MEN ONLY

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1063, 29 August 1930, Page 7

MEN ONLY

IS ROWING TOO HARD FOR WOMEN? CONTROVERSY IN SYDNEY Rowing is far too strenuous for The New South Wales Rowing Association arrived at this decision at a recent meeting (says the Sydney “Sun”) and went further than that, resolving that where women competed men would not be permitted to race. The point was raised by a. communication from the City Houses Regatta Association, seeking approval for the holding of its regatta on the Lane Cove River on September G, the programme including a race for women’s fours. The chairman (Mr. H. G. Alderson) pointed out that women’s clubs, being an entirely separate organisation, the N.S.W.R.A. had no control over them, and, strictly speaking, the CitTy Houses authorities were consulting the wrong quarters in asking for the association’s sanction of such a race. The matter might have ended there, but several delegates took a rather serious view of the position, expressing the opinion that the association should not concern itself in encouraging the sport among the fair sex in any shape or form. Ultimately it was agreed that where a race for women was included in a regatta programme, clubs affiliated with the N.S.W.R.A. be not allowed to compete at such fixture. It is worthy of note that at the last City Houses’ regatta, a competitor in one of the women’s crews collapsed about a-quarter of a mile from the finish. “WILL GO ON ROWING” “Unnecessary and uncalled for,” said Miss Rose Goodman, secretary of the New South "Wales Women’s Rowing Association, referring to the parent body’s decision. “We will not miss the association’s support. We have not had enough of it to do so. It is merely a conservative view of a few officials, and not the opinion of men rowers generally. The N.S.W.R.A. has never given us any co-operation, and whatever it does, the girls will still go on rowing.” Miss Goodman denied that rowing was too strenuous a sport for women. Miss Rixon, secretary of the City Girls’ Amateur Sports Association, said the women rowers w*re quite able to stand alone. They had their own association, and had conducted and controlled successful regattas. The Sydney Ladies’ Rowing Club has been in existence for 20 years, and its racing had been conducted without any illeffects to the competitors.