WITH THE OARSMEN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 900, 18 February 1930, Page 14

WITH THE OARSMEN

BY

“RIGGER”

SPLASHES

Mr. V. Dunne, one of the selectors cf the A.R.A. eight, announces that the crew to represent the province in the inter-provincial eights will be picked shortly after the Whau regatta. A special general meeting of St. George’s is to be called within the next fortnight. The questions to be discussed will be finance and the possible reversion of the club to the old colours of red and white hoops. Members of the Auckland Club who were prevented by the weather on Saturday from rowing in trials, spent a busy and useful afternoon cleaning up the sheds and repairing boats. I. Hoggard, who was to have occupied bow seat in the Auckland maiden doubles crew, has left to join the police force for Samoa. His place will be taken by R. K. Stacey. On account of the weather. Shore’s picnic, which was to have been held at Pine Island on Sunday, has been postponed. It will b© held later in the season if possible. CLUB EVENTS Club events are set down for the Saturday after the Whau, when programmes that have been delayed by unfavourable weather will be proceeded with. Waitemata will row fours for the president, Mr. W. Dennison’s, trophies, which were postponed from last Saturday. St. George’s will row for the Dingley Memorial trophies. Auckland will probably put on the pair-oar races that -were to have been held last Saturday. Shore and West End are also sure to have trial racing. * * * WORKING PARTY Instead of the anticipated 20, only eight enthusiasts arrived at the Whau during the week-end for a final working party. Gorse was cleared and the grounds are said to be in quite fair order. A warning is issued to high-spirited oarsmen who may be inclined to gambol on the turf in bare feet, that the committee will accept no responsibility for a foot full of thorns. A great deal of work has been done on the grounds by energetic members of the association and affiliated clubs. « * * SPEEDING UP RACES The only hitch at the Whau last season was the fact that the programme was running late, and this was no fault of the committee. Crews were slow getting down to the start, and the mistake of waiting until the field was complete delayed many starts. Once a regatta gets behind its programme time, it is impossible to catch up again. All crews should make a point of being on the mark in plenty of time for their races this season. It is a serious action to disqualify a crew for being late on the mark, but, if crews, leisurely paddling down the creek, again hold up the whole programme for their convenience, it will be necessary for the committee to take drastic action. POSITIONS ANd’eNTRIES . Positions for Saturday’s regatta racing were drawn when the entries were received at a special meeting of the Regatta Committee, held last evening. draw was conducted by members of the committee, who included representatives of each town club and the country delegate. Following are the positions: Maiden Double Sculls.—St. George’s h°-. 2. I; Tauranga, 2; Auckland, 3; West JR w H Hamilton, 5; St. George's No. 1. b; West End No. 2 7. £ O, i rs ~^ ckland ' Waitemata. ° C R- N £ rth Sh< =>re, 4: HamilNo eor ®' e s » Hamilton Light Maidens.—Whangarei. 1; Hamilton, 2; Auckland. 3; St. George’s, 4: Mest End, 5; Waitemata, 6; North Shore, Senior Fours.—North Shore, 1; St George’s, 2; Hamilton No. 2,3; Hamilton No. 1,4; Waitemata, 5. Handicap Single Sculls.—E. A. Waters (Hamilton). 1; W. Stevenson (Waitemata), 2; A. C. Norden (West End), 3; H. Hannam (Whangarei), 4; W. Eaddy (Auckland), 5; D. Davies (North Shore), 6; I- W. St. Clair (Hamilton), 7; C. Wright (West End), 8; F. Conway (West End), 9. Open Maidens.—St. George’s, 1: Hamilton No. 2,2; Waitemata, 3: North Shore, 4; Auckland, 5; Hamilton No. 1. 6. Junior Pairs.—Tauranga, 1 ; West End No. 2,2; St. George s, 3: West End No. I, 4; Auckland, 5; Hamilton, 6; Waitemata, 7. Youths’ Fours.—Auckland, 1: Hamilton No. 2,2; Hamilton No. 1,3; North Shore, 4; W r est End, G. Maiden Pairs.—W r est End, 1 : St. George’s, 2; North Shore, 3: Auckland, 4; Hamilton, 5; Waitemata, 6. Event No. fi will be an exhibition eightoar race betw’een crews to he selected during the daj\ Otherwise the events ■will be run in the order published above. No. 1 position is the town bank.

PROVINCIAL REGATTA

Auckland’s big rowing day is next Saturday, when, for the second time, the provincial championship will be held on the Whau. The entries, which are published in another note, are good, and the rowing should be of the generally higher standard that has been a feature of most of the regattas throughout the Dominion this season. In the senior class there will be five, crews, and the race will not be the procession it was last year, when Waitemata followed Hamilton up the river. Waitemata’s crew will be J. Johnson. L. E. Brooker, C. Fearon. R. Cruickshank. St. George’s crew is W. Bright, F. Solomon, V. Hargreaves, I. Duncan. Shore’s crew is W. Dean, B. McCallum, W. Seagar and D. Townsend. Hamilton is entering two crews. Eight clubs are to be represented at the fixture, and, if the organisation runs as smoothly as it did last season, the public should be treated to an excellent afternoon’s sport. HANDICAP SCULLS Unfortunately W. Turner, 1929 and 1930 New Zealand champion, is unable to race at the Whau on Saturday. More particularly will this be regretted, as W. Stevenson is among the entrants and a meeting between the two champions has long been anticipated by enthusiasts. There are nine scullers entered for the race and Stevenson will meet one old rival in I. W. St. Clair. A. C. Norden, another experienced sculler who has been working well at West End this season, is also an entrant. W. Eaddy, who had a remarkably successful season in doubles with Cleal last year, is Waitemata’s second string. Hannan is to represent Whangarei. * * * WHAU TRANSPORT A frequent bus service to the Whau has been arranged for Saturday. The first bus is to -leave Sturdee Street at 12.15, and from then there will be further buses at 12.45, 1.15, 1.30 and 2 p.m. The first race is to start at I.3o—the maiden doubles. A feeder bus is to meet the train which arrives at Avondale at 1.50. Private cars and launches will carry the balance of what it is to be hoped will prove a large attendance, to the grounds. All boats will be taken to the course by barge on Saturday morning. * « « CHAMPIONSHIP REFLECTIONS Apart from the effort of the Stiles brothers, who won the champion pairs at Wanganui three seasons ago, the South Island entrants have achieved but scant success in the championship regatta for some seasons past. The victory of Picton in the champion fours on Saturday, then, should be applauded, particularly as it was apparently a race of races. The Picton men well realised the necessity of keeping fit, and it was a great achievement for such a young crew to beat finished oarsmen of the standard of G. St. Clair, Sandos, Bayly and Waters. As “Rigger” pointed out last week, there was no North Island crew of a standard that could be expected to relieve Hamilton of the title. If there was any serious opposition it ‘would have to come from the South Island. At that time the entries were not known in Auckland, and there were few who knew definitely that no other North Island crew was entering, and that there would be only three starters in the most important race of the season. Hamilton has no cause to return dejectedly from the regatta, however. The title was lost, but only after a great race won by two lengths in two miles. Then the Hamilton men bring back with them a new title —the pairs championship. It speaks volumes for the stamina of the Hamilton men that, after rowing two races, and hard ones at that, they went out to win the last race of the day by eight lengths from a field of seven. The Hamilton four separated into two crews for the pairs, and Sandos and Bayly beat last season’s champions., Star, by six inches—a race that was literally won on the last stroke. Turner retained his sculling title and reversed the decision of the previous week by defeating Jackson with the comfortable margin of five lengths. It was unfortunate that Jackson should have to protest following a slight foul, but, as the protest was not upheld, the incident could not have been regarded as important by the umpires. Haua finished well up behind Tarrant, who is evidently not the sculler he was a few seasons ago. There was a fine exhibition of sculling in the Roubles, which went to Jackson and Traill, after a fairly close race. The weight evidently told. Altogether, in spite of the unfavourable weather, the meeting was a success, the standard of rowing being particularly high.