Avon puts its eggs in two baskets

Press, 12 March 1982, Page 15

Avon puts its eggs in two baskets

By

TIM DUNBAR

Avon has returned from a national rowing regatta without a prized “red coat” title for the first time in nearly a decade. Since 1973 when the mighty coxed pair of Trevor Coker and Athol Earl won by several lengths at Lake Waihola the club had had an unbroken string, picking up 10 titles on the way. But this campaign to Waihola proved a barren one when the premier squad had to be content wiith two second platings last weekend.

The club's crews reached five finals on the last day and, instead of grasping for any “iron man” labels, it was decided to gamble and go for the two big ones — the “Boss Rooster” coxed fours and the “Rubs Rooster” eights at opposite ends of the lengthy championship programme. David Lindstrom, the Avon premier coach, stoutly defends the scratching of crews from the other three events and thus missing out on two “certain” titles.

“We definitely made the right decision,” Lindstrom sai(f. “Some people think you ■should take the easy ones.” Mr Lindstrom said that Avon would have won the coxless fours, even though beaten in the heats, and the combination of George Keys and Les O’Connell would have been “strong contenders” in the coxless pairs. And the coxed pairing of Don Symon and Simon Aplin

would have been a good second behind Waikato, he believes. “But that would have been the end of the eight’s chances.” The coach, himself a member of seven Avon “red coat” crews between 1974 and 1980, pointed out that the coxed four had lost to North Shore by only a matter of “four or five feet.”

“If we had pushed it more in the second 500, it might have been different. It was a tremendous finish, but we should have been closer at the 1000 m mark.”

After that race, in which the front-running Waikato crew choked badly over the last few hundred metres, Avon was convinced that North Shore was “the crew to beat” in the eights. “Our eight was good and we wouldn't have sat and waited on the bank all day if we didn't think we could have won it.”

In the end Waikato proved that it was far from finished and in a “tremendously fast race” the eight won by just under a length with a time of smin 43.93 s to Avon’s 5:46.67. Mr Lindstrom said the crew rowed particularly well, but the speaker system failed with 700 m gone and the coxswain, Andrew Graham, thus lost contact with the bow section in the vital middle stages when a big workload was required. “We might not have made up a length, thoueh.”

There was” considerable

satisfaction for Lindstrom in that Avon got five oarsmen (plus Graham) — more than any other club — in the trials for the New Zealand team to contest the world championships in Lucerne. “That proves that we were right . . . even if we didn’t come back with red coats,” he said. The whole coxed four of. Steve Donaldson (stroke), Les O'Connell, George Keys, and Mark Meates got a trial, showing that its slick time of 6min 32.2 s in tidal conditions impressed the selectors. Also among the 18 trialists later this month will be the 203 cm giant, Don Symon, No. 3 man in the eight. “He rowed himself out in the eights race and had a good coxed pairs heat. Don’s the

sort of guy they need in New Zealand rowing." Mr Lindstrom thinks all the Avon men have a chance. “Don and Les will be going for seats on the bow side, while Steve and Mike Stanley (North Shore) are the best two stokes in the country, in my opinion.” He added that there would be something wrong if Keys, a prodigy at 15, and now a mature 22-year-old, was not included in the New Zealand eight this time. If there was a little disappointment about the Avon premiers at Waihola there was elation about the deeds of the club’s novices — two medals and a second placing. Mr Doug Burrowes was overjoyed with the efforts of his charges, especially the eight of Mike Rickerby (stroke), Neil Pepperell, Robbie Morrison, Mark Cohen, Andrew Parkyn (a St Bede’s College seventh former), Dave Cameron, Trevor Edwards, Daryl Smith (bow), and Steve McKenna, coxswain. The eight, following race plan, came from a length and a half down at the 1000 m to storm past Aramoho and West End. “They had confidence in their ’ rowing and didn’t hit the panic button.” Three crew members took up rowing only last January and all but two were Canterbury

University students. Pepperell and Morrison put up a similar effort in the novice pairs, coming from three lengths down with “one gigantic sprint” to win by half a boat’s length, and the novice four' was second a length and a half behind Otago, with Wairau third. Another Avon man, Roger Babbington, was placed second in the final of the junior single sculls. For the Canterbury club (the oldest in New Zealand), the undoubted highlight was the winning of the women's premier eights, the first championship title obtained for 77 years. Because of a protest by the Auckland University crew after the first race the event was eventually rerowed at 7 p.m., and became the last on the programme. To a large extent the women took the edge off the normal glamour event, the men’s eights. The club also had its usual good results in the lightweight events, the champion lightweight eight finishing third behind Hawke’s Bay, which won its fifth consecutive “gold coat” title, and the' intermediate coxed four second to Port Chalmers. And the champion lightweight coxless four of Chris Duncan, Malcolm Fraser, Craig Hobbs, and George Robinson, fielded only on the day, picked up a most creditable second placing to North Shore.

Canterbury also reached the final of both the women's pair and the single, but scratched from both to concentrate bn the eight. Something of a disappointment, however, was the promising intermediate pair (Andrew Thorpe and Fraser) which crabbed in the first three strokes and finished fourth in the final. Although the Union club might not have picked up any medals, the senior coach, Mark Borgfeldt, professed to be “reasonably satisfied” with two finals. Dale Maher and Dave Handisides were fourth in the senior coxless pairs, and the senior' four, after being adjudged third-equal with North Shore in the semifinals, was last in a sevenboat final. Mr Borgfeldt said the four had had a crew change after Christmas and did not combine as well as he would have hoped. Maher won his repecharge in the tough champion lightweight singles, but could finish only fourth (“lacking a bit of fight”) in the semi-finals. Hundreds of oarsmen will no doubt be happy this was to be the last national regatta at Lake Waihola after another week plagued by delays to the programme. “It’s hard to get the guys motivated if you have to sit around in the car for three hours waiting for the water to calm down.” said Mr Borgfeldt, echoing the feelings of countless others.