ROWING.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 728, 29 January 1910, Page 9

ROWING.

.•.•'"•'••" .(Br MEncuni.)]. "-; •■

:.'- : " ; .-K' - FIXTURES.' ; February 21—Australasian . Four-oared "'..Championship (Hobart.). ••■■"■' ~ , ; ■I'ebruury '2G-Christchurch Kegatta.--: '■%' March—Wangaoui Kegatta. •' . ■'.'>';• March.—Hawko's .Bay Eegatta, "■;;.,;. ■'£'■:■■:; : Now' that, tlio New Zealand champion-, ship, regatta 'of 1909-10 is over, brie sees clearly what a peculiarly ill-fated.affair tho venture has been. ,-. Prom-'tho very outset.it seems to have been dogged by' bad luck—postponements,- disagreements,', and other, unpleasantnesses'.have'been' its portion ever since it was handed over to ; . tho Marlborough Association... '"':'• ■ In tho. first .place came the desire; of. the Picton people to hoM.it at Easter time. This was vetoed, by the. New Zealand : A.K. A. on account of the Austral- • asian championships in Hobart next ■month. -Then followed tlie Jackson business, over which the/feeling between'Picton arid Blenheim has'been very bitter. Then the fiasco over the, senior .'events at the preliminary, regatta.on New-Year's Bay, and the muddle over the date upon which- Anniversary Day was to be celebrated, followed in close sequence. , I'ollowing t theso nightmares came -.' tho' postponements on Monday last on account of tho state, of the .water, and the climax was . reached -in . the, most,. unfortunate affair of the chhmpion pairs on' Tuesday. '' As the outstanding '.; feature of the championship contests,'this last: business presents itself, for, discussion first.'; The Press Association, reports have been of: ■the scantiest -as '.regards details, ■ so the account-as given is' the outcome,of statements mado from,returned oarsmen and spectators.. Both-the'local, and "visiting crows are so unanimous.as to what-hap-pened that there can be no doubt that the facts are as stated. '■'■"'. It will. be. (remembered that all championship-- events were 'postponed at' first until Monday evening, and then until. Tuesday morning. This, of course, naturally upset all tho ..'programme arrangements, and matters were further complicated on. Tuesday by more postponements until -oarsmen, were quite in tho dark as to what .'was going to happen next.-How-ever, on a blackboard on tho wharf—the only .notification- : of:.tho kind that the crows Received—there eventually appeared' a notice''to the effect that the champion double sculls were, to bo rowed.at .12 o'clock, and the pairs at 12.30 p.m; v . : - ; ..This in-itself, was ;nn extraordinary-ar-" rangement- as,'.in some cases,- the same men were entered for-both races, and tho .same boats-were.required for-both, after the. double-sculling, riggers .had been re-' moved" and. the- pair-oar riggers fitted. At -12 o'clock the!: double-sculling -crews,' wero -not-ready, and., they were waited for, with the.tfsult'that this event did notstnrt until "12.25 p.m. It thus became impossible for the pair-oared contestants to be at' the post in time.., After.the. double sculls the Picton boat was ( taken direct to the club's shed, where .all■ conveniences' were at hand, the rigging altered, and the'boat taken over, by the;»air-qar crew, and paddled straight out again. The Canterbury and "U'flugaiiui Union boats had not been Used for the previous race, so wero ready," oiid. tho former followed Picton out. ..Union elected, to'wait for Star,' who, besides having to tako their boat from tho finish of. tlm doubie'sculls' round -to the railway sfatiim, and lip into the goods.shed to be rigged, had also, to fit a rudder on, ; always a delicate and exact task.-, Christchurch Union'were debarred; from starting altogether, as tliey. had just raced. ' in the .double sculls. ;. Meanwhile, Picton bad paddled to the post, Canterbury 'reached Mabel Island, and, seeing that tlie other crews wove not on hand)';waited there for.flieiii uutil.a launch 'brought a message from the starter that they were to go to the post. On their, arrival there they, were told that, the race was to be started. Guthrie,'the' Canterbury stroke, objected strenuously to this, as, by this time, the Star and Union crews were on their way out,, but bis protest- was of no avail, and lie was told to back down into line. This he declined to do. Tho starter solved the difficulty by bringing Picton up, and fired his gnu, so perforce Canterbury bad to start, or.be left as tho others wore. Thus, of the seven entrants, only two started. ' , ' There can bo no doubt that the. actionof whatever officials were , responsible was'high-handed in tho extreme, and that gross injustice'was'inflicted on the other crows. On Wanganui Union and Star-"it' was particularly: severe. Both these crew's had beaten Canterbury at AVollington, while the Union pair -.won from. Star by a bare half length, and if was generally supposed .that-the. championship, lay be-, tween these two. indeed, the race be*

tween Picton and Canterbury (in which the latter led into, the final stages, and wore only beaten by a narrow margin) bears out the correctness of this supposition. ■ .. ." , Had not tlio Picton crew been; engaged, the actum of the officials, in excluding' tho outsido crews would not havo been so pointed, though.it.still would havo been reprehensible; As/ the: local crow 'was •directly interested, and, esneciallv as the crews ruleu o nt- represented the .best talent engaged in the raee.theauthorities should havo been doubly, careful. It would novo .boon only; cpnsistent .with their attitudo in oyei-y pneof.the. previous races to. havo.waited and, apart from this, it would havo been far better to have been liable to a charge/ of undue leniencv towards .visitors than .to have dono-what they dul do. They havo thrown a blot on tho: pago- that will disfigure it for years. A protest was lodged,, but if was dismissed and, though there is a talk of tho ma tor being taken further, it, is .doubtful, whether this will bo done. V onsi derable space has; been devoted to this one event, as it.was the general , Uesue of the returning visiting and local '■ n/ : lV len j hnt il shoul(1 r « c< =»'e publicity.' Ut the other events, tlio Champion Fours proved to bo tho.bright'particular,perfor-. mance, and it was tho more pleasing as , uoing the means.of bringing to light a crew of exceptional, merit just when it is j; a . ntc ■)■'' ,W'icn it was. decided to send a New Zealand .crew to Hobart to compete next month', much regret was expressed hy rowing men that there .was no combination of tho quality, of the great: Queen's Drive-or, the., Seymour crews to'do battle lor tnoi)oniinion. On. Tuesday's perfot-Z mance there is-no longer, any need for ■such, regret; Tho Wangariui "Onion crew {% evidently, a: really first-class "one,' arid'' it is much, to bo hoped that the matter of ■ eaye, etc.,, for, tho Tasmaniau - trip / can bo successfully, arranged.. . It, was telegraphed-that-tho-timo' : of the race was llmiu. 52sec; and that this was a record for the :race.. In both points, this is "'wrong. The time Was llmin. 22sec, which, is not 1 a record for .tho.lace,; but; .fbv.ythe . Picton .-course. Several times on river courses this, time has-been beaten, notably at' Mercer lastyear, when tho distance was covered in Bmin. 3scc, and again,'as far. back as 1891, when'Bridson.Rose, and Co. did the two miles at' Wanganui- in lOmin. 17 1-Ssec. .However, as'a .record';'for the Picton course, it stands, beating the previous best—that,of Queen's Drive in 1895 —by 22 seconds. ~/<; • Of the two sculling contests,- the doubles proved an easy, thing for .'the- stalwart "Toby" Anderson arid '.Marshall, of .the Wanganui Club. From tho way iri which they won , this ;,event. herb ,on January 15,;/it., was conceded, that they wevo'" right in the Tunning for championship/honours, and they, appear, to have had as little troubln in annexing the big raco at Picton as they had in Wellington. Marshall, however, appears to.have .sculled below form'.'.in.tlie singles. Right, from the start he.was never.'in it. Stone got away first, follcwcd closely by'Wes-, tray, and the two Alicklandcrs.battled it out untroubled by tho field. Stone is described as a sculler with a clean taking. . style, quite up to championship; standard, while .Westray is a lighter'man with ' a shorter 'arid faster stroke'.',',' '"■ OirMonday everiirig' the: Jackson' business comes up again before tho N.Z.A.R.Ai It.will) bo'remembered that his disqualification bythocouncil'wasto lia ratified, or otherwise,/by; a meeting, of the delegates, to'.theN'.Z.'A.R.A.:'a:nionth after.its: .imposition. Monday's -meeting will take tho : filial' steps.:in the matter,!, arid: as Jackson lias protested emphatically, and. Marlborough feels very strongly over the unfortunate business, an interesting evening should ensue. ■ R. Hegglun, No. 2 in the Blenheim ex-champion-crow, is, in town,: and has informed "Mercury" that the, Blenheim people,arc very pleased with.the way in rwhich Arthur Jackson—the uew/ stroke- of the. crew—lias conducted his championship . campaign; and indeed his performance has.been a'good one. It .will be remembered that after the disqualification of his: namesake,' Jackson x was'asked to take .tho vacant strpke-.seat. This was on January .2, and at tho timejie -had not boon dping -any rowing for, some seasons,;, arid nctually v weighed, over/1G stone." During,-, the • short-three weeks, which he had -for', framing purposes • lie reduced his weight;tb,l4J- stone, arid his performance in hringing'his. crew into/second; place under' tiesa. conditions 'is/'full of .merit,, and/speaks volumes for his determination' 'attd.iOiithuSiasn/U 1 '}' *!;. '■'•''■y:;''^,':~l'\