WITH the OARSMEN

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 492, 23 October 1928, Page 14

WITH the OARSMEN

BY

“RIGGER”

Trials will be held by Waitemata next Saturday, when fours will be rowed for trophies donated by Mr. Bailey and Mr. Lowe. Auckland Club will be well represented at Tauranga on Boxing Day. It has been practically decided to send youths light and heavy, maidens, and junior fours. G. Cleal and W. Eaddy, the club’s scullers who won the Caro Cup last season, are certainties for the cup. The crews will be picked by October 27. * * * Messrs. Mahon, Johnson and Stacey have been appointed the season’s selectors for the Auckland Club. * * * It is hoped that Mr. W. Denison, president of the Waitemata Club, will be present at the sheds next Saturday to declare the season open. West End Club has sold three practice swivel fours to Auckland. Though rather short of regatta boats, the latter club now has one of the best plants on the harbour for club racing. * * * The season will be officially opened at North Shore on November 9. Club members are particularly enthusiastic in view of their successes of last season. The club held a social and dance last evening. * * • St. George has a total membership of 75, two more than West End, which includes in its list, however. 10 Training College students who are admitted free each season. After selling three clinker fours the West End plant consists of: Racing boats, two best and best fours, one best and best pair-oar, two clinker fours, one clinker convertible pair-oar: practice boats, three clinker fours, two clinker convertible pair-oars, three clinker stumps. * • • KING’S WHARF COURSE Mooring buoys considerably interfered with a set of trial fours rowed by Auckland members from King’s Wharf to the Reclamation last Saturday. It is to be hoped that steps will be taken to have these obstructions shifted before next Saturday, as Waitemata will also be staging a race—probably on the short course, which, for obvious reasons, is most favoured at the beginning of the season. * * * NOTES FROM SHORE During the week-end regatta crews from the North Shore Club made frequent appearances on the water. Yesterday the Shore senior four, the first that the club has had for eight or nipe years, was out: Davies was stroke, B. Rutledge 2, W. Dean 3 and Jackson bow. Rutledge was a member of the New Zealand Army eight during the war and the crew should acquit itself well. Davies, of North Shore, who specialised in singles last season, will not be so prominent in that department, as he is stroking the senior four for his club. The club has enrolled 14 new members so fa*this season, and the coaches are busy breaking them in. Arrangements ar«* being made for the purchase of a best-and-best boat for its seniors: two practice fours are on order, due to arrive at any time, and a convertible pair oar is also the way. CHRISTCHURCH TROUBLES Rowing, never stronger in Canterbury than to-day, is meeting with wellnigh insuperable difficulties, at least where Christchurch is concerned. Much as visitors to the cathedral city may admire the Avon for its sylvan beauty, it cannot be denied that it is the most unsatisfactory stream used for racing probably in Australasia. It was expected that a river sweeper and cleaner installed by the Drainage Board w-ould do much to improve the situation, but rumour has it that the cleaning of the river has merely served to let the water away more quickly, thus reducing the depth. To counteract this a weir of cement bags filled with sand has been built at the foot of the mile course. Mr. H. Ayers, one of the Dominion’s foremost rowing authorities c o ndemns the steps taken. “Even if the dam of bags does not interfere with pleasure craft, I am afraid that it will not be a sufficient permanent structure,” he says. “What will happen when the bags start bursting? ould be a foot higher for the course. A per-

manent dam would be the only thins; that would be properly effective Dredge for a mile, leave a two-chain bank, dredge another mile, and so on—that’s my idea. With things as they are at present, the further the dredge goes the lower the water will become. * * * AUCKLAND’S CONSIDERATION Auckland members may well congratulate themselves on the men who control the activities of their club. Xot only does the Executive Committee, headed by that tireless worker, Dick Stacey, capablv manage the affairs of the club, it also keeps members in touch with all that is going on. “Rigger' '* was gratified and not a little surprised when, on visiting the sheds last Saturday, he found all the doings of the executive since the annual meeting set out on the notice board. The season’s programme up to March, 1929, was on view, and so was all other general news. Would that management committees of other city clubs could bring themselves to follow such an excellent example instead of preserving that almost clam-like secrecy that characterises most of them at present. Rowing is a comparatively struggling sport in Auckland, and insufficient care in catering for young members may easily start a club on the down grade. It is not wise to be too conservative. * * * ST. GEORGES’ FINANCE with the sura of £ 62 10s, St. George's topped the list of regatta donations won by city clubs last season. In consequence of this the club is in the happy position of the year’s receipts exceeding the expenditure by £lO2 8s 7d. The club plant has been increased by one best-and-best four, and orders for two single-sculling boats have been placed with Mr. G. Norton, of Wellington. NEW SITES Successful negotiations between St George’s and the Harbour Board have resulted in the club securing a site for the clubhouse near the new waterfront roadway to Orakei, a very suitable position near Hobson Point. The place selected should enable the club to carry on its activities, without further molestation, for a number of years. A nucleus to the fund for the new boathouse has already been established. and Mr. K. Aimer (life member) is preparing plans for the new home. It is confidently hoped that it will he ready to move into at the end of this summer. Auckland Club has tentatively entered into a 14 years’ lease of a site on the Purewa Creek, near St. Georges. Arrangements will not be finalised until advice is received from the Public Works Department that the waterfront Road traffic bridge will be built with 40-foot spans to enable boats to pass beneath it. AUCKLAND’S PROGRAMME Auckland Club’s programme for 1929 is as follows: Jan. 12.—Moses Pair-oar trophies. Jan. 19.—Walker and Hall Pair Oars. Jan. 26.—Fours for A. Kohn’s medals. Feb. 2.—Subscription Fours. Feb. 9.—G. Hogan’s trophies. Feb. 16.—McCormick Pair Oars. Feb. 23.—Club’s “At Home.” Dr. Stuan Reid’s eight-oared inter-club, ca-o Cup double sculls inter-club, trial fours for club members not in £ign i oared crew or sculls. March 2. —Rangiriri Regatta. March 9.—Club Fours. , March 16, 23 and 30. —Spare days, to «• cide any events that weather or ou» circumstances should cause to postponed. The club’s programme ui to January 12 has already been published in The Sun.