THE CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE THAMES.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 1074, 6 December 1877, Page 3

THE CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE THAMES.

Tins was the rubber match between E. Boyd and J. Higgins, but only the second time that they have met for the championship honors. They were first matched in June, 187 b (Sadler then being champion), and Higgins won easily. Boyd beat Sadler in a match this time last year, not for the championship. Last May Boyd and Higgins rowed a championship match in a gale of wind. The Thames man could not move in the surf, and Boyd won easily. At the time we asserted that it was not Higgins’s true form, and ascribed his failure to his want of judgment in placing his rowlocks at a smooth water elevation for such a stormy day; he then simply backed water against every wave he met. Since that date these two men have met over a shorter course in a sculling race at the Thames regatta. The day was smooth, and Boyd untrained. T. Blackman beat them both; but Boyd came in behind Higgins. This inspired the Thames party with hope, and they matched Higgins once more against Boyd. " The Thames man is grizzled, and some years on the shady side of thirty. Boyd is but twenty-three, and the more powerful man of the two, scaling list, to Higgins’s KM. fSlb. The day was unpropitious for the Thames man. A stiff wind blew from the north-east; the water was lumpy in Putney Ecach, and decidedly rough between Craven and Hammersmith. Above that the wind was with the tide. The rough water, and reminiscences of Higgins’s former fiasco in the surf, caused the Tyne man to be a strong favorite at the start; o to I was in some places laid on him, even after Higgins had won the toss and had taken the Middlesex (the more sheltered) side. It served him well, for he had the best of the water for the first mile and more. Mr J. Ireland was umpire, and wisely obtained a lift in Mr Lord’s Conservancy yacht; for the tide was too high for steamers to squeeze under Hammersmith Bridge. For two miles and a quarter it was a very hard fought race. Boyd, though in the rougher water, forced the pace, sculling the faster stroke, and held a lead of half a length, more or less, for a mile, but could not get away farther. Each man kept as close as he could to the Middlesex shore, preferring shelter to stream. Off the bight by Eose Bank both of them came more into mid-stream to save the linear distance; but, though Higgins by so doing lost some of his relative advantage of shelter, he still held Boyd, and off the Crab Tree passed him and led by a few feet. Both men were here much bothered by surf, but Higgins’s performance in the waves was a strong contrast to his helplessness in rough water in May last. He had this time got his “ work ” laid out higher and could clear the waves fairly. Off the Soap Works Boyd got into smoother water under the tow-path, and closed up. Then he went by, and, taking the inside, only led Higgins (who shot the centre of Hammersmith) by a few feet at the bridge in lOmin. 35sec. Still the Tyne man wont away with the inside of the bend, and led half-a-length at the Doves. The rough water was now passed, the wind aft, and the pace from this point was very fast, when we consider that the tide hud much passed its best before the start. Higgins held Boyd up to the Lead Hills, and then slowly drew upon him. In the middle of Chiswick Eyot they were level, and rowed scull and scull for a minute ; then biro Tyne man, who had been fast tiring and was doubling over his sculls, gave way, and fell slowly astern. At Chiswick Church Higgins led palpably; in the middle of Horse

Reach ho had a length daylight, and at Barnes Bridge lie was three lengths clear. The race "'as practically over, and he won at the finish it Mortlake, with something in hand, by four lengths, in 2-lmin. Bscc. The time, under circumstances of weather, was decidedly fast. Higgins certainly had luck in his station ; even between two scullers both equally skilled in rough water the position would have been a gain of a good two or three lengths for the first mile and a quarter ; and with a sculler like Higgins, whose forte is in smooth water, the outside station would, we think, have been fatal to Ins chance. At the same time, the performance and style of both seem dearly to show that on a smooth day the Thames man is the heller of the two. it is not often that we sec such a rough day, though, curiously, these last two championship days have been stormy.