EMPIRE ROWING.

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18159, 25 October 1930, Page 20 (Supplement)

EMPIRE ROWING.

NEW ZEALAND" BEATEN. A THREE-QUARTER LENGTH MARGIN PEARCE’S SUCCESS IN THE SINGLE SCULLS. An interesting account of the great duel between the London Rowing Club’s eight and the New Zealand eight at the Empire Games is contained in a copy of the “The Hamilton Spectator.” While forty thousand people looked down from the heights of Dundurn embankment, Hamilton, Canada, the London Rowing Club's eight scored a brilliant victory by three-quarters of a boat length from the New Zealand crack blade«men, and big Claude Pearce, of Australia, trying his luck for the flrs/i lime in a quarter-mile sprint event, stroked the best single scullers gathered there for the Empire and international events, into subjection. To quote the paper:—• How many were in that vast audience that fringed the heights from start to finish of the course, somebody else will have to guess for you. Nobody knows; nobody can ever approximate. For three-quarters of a mile, cars were lined up on the brink, side by side and in front of them a solid wall of people. The reserved seats weren’t sold out, it is true, but there was a goodly assortment in the enclosure off the finishing line, forenenst Carroll’s Point, i'lie folks came early and they stayed late. They fumed and they fretted when officials of the Canadian Rowing Association, in charge of the events, left a blank in the slot for one hour and fifteen minutes —during which time there wasn’t anything doing, but they stuck it out —and were rewarded.

An Explanation. The first three events on the lengthy programme were rowed off with die snap and precision that one has jome to associate with the British Empire games. The British Empire lights, one of the three-starred feaures of the week —the magnet that lrew most of that vast throng to ! the .waterfront- —was next on the card. ! fhe competing crews, England, New Zealand and Canada, were scheduled to get the starting gun at 6.10. But - they didn’t. And therein lies a story. Here it is: That frigid blow from the northeast put a ripple all over the course | ind in some spots squalls rulfled the | surface —not badly, but enough to i cause concern. The officials ponder- | ed The two outstanding competitors in the event, England and New Zealand, had come long distances for j just this one race. The New Zealand- 1 ers had travelled half-way round the : world. True, there wasn’t a speck of ! white water on the bay, but, admit- i tedly, it could have been better. And , officialdom decided to wait in the hope i that as the sun sank in the west, the course would improve. It didn t and at 7.25, one hour and fifteen minutes after scheduled starting time, the i word was given for the gun. England Wins. i What a race that turned out to be. The Leanders, Hamilton’s own game eight, didn’t figure to have a chance j in that kind of competition and were j quickly eliminated. But down that i measured course of a mile, 550 yards, ] an epic struggle was being waged by | the lion and kiwi bird. England; moved into an almost imperceptible - lead at the quarter pole, but the New Zealanders were not to be shaken off. At the, half, those smooth-stroking' lads from yon side of the Atlantic . had gained maybe two more feet, ’but New Zealand was still in there fighting. And so they sped on to the finishing line; Until they were a_.hun-

dred yards from the end of' the journey, nobody in that vast throng could have picked the winner on anything else but guesswork. Not once was there open water between the shells —and at the finish the English crew was just three-quarters of a length to the good. The time, 6.37, tells the tale of how fast - they were pushing aqua behind them. The Leanders were beaten off by seven lengths, but they had gained a lot of useful experience.

It is good to be a winner in that ldnd of a race—and tough to be the loser. Congratulating the wearers of the rose, one also had to feel bad for the game pebbles from down under. They had figured the race in the bag, had come over with quiet confidence and trained assiduously on the course. But it wasn’t to be, and they were the first to congratulate theic conquerors. On the night’s form, the 'better team won, and yet one hesitates to say that over a series the London Rowing Club would take the measure of the New Zealanders consistently. Pearce Wins Sprint. The races built around this feature were interesting, if not epic. The big crowd got a real thrill seeing Bob Pearce, the Anzac man-mountain, in competition for the first time. And the Olympic champion lived right up to his advance notices. It was

figured that the quarter-mile sprint, a new distance for Pearce, would be 3 race between the Aussie and Joe Wright, Toronto. The others of that classy field, Beresford and Bradley, England, and Gilmore, Philadelphia, tvere expected to battle it out for a fiat was left. Instead, it was Giluore who made a race of it with Pearce, and Wright, quite evidently saving himself for the more importint British Empire sculls slated for Wednesday night, wasn’t in the pic,ure. Pearce nailed the flying pacemaker, Gilmore, 25 or 30 yards from be finishing post, and there it was ,hat something happened. Gilmore, >atently wearied, veered into Pearce's vater, and their blades collided, ’earce went on to finish, an easy vinner, but the Philadelphian stopped culling and Beresford dropped into he second slot. Bradley was third, Vright fourth and Gilmore fifth.