AQUATICS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 916, 26 September 1907, Page 10

AQUATICS.

The following paragraph will go to prove that our three-mile course on the Wanganui River is a prize packet compared to Toronto Bay, Canada. Charles Stephenson, the erstwhile crack New Zealand sculler, writing to the “ Sun” from Ottawa, Canada, where he was on a visit, said he had seen Durnan at Toronto, and he was then talking of challenging Webb, or whoever was champion. Stephenson says there would be no money in the way of a gate at Toronto. If the champion went there to row he would have to be content with the 500 dollars expenses offered him, and the chance of winning the stake of £lOOO. Speaking of the rowing course on Toronto Bay, Stephenson says that it is not kept clear like the Parramatta. Rowing boats and launches run alongside of and across the scullers during a race, and everyone can see the race from start to finish. To get a threemile course a course with a turn at the half-distance is rowed, and even then the scullers have to pull in three feet of water at each end of the course, besides having to pull through eel grass like that on the Nepean. Anyone making a match on Toronto Bay,” concludes Stephenson, “ wants to see it, or be advised by someone who thoroughly knows the course. Besides, the big gate-money the professional oarsmen used to get here is. all done away with now.” * * * * From London “ Sportsman” of August 6: —“An Exchange Telegraph Company’s Arklow telegram states that whilst practising for the Channel swim Thomas Myler, who fought through the Spanish-American war, and who hoisted the Stars and Stripes at Santiago de Cuba, was drowned at Courtown on Sunday in 3ft of water.” A Channel aspirant drowned in 3ft of water! The irony of it. Ted Heaton, a Liverpool (England) swimmer, of fine physique, who has essayed the task more than once and will probably tackle it again, failed on August 6 in an attempt to swim the Channel. The water was as smooth as the proverbial mill pond, and in 10 hours Heaton reached a point four and a-half miles from Cape Grisnez, on the French side. * * * * R Arnst has lodged a deposit for a match with W. Webb, of Wanganui, for the sculling championship of the world. Webb has already accepted a challenge from R. Tressider, of New South Wales, and has made a deposit of £lOO, which is in accordance with the conditions which now govern races for the title. The annual general meeting of the West End Rowing Club, Auckland, is set down for Monday, September 30 : inst.

We clip the following from the “Sunday Sun,” Sydney:—“A cable received by Mr. J. M. Sanders, editor of the ‘Sun,’ from Durnan read: — ‘ Webb — England — Canada.” This meant that under an arrangement Durnan’s representative here was to lodge a deposit of £lOO, and that the champion was to be challenged for the championship. Pending a reply to another cable despatched to the Canadian, however, the deposit was not lodged, and the challenge was withheld. From instructions which he received prior to challenging, Durnan thoroughly understood that Charles Towns had been defeated by Webb, and that Tressider had already issued a challenge, so that the next mail from Canada should bring advices to the Canadian’s representative here to challenge the winner. * * * * It is hard to convince some people that Durnan has any backing behind him, and because he ventures to challenge again after being beaten his negotiations for another race are dubbed “ Durnan’s ever-to-be-expected challenge,” and “ the inevitable challenge from Durnan,” and so on. Then questions are asked as to where his deposit of £lOO is if he wants to issue a bona-fide challenge. It will be remembered that he challenged Charles Towns before the last race, and had Towns looked like a winner half-way along the course the Canadian’s money would have been up quickly enough, and Tressider might yet have been waiting a change. Webb’s win, however, altered arrangements, and the challenge could not be made good without Durnan’s sanction. To give the Cadanian his due, whether he be a good or a bad sculler, he talks but little of what he is going to do. But as to the question of backing, he has more money behind him at the present time than any other known professional sculler in the world. When he came out to row George Towns he need not have gone out of Sydney to get his stake and expenses.” * * ♦ * After a swim extending over 15% hours, during which he covered about 40 miles, J. Wolffe, the Glasgow swimmer, had to abandon his cross-Channel swim when he was within an ace of success, Calais being only three-quar-ters of a mile ahead, writes our special correspondent, who accompanied the swim (says London “ Sporting Life” of August 7). A fresh southwest wind was making a broken sea over the shallows during the latter part of the swim, and there was a strong tide, which gave Wolffe a hard battle to fight across. The swim was a splendid effort of endurance, and but for the unfortunate change in the conditions in the last hour it is practically certain that Wolffe would have achieved his object. A feature of the swim was the excellent performance of Miss Lily Smith, a London lady swimmer, who for a spell of three hours and ten minutes accompanied Wolffe, and also swam with him for over an hour at night. This young lady swims exactly the same stroke as Wolffe —the left overarm —and proved herself very speedy. She is the daughter of Superintendent Smith, of the Clerkenwell Fire Brigade. Miss Smith, a powerfully-built girl, is the captain of the Tottenham Ladies’ Swimming Club, of which she holds the half-mile championship, and has won about twenty medals in various open handicaps. Throughout Monday Wolffe swam with wonderful vigour, when, just after seven o’clock at night, he was informed that his friendly rival, Heaton, had given up. At 7.50 a coast light was seen almost dead ahead, which proved to be Grisnez. At a quarter-past ten bearings showed the nearest French land to be 5% miles ahead. Wolffe had been swimming splendidly all the time, and it was just before he had completed twelve hours that he showed the first signs of trouble, anixously inquiring about the distance to be completed. About half-past eleven Wolffe picked up again, and went ahead well. There seemed great hopes of his success, for bearings taken at one o’clock showed the position to be three-quarters of a mile off Calais, in a line with the piers. The tide was then setting westward, however, and drifting Wolffe towards Cape Blancnez, and he was able to make little progress across it. The finish came very suddenly. At two o’clock yesterday morning Wolffe was still swimming well, but eight minutes later he suddenly announced that he could swim no longer, and the accompanying swimmers at once got hold of him and assisted him into the boat. He was much exhausted, but after a rest while the yacht was returning to Dover he recovered almost his normal condition. Mr. Kellingly has kindly

placed the yacht at Mr. Wolffe’s disposal for another attempt, which Wolffe stated he is prepared to make next week, but feared that financial considerations will deter him. Wolffe got so close to Calais that the lamplights in the town were clearly discernible. < * ~ • The following cablegram from London said: “C. M. Daniels, the American champion, swam 150 yards at Liverpool in Im. 33s. —a record.” According to English files Daniels had promised the Liverpool P.O. Swimming Club that on the occasion of his appearance at their gala at Picton-road Baths this month, he would make an attempt on the 100 yards and 220 yards records. Evidently the American, having, as cabled last week, broken the 100yds. world’s best in the race for the championship of England, preferred 150yds. to 220yds.; 150yds. was, a year ago, the end of his tether as far as exceptional speed went. The prior world’s rerord (lm. 34 2-55.) stood to Daniels’ credit —accomplished on June 14 last year—the occasion of his previous visit to the Old Country. « « « ♦ English files publish the following:— Professor Jules Gautier, a wellknown London swimmer, has performed a remarkable feat in the Thames, covering the nine-mile course from Richmond to Putney with arms and legs manacled. Despite his 50 years, he swam the distance in 2hrs 54min. At 5 p.m. his wrists were bound together with manacles of leather and steel, separated by 2in of steel rivets, while his ankles were united in a similar manner. He then dived off a boat moored under Richmond Bridge, while the crowd on the bridge cheered the daring swimmer. Gautier at once adopted the stroke which he used all through his great performance. He kept on his right side, his manacled hands being brought out of the water as in the overhand stroke, and when they descended into the water he brought them down side by side, so that they formed a large scoop. He could not kick in the ordinary way with his legs, so he adopted a motion like that of the screw of a steamer, /which helped him along at a wonderful pace. In fact, all through Gautier progressed at a rate which few unfettered swimmers could * hope to equal. Exactly at four minutes to 8, two hours and 54 minutes from the time he started, Gautier swam through the central arch of Putney Bridge. “I do not feel at all tired,” he told the pressmen who followed him in a boat, “but my eyes have suffered a good deal from the continual splash of the water.”