ROWING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19989, 4 November 1927, Page 2

ROWING

CHAMPIONSHIP REGATTA WANGANUI HAS FIXTUBE. NEW SOUTH WALES “EIGHT” INVITED. Messrs E. S. Innes an/i D. R. Menzits were the Auckland delegates to the annual meeting of the New Zealand Rowing Association, and they put up a worthy fight for the allocation to Auckland of the first inter-provincial eights, for which the trophy will be the Hally-burton-John stone Cup. The championship for the coming season was awarded to Wanganui, but a motion to centralise championships permanently among the Picton, Petone and Wanganui courses was decisively rejected. Major Lomax, the keen Wanganui sportsman, was elected president, and Air H. Ayres, the selector of the last New Zealand eight, a vice-president. In the course of the proceedings it was mentioned that Auckland and Wellington University Colleges would probably meet in an eight-oar race at Wellington toward the end of the season. For the championship regatta a New South Wales eight and sculler

are to be invited over, the association defraying all expenses, while the visitors are in the Dominion.

RETURN OF OARSMEN NORTHERN’ ROWERS’ SUCCESS i BACK FROM HENLEY-ON-YARRA • Bronzed and looking very fit, the I members of the Waitemata Bowing Club’s team that went to the Henley-on-Yarra regatta, Melbourne, and won the Stewards’ Cup, returned to Auckland by the Uliraaroa on Tuesday, accompanied by Mr A. M. McKay, manager, W. A. Stevenson, the sculling champion of New Zealand, and Mr W. Logan, th© latter’s coach. The crew had very little difficulty in upholding New Zealand’s rowing tradition by winning both its heat and the 1 final in the race for the Stewards’ Cup. j Stroked by T. Johnson, who was a ' member of the last New Zealand eight, I it shot out from the fields after about ; a third of the course had been covered, j and went on to win in a paddle. i Stevenson, the sculler, appears to ' have cruel luck, and not half the story . of his race was told in the somewhat ; terse accounts that were cabled over. : lu the first heat the Aucklander beat : by live lengths A. Cambridge, a sculler i of acknowledged skill, and in the final he was matched with H. B. Pearoe, the I crack New South Wtrisnman, and an- . other fine sculler in J. A. Goulding. j Stevenson’s bad luck began wncn he drew the south bank, where there is | dead water. Pearce, on the other hand, was in the lively current following the ! north bank, while Goulding was in me middle of the stream, end right at the start began to bore over on to Stevenson. pGoulding Capsizes. The interference was such that at times their blades touched. In a great finish for second place Goulding just beat Stevenson across the line. Even as they crossed the line he again fouled i the New Zealander and fell out of his I boat in the process. Subsequently he j was disqualified for fouling Stevenson, ; vho was awarded second place. Pearce meanwhile, had gone on to win by five lengths. Stevenson, contrary to the impression that existed here, was not invited to , compete in the Olympic test the following Monday, and thus had no other op- ! portunity to meet Pearce. While conceding that Pearce is a very fine sculler —he is only 22 and weighs 14 stone —the other Waitemata men said Stevenson would have made a much better race of it had he not suffered interference.

Mr Logan, Stevenson's coach, said his charge had had bad luck, and he was satisfied that a race on even terms would have been a “ding-uong go” between the Aucklander and Pearce.

“They are 1 rowing-mad’ in Melbourne,” said L. E. Brooker, number* three in the Waitemata boat, “but the standard of rowing is only fair.” Cr«w Returns Intact. There were 100,000 people gathered on the banks of the Yarra on the evening of the regatta. The Yarra allowed a good course for two crews, but not for three, as there were too many bends. Throughout the Waitemata team’s visit the Australians showed the greatest interest in their movements. It had Wen feared that N. Doubleday, a member of the erevr, might decide to remain in Australia, but the party returned intact, as follows: —A. M. McKay (manager), W. Logan (coach), T. Johnson, L. Brooker, N. Doubleday, D. M. Smith, W. A. Stevenson.—Auckland Sun.