THE BOAT RACE

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 19, 24 January 1929, Page 16

THE BOAT RACE

CENTENARY EVENT

OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE

SOME FORECASTS

\ The position with regard to the ,'■ .jioxt Oxford and Cambridge "-boat i race/though it is yet three months ""■". is far more interesting than • is usually tlie ease at such an early stage;. Both Universities are pre- *- paring for the centenary race, ami, according to G. C. Drinkwater, in ' the "Daily Telegraph/ his article being here reproduced, it is likely ' : to be the greatest struggle this historic race lias ever produced. ; It.is not merely the grim deturuiiua- , tion: of Cambridge to draw level with . Oxford in-tho Centenary race, for that •ia only a. sentimental addition to the ; struggle for victory that lends unusual excitement to' the focthcoming construe.'.tion of the two crews, but' rather the ■ fact that Oxford is onco more bestirring '. itself . :and ; dropping the attitude of laissez-faire, w-hj.ch, more than anything, ,' has been so detrimental to tho'oarsman- .' ship of tho senior University in the past •! few years, Writes Mr. Drinkwater. ; On paper Cambridge havo all the M advantages, and ."Oxford/ practically ..■ none. Cambridge crews swept Oxford : crews off the ' board at Henley, and ■'■- administered' an ignominious defeat in the Boat Race itself. They have five .■winning Old Blues on whom they can , call; they have a very good nucleus for their crew in "the First Trinity four that, winning the Visitors, was selected to represent.Great Britain in the Olympic 'fours', and did so with complete success. They'have an even liner one iv tho Third Trinity-four of this last torm, which so' soundly defeated the. Olympic crew in the University coxswainless crews. Oxford ; do not possess a single oarsman' who has won a race in England, outside the internecine struggles on their own waters, which do not count, for, -wherever two or three boats are gathered together to race one must win, whatever the standard of accomplishment. ' Yet in spite of this apparently complete superiority of Cambridge, I still say that tlie situation is interesting. Oxford have, of course, nothing to lose; they have everything to gain. 1 ME. HABCOUET GOLD. They can afford to experiment, and for once the conservative instincts of the Uuiversity Boat Club have been torn up by the- roots' by a president: from "down-under," who really is staking his all on new ideas. , His first step, realising his own lack of experience, was to elect or. co-opt another ex-officio president and givo him autocratic powers; his second was to select Mr. Harcourt Gold, and his third was to persuade him to undertake the unenviable and arduous ijob. . Mr. .Gold has had an unrivalled experience of coaching crows in tho last stages (j>f practice, and'in those cases where the foundations havo been duly worked upon has been able to stamp upon them his owu ideals of polish '"and his own. capacity for racing. I rempmber his telling me, in 1911, when ho produced the crow, which, though by jio means the best that has ever rowed, holds the record for th<j championship course, that no one had over sent him a crew possessing those points of stylo on which he felt he could best work. He has £<>r this reason, I think, always had an itch to train a orcw hi tlie eavly stages of. practice to s.m if he cannot implant in them the qualities widen tvill eventually give great" speed and racing powers. Ho is, therefore, going to superintend Oxford's early work and build tho crow. That is, I think, the most important experiment beiug undertaken by tho Dark Blues, and it will be very interesting to watch it. The second in importance is that tho construction of tho crew has already commenced and that tho old system of trial eights has been suspended. "With the. exception of tho .president, Morphett,. and . the . secretary, . Gmlber, whoso work. was.needed .on. the .tawpath,. "A" crew was. composed, .of :the .most likely candidates for the six remaining seats, whilst "B" crow represented the best possible pacemakers from the rest of the university. ' To find a precedent' for this form of trial 'eights' one has to go aa lav back 'as tile" autumn "of 1863, when Cambridge,'afteT two hollow defeats,- put all their heavy men into one crew and raised two other crews from lighter material. That was, however, hardly; the best.way. of, doing it, and yielded'comparatively, poor results. MORBHETT'S • DIFFICULTY. The only case whore • 'the '' Oxford' method of this year would' be -positively bad would be.when there-was a.' choice* between two . strokes. This does not this year arise,' foi' Alistair Graham ■would appear to have no rivals, and the new system seems to have worked weli. It was impossible to see both laefs this year, as they took place on the same day, and thinking that tho Cambridge one would be the more instructive, I .saw the final day's practico of the Oxford crews, when they both rowed from tho start of the old regatta course to Fawley. There was a good deal of water coming down the river, and Graham's crew's 3miu 37soe, even if they did "easy" half a length or so short of the mark, was no moaa fasit. That tiiey possessed undoubted pace for a crov which had nit been 1; together for' very long was confirmed by'• tlie' fact

that in tho race on. the next day they covered tho regatta course in 7miu 4^soc on a row which took them Omin. 20see in all, more than a minute having been spent in reaching the post. Morphett has already accomplished a great deal of his work in forming his crew next term. His chief difficulty will be to decide out of the material he has in hand who will make tho best No.-7 and who the No. 0.

At Cambridge, on the other hand, very Jittle knowledge of real value was gleaned from their trial eights race. In tho desire to avoid experiments by mixing their nuclei, to which I have already referred, they rendered the usual results obtained from trials null and void, and it is with little surprise one reads that practically the whole of the sixteen men who rowed have been ordered into residence early next year, so that their merits may once more be compared. LANDER'S BAD LUCK. It is, however, obvious that the intention in at present to found the crew on tlie victorious Third Trinity four, and for this reason, if for no other, 1 expect to tee Brocklebank stroke. It is hard to understand why Lander's obvious merits ns a stroke ;i.»vo bceu overlooked in past years, but, it is very bad luck on him that, now they are once realised, the difference of style betwecu two clubs should make it almost impossible for him to be called upon, that is if I am correct in thinking that the crew is to bo founded on Third Trinity. He stroked Shrewsbury to win the Ladies' in 1924, First Trinity in 1927, and would have won them with case again this year had the latter not entered for the Grand, a race which is given to few college strokes to win, still less when there is so high a standard set.

The chief difficulty about Brocklebank is the fear, expressed by many, that lie is not strong enough to go through the whole training without a rest, and that it will be necessary to find someone to understudy him for a time, and that ho must be an oarsman whose style resembles that of his lead—one difficult to find. Personally Ido not give much weight to this objection. There is little doubt that a great deal of Brocklebank's excellence of stylo h-as come to him through rowing in the company of J. B. Collins. Collins is now so matured a heavy-weight that, if ho rows at No. 6, as seems certain, he should be able to dominate any stroke who sits in front of him, evou were it Lander himself, for he would have to be a very determined man who could resist tho influence of the pendulum-like swing and drive of 14st Sib set immediately behind him.

I understand that J. C. Holcroft, the last year's president, who has helped Becsly with his trials so much, will undertake the coaching in the first stages, and in selecting eight men out of so great a wealth of material his will be an unenviable task. But all oarsmen- will be glad to think that ho has .been, entrusted- with the work, and will welcome one of the younger generation who is ready to carry ou the old traditions.