Startling time by Avon eight

Press, 30 January 1984, Page 30

Startling time by Avon eight

By

TIM DUNBAR

Avon’s premier eight recorded the startling time of smin 17.28 s on its home course at Kerrs Reach during the final regatta in the Canterbury Rowing Association’s pennant series yesterday. The time is believed to be the fastest ever achieved by a crew on the Reach, possibly by up to 10s. Last year the ’Australian Colts eight did a smin 28s there in the trans-Tasman series. Avon, stroked by the world championship gold medallist, George Keys, is building up for the eightoared event in the national regatta next month. It

looked very good indeed with no break evident in the movement of the boat as the crew rowed to the finish of the 1830 m course. To some extent, admittedly, the time can be attributed to the conditions — a slight .following wind and an incoming tide. “Normally we race the open eights at the end of the programme when the tide is going out,” said the big Avon man, Don Symon. “It was a fast race,” he added. Symon had further cause for satisfaction later when the No. 1 Avon premier coxed four of Keys, Meates, himself, and Les O’Connell exacted full revenge for a

shock two-length loss to the club's No. 2 crew of Paul Cossens. Simon Aplin, John Cook, and Graham Walsh the day before. The Saturday event was the only one that counted for pennant points, but the No. 1 crew, which won yesterday by the big distance of six lengths, still gained a prize from the Commercial Travellers Club sponsors. On Saturday there were two upsets in the premier pair-oared events. Keys and his fellow gold medallist, O’Connell, twice lost by quite considerable margins to their clubmates, Meates and Symon. According to

their coach, Mr Pat McQuinn. the pair had reached a flat spot in their training. There was an interesting result in the women’s coxless pairs final on Saturday when the prize-winning crew was the Canterbury club's combination of Jacqui Duncan and Penny Thomson. which had struggled across the finish line almost 2min behind the other Canterbury club entry after Duncan strained her back. The first crew to finish was disqualified for its wayward steering. Union's lean single sculler, Dale Maher, picked up three titles, including

both the premier singles and the lightweight singles, and, with Steve Taylor, the lightweight doubles, but in the premier singles he was very hard pressed by Gerry Dwyer, of Avon. Avon, which won three of the eight-oared events, including both the intermediates and the novices, took the pennant points honours, but the Canterbury club again made a strong showing and received 64 points to Avon’s 77. The final points for the pennant series, with those for the week-end’s regatta in parentheses, were: Avon 185 (77), Canterbury 150 (64), Christ’s College 52 (9), Union 46 (19), Cure 25 (7).