-pasts, slipping to second only in the senior event. There, Taylors Mistake was successful, just as it also won the Kesteven Cup, from which comes the soubriquet, “K Day,” which is used to describe this carnival.

New Brighton won the senior boat series easily, and Waikuku Beach was comfortably clear in the junior boats. But there was a great battle for second. New Brighton and South Brighton locked together before the final race, and as New Brighton was crashing with Waikuku — and later unsuccessfully protesting — South Brighton had slipped through a victory and second place overall. Abbreviations used in the results are Taylors Mistake (TM), Sumner (S), South Brighton (SB), New Brighton (New B)„ North Beach (North B), Waimairi (W), Spencer Park (SP), and Waikuku Beach (WB). SENIOR Boat races Race seven: Waikuku Beach 1, New Brighton A 2, South Brighton B 3. Race eight: New Brighton A 1, New Brighton B 2, North Beach 3. Placings: New Brighton, 68, 1; North Beach, 32, 2; Waikuku Beach, 27, 3. Surf relay Final: Waimairi A 1, New Brighton A 2, South Brighton A 3. Table rescue Final: C. K. Immers (TM) 1, C. L. Beeby (SB) 2, P. J. Carpinter (TM) 3. March past Event four: Taylors Mistake, 18. 1; South Brighton, 19, 2; Waimairx, 27, 3. Placings: Taylors Mistake, 37, 1; South Brighton, 31, 2; North Beach, 8, 3. Canoe race Final: Tayiors Mistake B 1, Spencer Park 2, Taylors Mistake D 3. Ski race Final: G. S. Walker (W) 1, D. T. Neate (TM) 2, K. J. Baker (W) 3. Ski relay Final: Waimairi A (Walker and Baker) 1, Taylors Mistake A (Neate and D. Conder) 2, Spencer Park (Mcßamsay and C. Aislaibie) 3. Surf race Final: Walker 1, B. J. Ward (SB) 2, R. A. Clark (New B) 3, D. R. Clarke (North B) 4, S. A. Johnston (W) 5, J. A. Symon (New B) 6, E. F. Box (W) 7, B. W. Honeybone (W) 8, J. F. Tillson (SB) 9, P. Seal (WB) 9. Ski rescue Final: Walker 1. M. McClurg (TM) 2. K. Jones (TM) 3.

JUNIOR Boat races Race seven: New Brighton B 1, South Brighton 2, Waikuku Beach 3. Race eight: South Brighton 1, Waikuku Beach 2, New Brighton B 3. Placings: Waikuku Beach, 48. 1; South Brighton, 42, 2; New Brighton B. 36, 3. Surf relay Final: New Brighton A 1, Waimairi A 2. South Brighton A 3. Tube rescue I Final: J. N. Koens (New B' 1. K. G. Bishop (SB) 2, J. Dimick (New B) 3. March past Event four: South Brighton, 17, 1; Waikuku Beach, 25, 2: Taylors Mistake, 29. 3. Placings: South Brighton. 40, 1; Waikuku Beach, 18. 2; Taylors Mistake, 12. 3. Canoe race Final: New Brighton C 1. Sumner 2, Taylors Mistake A 3. Ski race Final: R. Boyle (North Bl 1, E. Morgan (SB) 2, D. Holmes (TM) 3. Ski relay Final: South Brighton A (Morgan and G. Hamburger) 1, Taylors Mistake A (H. Purse and Holmes) 2. Waimairi (M. Quinlivan and D. Stewart) 3. Surf race Final: Koens 1, Dimick 2, G. Dixon (New B> 3, D. H. Ferigo (New B) 4, Quinlivan 5, B. W. Buck (New B) 6, M. J. Sullivan (North B) 7, K. J. Lee (SB) 8, L. J. Marshall (New’ B) 9, Bishop 10. WOMEN Surf relay Final: North Beach A 1, Waimairi A 2, New Brighton A 3. Table rescue Final: J. Clarke (North B) 1, M. Cozens (North B) 2, L. Rowe (New B) 3. March past Event four: South Brighton, 18. 1: North Beach, 22, 2; Taylors Mistake, 25, 3. Placings: South Brighton. 40, 1; Taylors Mistake, 16J, 2; North Beach, 15, 3. Surf race Final: Clarke 1, R. Barry (SB) 2, J. Ray (North Bl 3, L. Clarke (North B) 4, J, Harding (New B) 5, J. Anink (North B) 6, J. Murdoch (W) 7, J. Sunbeam (W) 8, A. Carter (New B) 9, J. Beaumont (SB) 10. Non-championslup events resulted:— OPEN AND SENIOR Over-30 surf race Final: G. Dawn (New B) 1, K. Lanyon (SB) 2, G. L. Le Cren (TM) 3, K. Chamberlain (New B) 4, Neate 5. I. McD. Stewart (S) 6, T. M. McGirr (New B) 7. Beach flags Final: F. A. Lawrence (SP) 1, W. A. Wilson (SB) 2, M. K. McClurg (TM) 3. Double-ski rescue Final: Taylors Mistake A 1, Waimairi A 2, Waimairi B 3. Six-man R and R Kesteven Cup: Taylors Mistake B, 4.10, 1; South Brighton B, 5.38, 2; South Brighton A, 5.72, 3. JUNIOR Beach flags Final: S. Duncan (New B) 1, A. Doreen (SB) 2, M. Gale (WB) Double-ski rescue Final: Taylors Mistake 1, Sumner B 2, Waimairi B 3. Six-man R and R Final: South Brighton, 8.80, 1; Taylors Mistake. 16.70, 2; Waikuku Beach, 23.62. 3. WOMEN Beach flags Final: A. Aitken (W) 1, J. Colombus (SB) 2, ,S. Caley (SP) 3. Four-man R and R Final: New Brighton, 2.48, 1; Waimairi A. 3.32, 2; Waimairi B, 3.40, 3.