ROWING.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1527, 24 August 1912, Page 12

ROWING.

[Bt "Mehcuby."]

WILL ARNST COME AGAIN? Pearce Challenges. As the cables informed us during the week Harry Peorce, the Australian champion, has issued a formal, challenge to Ernest Barry to row for 'the world's championship and .£SOO aside, and has also posted ,£IOO forfeit to, clinch the matter. Commenting on this the Sydney "Sun," in an article written on the day on which the challengo was issued, says: "Pearc« was fortunate enough this morning to meet two backers who were willing to put up as much as .£3OO between them, and as ho already had over X2OO promised a deposit of .£IOO to bind tho match according to the rules was lodged, and a cable announcing the challenge was dispatched • to .Barry forthwith. .. Pearce stipulates; that the race shall 1)0 rowed on the' Thames in August of next year, and says that he will leave Sydney in April. Hβ is asking Barry for JE2SO ' expenses, and' says lie will take nothing less than .£2OO. The Question of Expenses. This is good news, except that it offectunlly appears to freeze out "Dick" Arnst as a challenge.r in the immodiate future. Tho only hitch that may arise is over the question of expenses. It will bo remembered that the cable messages stated that the champion's intention was not to allow any expenses at all; but this assertion is modified by a fuller message received in Australia, which runs: London, August U. " Ernest Barry, champion sculler, of tho world, in discussing challenges from Arnst, Pearce, and Durnan, sa.vs ho is willing to give them a race this year, but states that any challenge must be direct and accompanied by • a deposit of ,£IOO. Barry is not disposed to.allow any sum for expenses, but sriys that is a mntter for future consideration. To make his position clear he says he is willing to meet any challenger on the Thames for .£SOO a side at tuo end of tho coming September. , Barry will meet Arnst again next spring if the ex-champion desires another race. Tho only intimation of a challenge tho world's champion has had from Durnan, the Canadian, is through the cablegrams appearing in the newspapers. This puts niatters on, a more satisfactory footing regarding tlie expenses question. The future consideration that Barry refers to will, no doubt, show him that if he wants races and purses lip will havo to give reasonable expenses. In any cafe pressure of public opinion will have its duo effect as the days when a sculling champion couM hedge his title round with conditions that would moke it impossible for it to bo competed for are now past. Barry would find his honours very barren indeed if he adopted such an attitude even were he the man to resort to such measures, and all reports go to show that he is not. So it appears that ire must possess our souls in patience for a year for the Australian endeavour to •recover tho lost ashes of the sculling world.

Another View—From Sydney. Some of the Australian, critics do not sharo this opinion, and still hope that Arnst will put in a challenge for this season. Among these optimists "Rigger," of the Sydney "Daily Telegraph," a recognised authority on aquatic matters, ranks hinieelf. He writes: "While fully prepared to dispatch Harry Pearce to England iu tho endeavour to wrest the championship from Barry, thero are still some enthusiasts who have watched Ainst's career and believe that the ex-champion will come again. "Personally, I also incline to this belief. It is hard to conceive how a man who is such a thorough sportsman as Arnst undoubtedly is can throw np tho sponge and retire from the game at tho very .first reverse which comes his way. It must Im remembered that Arnst was in the middle of what promised to be tho most brilliant career ever cv.joye'l by a sculler, and a defeat' which, completely upset all his hopes nnd ambition must have left a very severe sling behind it. The very reticence which Arnst has observed sine? fho race, his attitude and remarks at lh« paying over of tho stake, all go to show that disappointment, and perhaps even disgust, is v«ry much alive within him. Time, however, has proved ii -self the great healer of all griefs, and it is on this element that enthusiasts pin their faith regarding Arnst's return to the sculline world. \ Time and again prominent scullers, who havo been defeated,-have been known to declare that they would never try again for the championship, but iu spite of this have rotnrni'd onco again, after (lie lanso of nbout nine or twelve months. ,lurt at present AniM is suffering from his defeat, but when the soreness of spirit ha.s been healed by Time then will ho gird up his loins'and get into the game again. At least lot. us hopo so.