BEACH AND KEMP.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 81, 17 December 1887, Page 2

BEACH AND KEMP.

WILLIAM BEACH’S NAME SULLIED.

The Sydney Evening News saya : —“ It is greatly to be regretted that the unblemished and brilliant career of William Beach should, at its voluntary termination, be sullied with the suspicion that he is mixed up in what appears to be one of the meanest and discreditable arrangements that has ever characterised what is commonly known as the sporting world. It was known, on the authority of Beach himself, that whether he lost or won the late race with Hanldn, he would not row again, and it was taken for granted that his retirement, whether he was victorious or vanquished, would leave the championship available for, if not possessed by, the best man. If Hanlan bad won, of course it would have belonged to him. He did not win, but be had a right to expect that after his straightforward and manly conduct in coming to Australia to measure oars with Beach for the third time, he would have been treated in an equally sportsmanlike manner. Instead of this he finds himself * tiddly-winked' out of even an opportunity of competing for the championship; until two men—neither of whom dare meet him —have settled their claims to an honor which neither of them could obtain while Hanlan remained in the colony, except by a hocus-pocus or hole-and-corner arrangement, such as that by which Kemp has become the nominal champion sculler of the world—and this while Hanlan, G-audaur, and Teemer are in existence ; and one of them on the spot to do battle for the position. Hanlan has offered to row any man in Australia for £5OO a-side ; but instead of meeting him, the man

who has had the championship made a present to him by Beach accepts a challenge from Clifford, and if those who are conspiring to wear Hanlan down by making him waste his time and incur expenses by waiting in Aus-. tralia for a chance to regain his lost laurels, play their cards in the same discreditable way that they have commenced the game, Hanlan will to wait twelve months before he can get the opportunity to prove Kemp's inferiority, and his presumption in accepting the championship, or make a public exhibition of Clifford for the second time. The friends of Clifford and Kemp have met to make final arrangements for the contemptible spectacle of a two-third or fourth-class men meeting to row for the championship of the world ; and, unfortunately for himself, the retired champion is in the triangular arrangement which is so unpleasantly suggestive of the adroit performance with three thimbles and a pea. The reputation of Wo. Beach is not, however, the only thing concerned ; for in the estimation of all fair-dealing sporting men throughout the world, the treatment Hanlan has received will be a reproach to the sporting community of Sydney, and tend to disgrace New South Wales.