ROWING DIFFICULTIES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 873, 17 January 1930, Page 7

ROWING DIFFICULTIES

HALF- VEILED, bat at times probably more acute than has been admitted, ill-feeling has existed between the rowing clubs of Auckland City and the strong river club at Hamilton. There have been various reasons for this unfortunate state of affairs. The Hamilton Club, which is one of the strongest in the Dominion, has held the opinion that the Auckland Rowing Association has not given the Waikato Club the consideration to 'vhich it is entitled. The City clubs, of course, race on salt water, while Hamilton rows on the Waikato. This has further complicated the position when crews from the two centres have raced. However, at the last annual meeting of the Auckland Rowing Association, the Hamilton delegate said that he believed the differences to be smoothed over and the clubs all working in unison for the common good of rowing. This is evidently not so, at least as far as two of the City clubs are concerned. Auckland and Waitemata Clubs have both decided to send no crews to the Hamilton Regatta which will be held on January 29, Anniversary Dav. This drastic action follows a suggestion, freelv expressed by officials of the two clubs, that the Waikato course is not suitable for rowing. It is urged that crews from the two inside positions onlv have any chance of winning races, and discontented oarsmen claim that this opinion is borne out by statistics of successes at the regatta. A further suggestion is that Hamilton has secured an unduly large number of inside positions which has accounted for the* club’s somewhat startling consistency. A crisis has arrived, but the Rowing Association is likelv to take no action. As yet, no official notification of w'hat amounts to a severance of friendly relations with the Hamilton Club on the Part of Auckland and Waitemata has reached the association, hut it seems inclined to the view that it is not association business. Strictly speaking this may be so, but it is the duty of the controlling body to foster amity between the clubs for the advancement of rowing. A tactful action, even if unofficial, may do much to smooth out what promises to be a most awkward situation. Rowing, for reasons too numerous to mention, is a difficult sport 1 o maintain and, without unity among oarsmen, it must rapidly 'lecline in the Dominion.