Halcyon Days in Auckland Rowing

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 973, 16 May 1930, Page 7

Halcyon Days in Auckland Rowing

TALkS of the great days in row- * ing in Auckland and New Zealand—the times when such feats as oarsmen competing in and winning pair-oared races in fouroared gigs were common—were revived in a chat a Sun man had the other day witn Mr. K. E. Isaacs, of Auckland. Mr. Isaacs lias reached the age when most men relinquish what interest they may have had in sport, but not so Mr. Isaacs. He was not very welj at the time, hut despite the passing of the years he recalled with a memory which never faltered some halcyon days of early Thames and rowing. It was as far as memory serves, in 1871. Mr. Isaacs said, a regatta was held at the Thames. A rowing crew was sent down representing both Auckland and the Auckland Rowing Club. It was a fouroared crew, consisting of Ned Kane, W. Goldsworthy, Charlie Hopkins and Alfred Newdick. The coxswain was R. E. Isaacs.

Alfred Newdick, who died a week or so ago, was well known in Thames, where he was famous in the goldmining days as the discoverer of many mines. Goldsworthy was a mine manager, and Charlie Hopkins was widely knowp in later years as a skipper in the service of the Northern Steamship Company. Ned Ivane was also engaged in the coastal trade in and around Auckland.

The Auckland crew entered for three events and won them all. The events were two four-oared races and a pairoar event. In those days the outrigger was not known, and the party took to the Thames two four-oared gunwale gigs known as the “Spitfire” and “Sons of Colonists.” They also took a boat for the pair-oajred race, but half a gale was blowing at the time and this craft was found to he of no use. So the crew divided IxseiT up and rowed in the pair-oared race in the four-oared gigs! The “Spitfire” was manned by Ned Kane and Charlie Hopkins and the “Sons of Colonists” by Bill Goldsworthy and Alfred Newdick. Bob Isaacs coxswained the “Spitfire,” which won the race, defeating even the Sons of Colonists.” The cup which went with that event Mr. Isaacs has still in his possession,

Thames Regatta of Sixty Years Ago When Auckland Crew Won Pair Oared Race in Four Oared Gig!—Bob Isaacs Only Survivor of that Crew.

along with many other trophies ot his ' rowing days. I Four or five crews entered for the | four-oared race, one being manned by the White brothers, well-known at that j time in Mercury Bay. Another crew I came out stroked by "Shau” Manning, j a son of the famous Judge Manning. This crew was made up entirely of ! half-castes and Maoris, and competed

in a boat called the “Nonparel,” built of mottled kauri by “Tine” Savage, a well-known boat builder. The race was a hard one, but the Auckland crew in the “Sons of Colonists” was better adapted for the rough weather and won the race. Mr. Isaacs is now the only surviving member of the crew. Air. Isaacs has always been asso-

elated with the sport in Auckland. He was one of the earliest members of the Auckland Rowing Club. The club shed in those days was on the site now occupied by Messrs. Phillips and In its early days the Auckland RowImpey’s glass store in Beach Road, ing Club conducted district races in gunwale gigs, and keen was the com*petition. Mr. Isaacs acted as coxswain for the Auckland Club when it rowed Parnell on one occasion. The boats used were the “Spitfire” and the "Mariukau Maid.” The Auckland crew won in its own craft, and then, as if to prove it was really the superior crew, boats were changed and again Auckland won. Can one imagine such a thing taking place in a rowing regatta today? But those were the great days of Auckland rowing.

Mr. Isaacs treasures a number of I cups which he has won from time to time. On February 21. 1870, he won two half-pint pewter pots for a district race, when the coxswain who steered for Parnell against him was Major Heaphy, V.C. Another highly valued cup came Mr Isaac’s way in 1876, when he was a member of a crew which rowed for and won a trophy presented by Mr James Caere. The Pakuranga Hunt Club has found Mr. Isaacs a keen huntsman. In 1884, 5 and 6, he won the Hunt Club steeplechase cup, in 1884 and 5 with King Don and in 1886 with Huntsman. At the Auckland regatta in ISSO he won the big yacht race with “Thetis” and took the handsome cup presented by the New Zealand Shipping Company. Racing also has claimed liis attention and at the Auckland Racing Club’s Boxing Day-New Year meeting in I 1885-6 he Avon the Derby with Foul j Shot (by Musket). A tribute ter his J service in the interests of the sport I AA r as paid when the Auckland Racing j Club added his name to the select band ;of its life members.

Mr. Isaacs is an old boy of the Auckland Grammar School. In fact he { was one of its earliest pupils in the 1860’s. When the jubilee celebrations took place last year Mr. Isaacs was one of the old boys who attended, and was pleased to address the present day scholars. “And I didn’t tell them to be good boys and follow the examples of their masters and headmasters,” he said. “I told them what we did in the sporting line in my day.” A practical result of his interest in the ! old school was his presentation of a cup to be competed for annually by the Rugby fifteens of the Grammar Schools of the city, Auckland, Mount Albert and Takapuna, and any other school which may be established.

Mr. Isaacs looks back on a long anu illustrious career in sport of many kinds. “And in all that career,” he said in parting, “it was followed absolutely. in the true sense of the word, ‘amateur.’ ”