Gathering Laurels

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 121, 12 August 1927, Page 10

Gathering Laurels

Darcy Hadfield’s Career Champion From the Waitemata Sculling Crown in Ten Years

By

J. G. McLEAN, for THE SUN

EARLY ill the summer of 1911-12 a young Waitemata oarsman decided to devote part of his future attention to sculling, and he purchased a skiff for £B. In a year he was beating the best scullers in New Zealand, and ten years later lie won the professional championship of the world.

HPHAT man was Darcy Hadfteld. Retired now from competition sculling-, he lives at Richardson Road, Edendale, and the interior of his home glows with silverware amassed during his successful sculling years. Trophies come the way, at some time or other, of every man who engages seriously in competitive sport, but few accumulate such a collection as Darcy Harfleld possesses. They are prized less for their intrinsic value than for the stirring memories they recall. There are cups won for rowing, and cups for sculling. Dominating the glittering array is the massive Kingswood cup, a Henley (England) trophy. And in a drawer below is a souvenir equally interesting, the shell of the cartridge w'hich started the competitors in a historic race. OARSMAN AND SCULLER Hadfield was a versatile waterman. He pulled a powerful sweep, almost as effective as those flashing, skimming sculls of his, which crowds on the Thames, the Waikato, the Seine and the Wanganui have beheld; and admired. Some strain in Hadfield's composition must have guided him, from infancy, toward boats and water. Born at Awarua, near Nelson, on December

3, 1889, he spent his boyhood la that sunny corner of Maoriland. The clumsy flat-boats that were his first craft were a crude prelude to the dainty skiffs of later days. Never, while at Nelson, did Hadfield contemplate rowing as a serious engagement; but the urge must have been there, all the same. At 13 he became a farmer’s boy. The healthy farm life strengthened his frame, and endowed him with profound reserves of vigour. In the thought of a future world’s champio'n hoeing the Nelson fields, or driving cows along a shadow-latticed lane, there seems much of absurdity. But it is from such obscurity that champions rise. Jonh Masefield, in that fascinating story, “The Path r.f the King,” ventures the theory that the fount of ail greatness is a spring long hidden in ancestry. So he traces the spiritual right of Abraham Lincoln from a forebear of princely blood. Qualities developed in forgotten generations may in the same way have given the world the athletic champions of to-day. Ihden’s tennis genius may have been implanted in his family by antecedents who could bowl over their forest quarry with truly-flung stones. URGE TO THE WATER In Hadfield’s case there must have been some innate urge toward the water. Though reared in the rural atmosphere of Nelson, he ultimately applied himself to boat-building as a trade, and in 1910 joined the staff of Charles Bailey, at Auckland. Within a few months his aquatic aspirations found expression. A casual remark to a workmate resulted in his joining the Waitemata Boating Club. A sturdv frame, and a natural aptitude for rowing, raised him to regatta honours in his first year. O. Wolfgramm, D. Pugh, D. C. Hadfield and O. Anderson were members of a crew which won the Dewar shield in 1910-11 season. Hadfield’s career as a champion had begun. __ . , In the following season Hadfield turned his attention to double-sculling. First with “Slug” Endean (later killed in action), and next with Pugh, he competed in double-sculling events, without meeting with conspicuous success. As a single-sculler, however, be was attracting attention, and in a race for the Myers Cup, a Waitemata Club trophv, he conceded long starts to W. Madden and E. Merson, beating them both. , ... Although it was partly responsible for the development of the finest sculler the shed has produced, the Myers Cup has not lately been contested, a singular oversight on the part of the Waitemata club. SKIFF BOUGHT FOR £ls Hadfield was now 23. He had tackled sculling relatively late in life, principally through the lack of earlier opportunity, but he had started so well that discerning critics were beginning to realise his possibilities, and applauded his enterprise when next season he purchased from Mr. Cliff Rs.y a secondhand sculler which cost him £B. That season (1912-13) he competed in a handicap at the first regatta ever held at Russell. On the back mark was C. E. Stone, of St. George’s, who had been champion of New Zealand for three seasons. Hadfield had 17 seconds off Stone., and 7 seconds off F. Reynolds. He defeated both, and repeated the performance at Whangarei, where Reynolds was conceding him only two seconds.

He now had his eyes on the championship, but suffered a setback when he collided with floating timber while practising on the Waitemata, his ruined skiff foundering beneath him as he endeavoured to paddle home. Another boat had to be found, and members Q f the Waitemata »ned interested themselves in their * Plight. Herbert Harper, of Shore, had a boat for sale for «f tiXfiol* through the generosity Kk v- t str Ar , thur Myers that the eventually able to purchase

it. Subsequently Hadfield went to Petone, beat Stone and Archie Sharpe (who was also full of promise at the time), and collected the New Zealand championship within four months of first stepping into a best and best shell. Cracked and useless, the boat in which he achieved the historic feat is still preserved at the Waitemata shed. Some time ago it was suspended over the entrance to a local picture theatre, while a feature rowing film was on show within. Not only is it notable because of Hadfield’s later eminence, but also because its purchase was facilitated by the beneficence of another fine sportsman. Sir Arthur Myers was one of the most loyal pillars Auckland rowing has had. SCULLERS GO TO WAR In the 1913-14 championships, rowed at Mercer, Hadfield agaip. won the singles title, with A. Sharpe second. The following season, at Picton, another Sharpe, Harold, was in the field. Hadfield beat them both, but by this time the clarion voices of war-trum-pets were sounding across the world, and before the next championships all three scullers had answered the call. Archie Sharpe came through unscathed, but Harold suffered a crip-

pling leg-wound, so that his calf required a spring support. Under the circumstances his later rowing feats, in New Zealand after the war, were marvellous. Hadfield was wounded at Passchendaele, invalided to Hornchurch, and on his return to the front contracted bronchitis, which sent him back to England. It was now 1918, and the military authorities were full of the realisation that sport was grand for war-wearied soldiers, so C. Healey and W. Coombes, two former Wanganui oarsmen, were encouraged when they endeavoured to promote rowing among the New Zealanders. Actually the first of the service races was rowed at Hammersmith on June 22, 1918, when an eight stroked by C. A. Callaghan, of South Africa, beat an eight stroked by T. Marshall, now of the Waitemata Club, Auckland. HADFIELD TO THE FORE Healey, Hadfield and company did not show up until later. On August 10, however, Hadfield won the single sculls at Hammersmith, beating Lieutenant Priddle, of the Royal Air Force, and he rowed bow in a crew that won the senior fours. On August 31 he was No. 5 in the winning inter-colonial eight, and on September 21, at Reading, the same crew won the service eights, while Hadfield won the service sculls with ease. Hadfield was so strong an oar that the following year, when the service sports were in full swing, he was transferred to number 7 seat. The New Zealanders won a procession of races and Hadfield shovyed himself to be the best sculler in sight. He won the senior sculls at the Marlow Regatta, where his victims included J. P. Muller, a Dane, and Major P. Withington, a burly American. J. Beresford, now regarded as the world’s finest amateur, won'the junior sculls the same day. Hadfield won again at Walton, and the stage was now set for triumphs at Henley. The historic regatta had been suspended during the war, and it was reopened as a service event, though the cherished Henley Trophies were withheld from competition, presumably because aloof and conservative Eng- ,

land suspected the amateur status of some of her guests. Instead of the Diamond sculls the singles trophy was the Kingswood Cup, a very handsome trophy, to be won outright. Hadfield won it, and it is now a glittering centrepiece on his sideboard at Edendale. T. M. Nussey, his victim in the final, was an ex-Etonian, who had been practising with the Army of Occupation on the Rhine, and W. D. Kinnear, another whom Hadfield eliminated, was the pre-war Olympic champion. He could make no impression on the New Zealander. llow far Hadfield was ahead of the other competitors may be judged from his times, lie won ttfe final Li S min.

40 sec. In the other heat the average time of the the winners was about one minute more. Next Hadfield crossed to Paris, beating formidable opposition in the sculling events at the big sports meeting arranged by the Americans in France. Second to Hadfield was the sporting American, Major Paul Withington, and third place was filled by Girans, a Frenchman. A certificate signed personally by General Pershing was among the rewards for Hadfield's success. In the early heats A. Felton, later to be the world’s champion, was opposed to Hadfield, but he hit a buoy and sank his boat, though even then the Aucklander was well ahead of him. He was now at the height of his skill, and on his return to New Zealand, when he again settled in Auckland, he won the champion sculls in the 1919-20 season, and stroked the champion doubles crew, with D. Smith in the bow. In 1921 he was sent to Antwerp with the New Zealand Olympic team, but was beaten by the American, Kelly. Though going well in the early stages, he collapsed near the end of the race. It was an instance of the stupid folly of sending a man across the world without giving him time to get acclimatised. The races were rowed near Brussels and Hadfield stayed at a hotel in that city. He had to train himself, and was without congenial company. The Leander eight was staying at the same hotel, but the Englishmen kept to themselves, and Hadfield’s only companion was the sporting young Thames sculler, Jack Beresford.

With only six days training the New Zealander did well to reach the semifinals, and what fitness he attained was due only to shipboard training practised perseveringly with a sculling machine. WORLD’S CHAMPION Back in New Zealand, Hadfield was drawn over to professionalism by the chance of a race against R. Arnst, who had inherited the championship from E. Barry. On the Wanganui River, at New Year, 1922, Hadfield defeated Arnst with ease, but he lost the title the following Easter, when J. Paddon (N.S.W.) proved a better man. Hadfield made one unsuccessful effort to recover the title, and subsequently won a handicap on the Parramatta. beating, among others, the present champion, Goodsell. He has now retired from racing, but still enjoys an occasional paddle on the Waitemata. Plying his trade as a carpenter in Auckland, he has a blue and gold ribbon to remind him of his world’s championship days, and precious relics of the post-war years in England and France.

One of them is a “split-second” gold stop-watch, the personal gift of Marshall Joffre, who was impressed by the New Zealander’s performance on the Seine. Another is a quaint cup given by J. Beresford, senior, as a prize for one of the Thames regattas. Old seventeenth century pennies are moulded into the silver, and at the base a glass chamber holds three dice, for luck. A CHAMPION’S REFLECTIONS Then there is the cup for the interAllied race, a silver urn bearing a crest

in coloured enamel, as well as the graceful bronze medallions presented at the Olympic Games. At 37 Hadfield is not a spent force in sculling. His sturdy form looks as powerful as ever; but for the time he prefers to indulge in reflections. “The best scullers I have ever met? Goodsell is one of them. He is a real champion. But for style the best sculler I know is J. Beresford, a worthy champion, and a sportsman all the way.’’