INTER-ALLIED BOAT RACE.

Marlborough Express, Volume LIII, Issue 187, 4 July 1919, Page 3

INTER-ALLIED BOAT RACE.

WITNESSED BY A PICTONITE.

A letter givinjg .a description of the great • inter-Allied eight-oared race on the Seine, has been received by the secretary of the Picton Rowing Club (.Mr J.. M. Carnahan), from Private Alf. C. Philpott, a Pictonite on active service. Rewrites: —

Being irij Paris on lea,ve at the time of the inter-Allied sculling race, I was abe to stroll along and have a look at it. I furthermore thought you would be somewhat interested in the result, and in the rowing of the race, eEpeciallyyis one of your Picton scullers, Billy Patterson, was a member of the winning .crew. I am enclosing a copy of part of the paper printed in Paris, describing and illustrating the race. But the paper does not give a very detailed account of , the New Zealanders, as is usualry the case when?our men swoop off with ai-ything, ■so I thought a. few remarks by a novice, and; by one' who has never been in a scull, would be somewhat acceptableDealing alone with the final—for it was here and not in the heat that cur boys shone so brilliantly, although they made a/ bird of the heat easily enough—ono could not help noticing the easa £»nd grace of our rowers, as compared with that of the Americans, when both boats were "neck /and neck," running past a point about a quarter of a mile from the finish. And our men were not in the least bustled; they all appeared calm and cool, even the bosun. lam told that'the--members of the second boat had to be lifted out, while our boys Lad the audacity to row their boat away to the sheds, some distance from the finish. I -was' staying in the same hotel in Paris as the crew, and they all appeared keen and fit before the race; but after the race, and after Bill Massey and Joey Ward, who had witnessed the race, had^ taken the boys down to their hotel '(Hotel Majestic), and steamed'-them up, they were fit enough for anything that a big city could ask of them. Their trainer, Brittain, with whom I spent twelve months in 'Frjapce and Belgium, assures me that the tesm is good enough to get away with many more big races, so don't be surprised, for I am fully convinced that they were not "all out", in Paris. .

Engagements have been booked up for the team on this- side until the late summer, and the crew is, I believe, to go to America. ■ '■-. ■-■■ Hadfield is, as you know, a member of the crew, and Brittain has high hopes of his gaining something more than the N.Z. Amateur Sculls. He appears in the best of health, takes great care of himself, and is a .conscientious trainer. ,