AQUATICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1855, 10 June 1887, Page 26

AQUATICS.

HOW THE UNIVERSITY CKEWS ABE

TBAKfED.

Since the late popular jockey, Fred Archer, succumbed to the severity of the preparations necessary to reduce himself in bodily weight, much has been written and said upon the sub* ject of athletic training and the benefit or otherwise of its effect upon the constitutions of those undergoing it. It was then shown that although we have dropped in a great measure the fallacies and the follies of our immediate ancestors, they yet must prevail amongst those who ride horses, and that men intended by ' nature 'to' turn the scale at 10 or 11 stone must at the will of the jockey club, weigh some 1121b only. The result of such .disclosures .went to induce the public to believe ' that the methods of the tutf were also adopted by those who bid for success in other departments of athletics, and that the qurriculum of the latter was 'as severe as that of the former. That such a notion is erroneous yrould be an easy matter to prove. With the' deaths of the " Birmingham Bull" and 'the "Blackhe'ath Chicken" have also disappeared the underdone beefstakes, the medicinal'course, and the hundred-and-one other atrocities once favoured by those who followed the trainer's art. Men adopt' rational habits of livelihood;' . And They do riot Eat Indigestible Food, nor on ; ,the other hand do' they banish every delicacy from their tables, because a trainer who lived 100 years ago knew > a friend who heard a man say that it was, not good. • 'We will illustrate, our remarks by endeavouring to show what manner of preparation is pursued by, the Oxford and Cambridge crews during, the operation of " getting fit " for their annual four miles' race over the tideway. . . A public interest in the contest is yearly aroused when the oarsmen appear at Putney ; so, do we, hear such .remarks, as, "Poor young men ! what hard work ; how it must try their constitutions ; they certainly will never see 50," and other nonsense that to a practical athlete, is a subject for ridicule. Mr Goldie, the greatest oar that ever donned the Light Blue colours, has sufficiently demonstrated the fallacies in the statistics of those who maintain that " 'Varsity oars "are loved of the gods, and therefore must die young. We, shall content ourselves with pointing out the fact that we believe there are still representatives living of the crews who fought the first battle of the Blues at Henley in the year 1829, and that numbers of clergymen, barristers, and lawyers, who, flourish with all the honours of years, have taken a seat in a racing eight when they studied upon the banks of the Isis or, the Cam. At the same time, we must admit that drily those of the finest physique should at any time undergo so severe a strain as that engendered by a participation in the university boat race. To row four' miles and a-half at a stroke on an average of nearly '4o to the minute is a Herculean task, and one for which the most careful preparation and the soundest constitution is needed. For the former the president of the University Boat Club is responsible, and he takes very good care that none of those chosen by him for a seat in the crew have the slightest weakness of heart or of health. '. As most of our readers know, in the month of December there is held at Oxford and at Cambridge a race called the University Trials. Sixteen men take part in this contest, which is rowed in boats facetiously styled •' tubs." From these 16 an eight is chosen to appear at Putney, and these men practice upon the home waters for some six weeks before The More Strict Training is Enforced. By, common consent the old . tradition which holds that the crews should commence to train upon Ash Wednesday is maintained by • the authorities, and regularly with' the break of Lent pipes are put off with late hours, and all is routine and < regularity. The men no longer breakfast in their own rooms, but . assemble at some hotel and take the matutinal meal under watchful eye of the president. Before they breakfast, however, they have had the cold sponge and some 20 minutes' sharp walk or run. This gives appetite and health, and when the men sit down they rarely spare the food set before them. This is varied, and consists of chops and eggs, light fish, cold meats, marmalade, and one cup of tea. Coffee is not allowed, and cocoa is rarely introduced, though it may be taken if desired. The men are allowed two large cups of tea, but the president likes to see his men take as little fluid as possible; After. breakfast the crew go their own way until lunch, which- repast they take in their own rooms, so long as they are practising upon the home waters. For luncheon a chop without potatoes, or a little cold meat, is prescribed by the unwritten law, whilst one glass of light ale may be taken without much regard to consequences. After this meal comes the real hard work of the day. • Prefaced by some quarter of an hour's praotice in gigs, or more technically styled tubs (small boats to hold a pair of oarsmen, and in the stern of which the coach steers and advises the rowers), the eight is then launched and a row of some eight to 12 miles indulged in. Only those who have rowed under the eye of an exacting coach can appreciate the hard .work in a task like this.

Every stroke taken by the individual oarsman is watched by the man upon the bank, and • the least -..relaxing of. effort, popularly known as " sugaring," visited with , Unkind Satire and Hard Words. The back must be held as stiff as a, poker ; every muscle' strained to put power into .the work; the man in front watched' that the time may be exact, and every little hint as to improvement by the diligent adviser carefully attended to. It is very' natural, then, that the, eight should return from such an expedition thoroughly fagged out,' to welcome the refreshing " shower bath" and the prospect of a hearty dinner. In the earlier stages of the preparation it is at this hour that, the' men suffer terribly from thrist; yet, however great the inconvenience of enforced abstinence from drink, they are strictly required to limit themselves to one pint with the evening meal and a glass of port after.. At dinner the food is plentiful, if plain ; boiled fish, say turbot or soles, joints, and poultry, barring, of course, the forbidden veal and pork, stewed fruits and light puddings, which must not have the slightest suspicion of crustiness about them. ■ It will be seen from this how much the presidents study the common sense rules of life. A man can scarcely be hale and hearty and in his full vigour who consumes half-a-dozen different courses of I well-known indigestible meats and washes them down with varied samples from the cellar. As healrh is the great thing to be studied by those who I c in, a fact appreciated by trainers of to-day, to procure health, and with health bodily strength, is the only object of those who frame a cuidine for the benefit of the university ctews.' ' When dinner, generally partaken of at

the hour of 7, ia over, the men adjourn together to a member's rooms to « ,• ' , ' " Discuss the Day's Improvement or Otherwise. . and also a couple of oranges and one, glass of port wine. They, may then separate and read or 'not, most probably not, as the case may be, until the hour of half -past 10 or a quarter to 11, when they retire to sleep, a sleep that might be envied of Endymion. : . In laying down these laws it must always bo remembered that they, are only a < general sketch, and subject to alteration and revision at the will of the president for the year,. who it entrusted with the sole responsibility of getting his men fit. He is absolute for the time being, and must be implicitly, obeyed by those who have the good fortune to obtain a seat in their 'Varsity eight. It need hardly be said, however, that a case of insubordination has not been known 'within the memory of man; honoris causa is the maxim of every man that sits behind an oar or in any way works for the good of the eight. Be it remembered that a medal of ' small value is .the only recompense in case of success for these long weeks of .hard work, . and, in the case of failure, the well-worn old motto, '• Labour ipsa voluptas." From the time that the crews leave the home waters and come to ' Putney, the, whole of their expenses are borne by the University Boat Club. The president selects a suite of apartments near the river, generally in the row .of houses known as the Cedars, and the men once domiciled there do not again leave until the race is lost' or won. The life they lead there, is very different from that imagined by the outside world. After a few days the excitement of appearing before the crowds that line the river bank wears off, and the evenings spent at cards are apt to become dull and monotonous, and 1 the terrible' hard work of the mornings and the afternoons makes • '• Everyone Sleepy and Anxious for Bed. During these days the crews must, whenever they walk abroad,wear their light or dark blue coats, which are to well appreciated to excite comment or even remark at Putney. Here, too, the river exercise is varied by long runs over Wimbledon Common and elsewhere in the neighbourhood, and the excitement is in a measure maintained by trial spins against scratch crews of the London or Thames Rowing Clubs. On the eventful day the breakfast is an anxious meal, and the young hands may be pardoned if they betray the disturbed state of their minds by the paleness of their faces and the frequency of their wishes " that the opposing crew may loose the toss for stations." Once in the boat a better feeling ensues, and though the heart may beat high as the craft is backed against the wherry, and the umpire asks the momentous question, "Are you ready?" when once the first stroke is over fear and flurry are cast to the winds, and every nerve is strained to get ahead. , Across the waters the cheers come, now faint as you are' in mid-stream, now loud and deafening as you hug the shore. When you make the shoot across you judge your position. If you are ahead then your whole soul rises to the work and you probably increase the lead ; if behind, you put every ounce of power you possess to answer the quickens of your stroke, and to pick them up. Only those who have rowed from Putney to Mortlake know the fearful length of the course as it appears to those who have raced over it. Hammersmith Bridge passed, the reaches to Barnes appear without limit, and the quarter of a mile beyond the bridge seems length without end. j When the race is lost o^won, and the crew are back at Putney, cloths are packed and leave taken, with a universal congratulation at the termination of the [task, and at the conviction that, whether victory had been achieved or defeat sustained, each man had done his duty.