WITH the OARSMEN

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 106, 26 July 1927, Page 12

WITH the OARSMEN

BY

“RIGGER” .

HAS ROWING SLIPPED?

Rowing in the off-season does not get much encouragement from the kind of weather lately experienced. At none of the clubs is there a great deal doing, though the Waitemata boathouse continues to attract a good Sunday muster. On Sunday the senior four took the water at full strength, with Johnston, Brooker, Doubleday, and D. Smith all in their places. Stevenson, also, was out, and from the nextdoor shed Stacey stroked an Auckland crew, on which he hopes to build a good set of heavyweights for the coming season. WEST END DOINGS West End has recently concentrated mostly on repairs to plant, which is a wise way of passing such bleak and squally week-ends as the Waitemata has lately suffered. On Thursday the shed will house a pleasant festival when the annual prizenight is held. A good muster of members is expected. The club’s annual meeting will be held in September. West End is at present divided on the poppets v. swivels question, and the matter is likely to be raised by the desirability of a definite policy, one way or the other. At present some of the plant lies idle, because it is swivel-rigged. COLLETT AGAIN T. D. A. Collett, who is expected to be a contestant at Henley-on-the- Yarra (Melbourne) in- October, scored another success the other day, when he added the Wingfield sculls to his string of scalps. With customary reticence the cable-man sent out little about the race, but the field is generally a good one, and this win suggests that Collett retains his form. Jack Beresford, whom England fondly regards as the world’s amateur sculling champion, does not seem to have competed in either the Diamonds or the Wingfields. For the moment he has disappeared from the sculling critic’s ken.

A time-honoured institution in the Waitemata shed is the Roar’s Mug, presented every year to the club’s best “roarer.” Those not clear about what a roarer is should cast an eye over C. E. Fearon, who is the latest recipient of the honour. With a pedigree going back into antiquity—there is a grim suggestion that it was acquired as booty from a tavern bar —the ancient pewter has had a line of illustrious possessors. ROWING AND PUBLICITY Rowing as a sport in New Zealand has slipped considerably from its for-

mer place in the public eye, and the reason is partly lack of publicity. In the earlier days of rowing in Auckland the people took as much interest in their oarsmen as they did in their footballers. The waterfront was the parade of Sunday strollers, who knew each club’s colours, and recognised every crew. Changing conditions have contributed to rowing’s present obscurity. Oarsmen have failed to make up the deficiency by pursuing propaganda and publicity for themselves, and a section of the Press has hitherto been inclined to devote only meagre attention to the sport. ROUND WITH THE HAT Those on whom falls the duty of collecting for regatta funds know, more than others, how much rowing has fallen from its former high estr te. Firms that 20 years ago were eager to contribute are now often unrepresented on the lists of givers. Others yield a few shillings only after much persuasion, then regard their effort as a monumental concession. Even the rowing men of Auckland failed, themselves, to be signally generous when a small contribution-system was recently instituted by the controlling body. H EN LEY-ON-THE-WHAU Henley-on-the-Wliau, having regard to certain associations, seems hardly as good as Henley-on-Thames, or Henley-on-Yarra. But what’s in a name? If Auckland oarsmen get a rowing course free of tidal influences and the inevitable squalls of the Waitemata, they should be so gratified as to go beyond consideration of a name. Courses are a problem for the controllers of rowing on the Waitemata, where so much depends on the weather, and the Whau Canal scheme, nebulous though it is, appears to present the only possibility of a permanent solution of the difficulty. GOODSELL ON TRIAL To meet the English sculler, Barry, at Vancouver on September 5, Major Goodsell will the.i face his first serious trial. So far his chief activities, as champion sculler of the world, have been in coaching at American colleges (of both sexes) with a sprinkling of vaudeville turns thrown in for pinmoney. It is thirty years since Vancouver had a world’s championship, and on this occasion the staging of the race there means that the title continues to be defended in a British country. Sculling is the only sport which Americans or Continentals have not yet managed seriously to invade. Since winning the championship Goodsell has beaten McDevitt, Hannan and Saul —a rather mediocre lot. WAIT EM AT A TROPHIES The Waitemata Club’s trophies made an impressive array at the prize-giving on Saturday night, and a very notable item was the Foreman Cup, a magnificent double-sculling trophy presented by Mr. ID. M. Foreman. The winners, C. E. Fearon and L. Brooker, each received a handsome miniature.

Darcy Had field, looking very fit. E. Madden, W. Madden and O Wol f gra mm, were some of the veterans in attendance. Secretary C. Hunt had done good work in organising, and the affair was altogether a pleasant gathering.