SCULLING CHAMPIONSHIP OF AMERICA

Lyell Times and Central Buller Gazette, Volume VI, Issue 255, 9 January 1886, Page 4

SCULLING CHAMPIONSHIP OF AMERICA

Ihe race between Teemer and 1 {anlan for I lie milling championship of America and £2(ii) was towed on Ihe Hudson river on October 2Alb. The Spirit ot the Tunes r< marks:

In this nice a united effort was made by the gambling crowd to corrupt the M'K< esport'sculler and secure the race lor llanlan T. einrr's qucstiouab e practices in the paisl justified theui in believing he would be a willing tool it tho price whs placed high enough. To his credit lie it s.ii'l, he uj"eted all such advances, aud, confident ot his ability to out row the champion, insisted on ui.ning the race On fcaturday Uanlan was in splendid condi.ioo, and never sculled better than for the fir st thr< e quarters ot a mile, the race for that distance being a desperate struggle, and the pace wonderfully fast. But though llanlan ran his stroke up to 38, Teemer, pulling a steadj 82, staid by him, r.nd, at the half-mile, the strong current and the repeated spurts told on the Canadian, and Teemer drew away at every stroke At the mile the race was virtually ended, llanlan's conduct in upsetting at the stake, and ho did it clumsily, is contemned by everyone. Those fami iar with his career will recall the fact that he has done this same thing before, as he seems determined never to finish a race he cannot win. Hanlan, w heu he upset, showed signs of great fatigue, and would have been beaten by twenty lengths had he rowed h;me Teemer's time to the stake against the strong current caused by a four-foot freshet in the riv< r, was very fast, and, in my judgment, he would, if pressed, have covered the three miles in 19mm 50sec. He is the ablest sculier I have ever seen row, ard if he could only lear the lesson that in professional boating, as in other matters " honesty is the best policy," he has a great career before him. At least 40,000 dollars changed hands on the race.

The same paper in an editorial note pays :—The Pittsburgh Leader sent a Special Commissioner to the Hanlan« Teemer race, and in his report he recounts an interview with Teenier, in which the champion distinctly charges that Hanlan personally asked apd coaxed and entreated him to throw this race, aud offered in return to make a match next spring, and allow Teemer to win. This is not a fatherless fable, floating around the newspaper world, but a deliberate statement made by well known parties John Teemer and the proprietor of the Pittsburgh Leader are men whom the law can find and punish. If their story is true, the less said the better; if fa'se, Hanlan will, of course, speedily sue them for libel. * * * * * The closest and most intelligent students of rowing have always maintained that Edward Hanlau, although possessing a wonderful turn of speed, was tot a thoroughly gamo oarsman ; that he won his races by pushing It's opponents beyond their on the firsi mile, and thus breaking them down, so that he could find needed breathing time for himseh, and that any man who could bold hitii and head him in the first half of a race could beat him easily. It is an open secret that in one of his races on the Thames he would have " cracked'' if bis Australian opponent had lasted twenty strokes longer, and in bis two races with Beach on the Farramaita he seemed to lose heart as soon as he found that he had met a sculler who would not be left behind. His latest race still more clearly proves his lack of heart. He made his usunl rush, was met with the same tactics, put on more steam, but could not head his opponent, and at three quarters of a mile—just one quarter of the race dropped in behind Teemer, thoroughly cowed and hopelessly beaten.