ROWING.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 180, 25 April 1908, Page 9

ROWING.

.• 'By Mercdet.); v. • ' , : \ " '■ :: S "The Now tioii; liavo' decided that-under' the i .-rules - of 'the Association ,the members" of< ; the I ;New ;South Wales Rugby. League/ (professional), who ,play or manage . the "ganie" of; football , played -under '. the rules- of; the :iicague; are' professionals, and arc ineligible to row under the'rules of "the Association; further,' .that tho rules, as submitted, aro inconsistent with the definition of . amateurism .which-tho) Association has always .'adopted. "V. ,;. The above decision"' has been arrived at ; by the committee' afterJa.lengthy-: discussion -on- a .letter- from"-.tlie" Nfew,; B.quth-' .Wales 1 League,. askmg.for.;a-decision. from' l the Rowing Association as- to the status of ' "players' -under the League's'rules, . judged", by the laws, of the Rowing Association.: .Tho rule bearing on the subject-is-plain.-. -An amateur shall mean one' (b) who. has never followed .atay.. branch' of" athletics' : for .profit or gain; (c) who has never entered, or competed fgr money in any form.-- The atmosphere of .amateur "sport" lia's'. been 'somewhat' disturbed lately by a' knowledge' that .the 'question that- when a»man is' paid anything .outside legitimate travelling expenses''he ceases- to be an amateui.; must surely be decided ' at an early- date; by v ail amateur 'bodies.- ' Members of rowing "clubs who have bedn' contemplating playing with the" "new League' will "now quite.understand the] position before they start." , One; very" desirable' result which . may be -brought about— consequence of the; present "position, -and aresult "which the . Athletic!; Association -of Australasia has been for some time, and is still striving ..for, is the adoption' by all amateur bodies throughout—the' Commonwealth and New Zealand. of.„a universal de-, fmition. At the present'..time"there .arei many definitions in various States^' a .number of which are not recognised in New,' South Wales. This particularly applies to rowing, so much, so that' the-New: .S6uth. Wales Association has a special-rule/to, allow its members to compete . iir. intcr-Statc. races. The fundamental principle, which must: bo the basis of such definition* is''the :clause : '(b)' from the .Rowing'."Association's, "rule:—"Who has- never ' followed:: any, branch;;.,of athletics for profit or'.gain."'., , I should very much lilte to'.'see this .'aspect of the amateur Question' tyoughtr under. 1 .the notice of the N.Z.A.R.Av, not only>as-regard' footballers, but professionals in all branches of sport. .• . . ' . . .The 'supremacy. pf .Engidiid';. in :amateur rowing was until'recently-accepted as much as'an established fact as.that.lier-navy.rules tho sea, but this belief was shaken. :by tho. victory of the Belgian .crewjn the Grand' Challenge Eights at Henley.;• A writer ,in. "The Spectator,".dealing with tlra question, notes that Mr. W. A. L. Fletcher, one of tiro foremost of English coaches,'had borrowed an idea or two from tho Belgians, and engrafted them -on the Christelrurch crew, which .thereafter bad gonei easily liead of. the' river. It is pointed out that tho, theory Of English rowing,i.e., using the." back: and legs for the real work, and the anus only as connecting rods, was fixed before the. days of sliding v seats,' and tho advent of the. slide merely afforded a means of rowing a longer-stroke. Tne successful Belgians, -however, row with practically no swing at all, and the same characteristic has marked some good crews from America, which havo competed .'at • Henley.'"What,"- asks the writer, in the "Spectator," "is to 'bo learnt from the Belgians?" and answors his own inquiry by saying cortaiuly not their , faults—tho want of swing and pause''when out ready to take the water, in spito of which-they won. A critic,, writing in tho "Oxford Magazine," who analyses the Belgian stroke, is quoted. Tho great featuro of tho stroke is that the water is struck at nearly right-angles to the boat: - In this oonf ncction tJio Oxford critic says' that in-recent, years English crows liavo dovelopod a'forward swing and slido so exaggerated-that'-the' 1 blado, when it takes the,water; is at an angle' of less 'than 35 degrees'to tho long axis of the lwat. ' Tho resistance was enormous, though expended largoly in pinching ,tho boat, and led to a reduction in tho width of the blade as a relief. As., a.- compromise, the Oxonian recommended lengthening tho outriggers, or bringing tho'shdes not so/ close'to tho work. This plan is that which" Mr. Fletcher had put into 6lfe'ct"';at Oxforii;'but it was not altogether a revolution, bccauso it - was employed by successful crews of the London Rowing Ciub .in the "eighties." The writer in the "Spectator" reminds us that, 'a "hnrd beginning" was always inculcated in. : British, oarsmanship, -but-tho Belgians' 'is'a. 1 'mighty smite;" done with ".absolute ' unanimity and precision, ■' ','