ROWING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22816, 27 February 1936, Page 5

ROWING

By OUTBIGGEB,

FIXTURES March-7.—Dunedin Club's regatta, at Dunedin. Easter Saturday.—lnterprovincial Championship Eights, Wanganui River. • CHAMPIONSHIP ;TITLES Taken generally, the New Zealand amateur rowing chariipiohship .regatta, held at Wellington last Saturday, may be regarded as a great success. There was one hitch, and that was the condition of the water during the greater part of the afternoon. Althbugh there was a slight bieeze blowing from the south on Saturday morning, rowing officials were apprehensive of a. northerly springing up and spoiling the water on the Oriental. Bay course.' A,decision had to be made, and that; decision was to row the races over the Korokoro 'course, which is good; even when there, is a stiff northerly wind blowing. Unfortunately, however, the. breeze, instead of changing, freshened from the south arid made the course somewhat difficult; .'" ./;'; ;." ''•' '■'.'. ■ '" ■ ■'•:;

The principal race of the day,' the New Zealand Championship Fours, drew nine starters, Hut the "condition of the water was not conducive to good racing. Aramoho, last year's winner of the championship, entered a crew, but only one member of,this,,.F. Jones, was a member of. last year's victorious crpw. The other starters ; were Clifton, Picton, Hamilton, Star, ; Blenheim, Pet;one, Union, and' Wanganui. The choppy water suited Picton' admirably,' and the crew withstood a. strong challenge from " Aramoho.t6 , will by'three lengths. .".,',,■„ The pfews got awgy to a good" start, and after the'first 50 yards Picton, rowing 34 to the minute, led Aramoho and CliftbnY The slightly choppy water played right into Picton's hands. Star was preserving, balance and* precision in. second place, slightly. in front of Blenheim . and Clifton. At j'ust under the half-mile Hamilton stopped, and Picton still led the way from Star, Blenheim, Clifton, and Wanganui'. At the half-mile. Picton led by three lengths from Star and Blenheim, showing excellent style in difficult water. Star, Bleriheim', and Uniori .werie, all rowing welL."" Clifton dropped/back, almost joining.' Wanganui;. Petoney and Hamilton,, who were'~well in the rear. At the mile Picton; was rowing; 32 to : the minute ,in the" lead, arid ; Star r kept 5 a steady 34 in second place." Witb one mile and a-half gone Picton was leading from Star by three lengths, with Aramoho another length away third. The rest of. the crews were strung out. Picton at this stage seemed to have the race well in hand, but there was a good race for second place between Star and Aramoho. Aramoho, however, moved."up into : second place, and_ Blenheim made up leeway to. get into fourth place. A quarter of a mile, from home Picton led Aramoho by a .length 'and a-quarter, Aramoho having .come up very fast ..oyer the. last halfmile. "A great battle ensued between the. two leading crews, but'the J Picton -stroke' turned bri;'a strong finishing burst, and .Arariioho'faded slightly. Picton won bythree lengths. Blenheim came up fast into third place; and Star dropped out. The Championship Pairs were started a few moments after the . Single Sculls, and although the standard of oarsmanship in this race, was particularly high it came rather as an anti-climax to the.previous race. The winners, Sandos and Flynn, took the lead early in the race, and were not seriously troubled 'at any stage. They won by three lengths from Cooke and Mullins (Star),! with Vallis and Styles (Otago) third. This 'championship' w'as "first rowed in 1887-88, the first champions being the Canterbury Rowing Club., "Since then the following -clubs have won the chainpibn-. ship on the number of occasions indi-catedr-iUnioil (TO),'Picton (5), Rlenr ; heim (4), Hamilton. (4);- Wellington" (3), Queen's Drive (3), Lyttel'tbri (2); Kawatiri (2), Canterbury (2), Otago (2), Port Chalmers (1), Star (1), Waftemata (1), Auckland (1). Wairau (1), and Arampho OTAGO EIGHT FOR BLUFF '•: At -the invitation of the Southland Association, an Otago eight-oar crew will travel to Bluff on Saturday morning to row against a Southland-eight. A gala day -will be held ,at Bluff ton Saturday, when jthere.-will -be--lari; attractive" pro-gramme-Jprovided-for the-public, the.star eigKt-oar event. The Otago selectors (Messrs E. V..:Fairbairri, W:. J. .Wilson and T. F. Mackie) met at Port Chalmers : on Monday afternoon and selected the ' following ; R. Mitchell (stroke), J; Solomon (7), A. Hogan-(«).-P.; Verngreen (5),.W. Binnie (4), R. Thorn (3). C. Neilson (2), and. W. Henry (bow), and R. Underwood (coxswain). The crew will practise-at Port Chalmers this-evening, and will leave on Saturday morning for. Bluff, returning to the city on Sunday -night.: '..- ; ~ r , . . T "POPULARITY OF EIGHTS Further eviderice of- the : increasing popularity of eight-oar. racing was proY' de d,on February 15, at Auckland, when the West. End . Club held trial. eights for trophies presented by. Messrs L. G. Herdman and D. Stotter. Entries sufficient to have boated four full crews were received, but two crews only were drawn. An Auckland exchange states that it is doubtful whether any other club event held so far this year has aroused so much interest. .The crew stroked by E. .A. Craies gained; an advantage when the stroke,and No.. 2. of the other crew lost, their- slides. .Craies drew away to win nicely by two.lengths and a-half. The stroke of the other crew made .a great effort to,make up the: leeway, but the .mishap to the seats cost him the decision. EXCELLENT ROWING FACILITIES The excellent facilities offered for rowing pn the ' Wanganui River i were mentioned by a visitor to Wanganui recently (savs the Chronicle). He expressed the opinion that the Wanganui River was the finest, river in the Dominion for sport. Rowing appeared to him to be a popular sport -m the city, and, judsins by some of the crews he had seen, in action, the clubs were producing first>class. men. Many centres which did not possess any .facilities for this -great, sport must env'v Wanganui. for its river, while he .was -certain that-those clubs' with .poorer facilities -undoubtedly' coveted - such an •excellent stream. r ;- 1 ST. LEONARDS REGATTA In view of the fact that the rowing events which:- figured on the Burkes-St. -Leonards regatta last Saturday afternoon had again to be_ abandoned owing to rough water, the majority of oarsmen are debating the question whether it is worth •the tinie and labour involved to prepare -themselves and their boats for the fixture m future. The oarsmen have been dogged 'by bad luck at St. Leonards for several ■ years now. On three occasions at least it was : necessary, to postpone the rowing .events on account of, rough, water, and last .year .the races were", abandoned alto?. gether after, a second attempt had been made to'.row them off at a later date. Last Saturday, as usual, boats from the Lower and Upper Harbour club houses were railed to.St. Leonards, but were not unloaded from the trucks. All this involves expense to the clubs, and then there is the time and labour involved in packing the boats and carting them - to the railway. Some of the oarsmen present; on Saturday were heard to remark that the rowing side of the St. Leonards . regatta appeared to be doomed to failure, and that they could have spent the'time wasted in going there much more profitably elsewhere. One cannot blame the oarsmen and the officials for complaining, .but. at the same time thev do "not blariie the regatta committee, which has to hope for the best as far as weather conditions are concerned. Several regatta officials were heard to remark on Saturday that they had seen rowing races lipid under worse conditions, but it must be stated that the water was' 60 rough that the skiffs would have been' swamped immediately had these been launched. While the open stretch of water at St. Leonards undoubtedly provides a suitable course for sailing and power boat racing, it is an unsuitable course" when a fresh wind is blowing. A north-east'or southwest wind* sweeps the full length of tW course, and when such winds are in evidence, the ..water is always rough.. The wind ifa"s fresh to moderate from"the' north-east .on Saturday, a«d sweeping up harbour with the flood tide, made the water very choppy, and the officials had no-other option but to postpone the rowing events to a later date. GENERAL NOTES The Otago clubs, at the request of the selectors, have been'asked -to. submit tlio names of coxswains eligible to steer the

Otago eight in the interprovincial championship race at Wanganui, Up to the present time two nominations have been received—R. Underwood (Port Chalmers) and W. J. Glengarry (North End). The - North Epd Club held a ladies' day at the club house on. February. 15, when a pleasant afternoon was spent by the lady friends of. the club; The club race for the occasion was postponed owing to rough water, and was rowed on the evening of February ]9. . It, was a handicap fours event for the Butterfield Cup. The Tauranga Club's offer of a full crew to represent Auckland in the Interprovincial Eight-oar Championship at Wanganui on Easter Saturday has been accepted. It was agreed to select the crew subject to its personnel being'approved. The Auckland Association has also accepted Wanganui's offer of a boat for the race. The defeat of the Aramoho senior four, present Dominion champions, at the Jury Cup regatta,' rowed on the Wanganui River on February 15, caused a sensa: tion (says the Chronicle). It was understood one or two of the crew: were not. up to forni.as they- were Buffering fi:pm;.tlir> lifter-effects of -influenza. The' Wanganui crew rowed ,exceedingly well' .'.'and. thoroughly, deserved • its win. which''was. extremely popular with the public. Union did not appear to be too happy at anv stage, having to work hard to maintain its position fight throuehout the race. Union was hard on the heels of Wanganui. near, the finish, when two men collapsed., but..tlio Union crew would not have caught Wanganui before the finishing line was reached.