WITH the OARSMEN

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 70, 14 June 1927, Page 12

WITH the OARSMEN

BY

“RIGGER”

Bleak Weather Weather conditions on the harbour during the week-end could hardly be classed as attractive.* Passing hailsliowers and bleak, cold winds were the order of the day, and the water was very rough, except in the most sheltered spots. In spite of the weather there were good musters at most of the sheds. Although discussion of football Was a more popular occupation than going out, there were quite a few crews on the water, especially from the Waitemata and Auckland Club sheds. It says much for the keenness of the crews and for the interest that the sport hold§ when so many are prepared to venture out on such days. Waitemata Crew for Melbourne? Nothing has yet been decided with regard to the proposed visit of the Waitemata Club’s senior four to Melbourne. There seems little doubt that Stevenson, the club’s champion sculler, will go, and he will probably be accompanied by his coach, Mr. W. Logan, who has put him into such good form for the last two championships. The four, which consists of Johnson, Brooker. Doubleday and D. Smith, has been training fairly consistently and does not seem to have gone back on the form it showed at last year's championship, when it had such' hard luck in being just defeated, on the post. * * * The invitation of the New Zealand champion four to Melbourne for toe Henley-on-Yarra regatta has become more or less an established -custom. The regatta ranks with the Melbourne Cup as the leading sporting event of the Federal capital, and is always held about the last Saturday in October. Entries are attracted from ail parts of Australia. Although the races do not carry championship titles with them the medals presented by the Henley regatta authorities to winning crews are the most highly prized trophies among Australian oarsmen. The course at Melbourne is only a mile long, which seems somewhat strange to oarsmen used to New Zetiland conditions, where two miles is the standard for senior races. It has the additional defect of having two slight curves, making the course somewhat S-shaped, but every precaution is taken by buoying and separating the courses to see that the crews have an even distance to travel. Although several crews can race at a time it is always necessary to row off races in heats. As many as 30 and 40 eights are entered in some of the class events and the various heats are sent off at few minute intervals. It is little wonder that the winning of a Henley race is considered so great an honour.

New Zealand Crews at Henley Tremendous crowds always attend the Henley. The course is lined by high banks which form an ideal

natural grandstand. The only other regattas in Australia that compare with Henley for popularity are the Great Public School regattas at both Melbourne and Sydney, which are seen by crowds of about eighty to one hundred thousand. In consequence, the Henley Regatta Committee is a very opulent body. The first New Zealand crew to visit the Melbourne Henley was the Hamilton four which won the New Zealand championship in 1925—Sandos, Bayley, G. St. Clair and Curtis. The crew won its way through the heats, but was defeated in the semifinal by a very narrow margin by the crew that subsequently won the final somewhat easily. Since then the Hamilton star has waned, and, although the crew was a close second at the Dunedin championship regatta, it failed signally at the Picton clash this year. In 1926 the Otago Club’s four won the championship,® and it in turn was asked to compete at Henley and was represented by Brough, Werges, McAra and Anderson, and accompanied by its coach. Mr. Wheelwright. This crew met with signal success and won the final of the fours comfortably by several lengths. Brough and Werges also competed in the pairs, with, however, little success. This season Auckland has the honuor of its own crew being invited. 'J he \\ aitemata four should do everv bit as well as Otago. They are practically as good over the two miles and over a mile course are probably two or three lengths better than Otago. It remains to be seen if the crew can extend Australia’s best. The financial side of the trip is going to cause some thinking. In previous years the Henley committee has made a grant of £IOO towards the expenses and the New Zealand Association has helped. This year, however, with a crew of four, a sculler and a manager, this amount will not be nearly suflicient, especially as the crew will probably have to travel via Sydney. The only previous New Zealand t 0 VlSlt Aust ralia were in the 1907-8 s-eason, when an invitation was extended to a crew to compete in the race for the four-oared championship \ an • annual event in "T '*?« champion club fours from each State compete. In that year VVanganui Union four won the X"\v Zealand championship, narrowly defeating a Blenheim crew. It was deCided to send the Wanganui four, but public opinion in the Marlborough capital was solid behind its representatives, and enough money was subscribed there to send it also The consequence was that both Wanganui union and Blenheim competed in the Australian race, which was held a t Hobart. The result of that rac*» was somewhat flattering to the New Zea-landers-—the Wanganui Union crew won, with Blenheim close up, second,

and three or four lengths ahead of the Australian crews. Among the New Zealanders during the visit w ns the veteran “Wally" Sharp, who still runs the Wanganui Union Club.

Poppets and Swivels The controversy between poppet*

and swivels is still a topic of discussion in rowing circles. Each oarsman* and for that matter each club, seems to have pretty definite opinions on the matter. On the harbour Waitemata and St. George’s have gone wholly to poppets, while West is in a transition stage. On the other hand the North Shore and Auckland Clubs stick strongly to swivels, “ significant that the clinker eign , which the Auckland Club imported few' seasons back, came poppet-ri££? ’ but the riggers were almost imrneoately sent back and altered to swive---During the same season, however. t * Waitemata Club landed a- new ra ing clinker four for which two sets riggers were imported—a set of pets and a set of swivels. The swt ... have never been used and are ® hanging on the wall where they - first placed. Apparently the v'. rt mata Club members have a dis preference for poppets.