ROWING TITLES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 36, 13 February 1939, Page 8

ROWING TITLES

Championship Regatta At Picton UNION WIN THE EIGHTS I CLIFTON RETAIN “BOSS ROOSTER” [Per Press Association.! BLENHEIM, Feb. 12. At one of the largest assemblages of oarsmen in the history of rowing in ■New Zealand, three clubs successfully defended their titles at the national amateur rowing championships on Picton Harbour. They were Clifton, which retained the champion fours in convincing style; Auckland, for whom R. B. Smith won the single sculls for the fourth year in succession, making his fifth title, and Union (Wanganui), who won the eights for the third year in succession. The new champions are: Pairs, Union (Christchurch); double sculls, Petone. Although the regatta opened under idea conditions on Saturday morning three protests out of twelve starters in the champion fours resulted in the .race being postponed. This and the choppy conditions in the afternoon caused delay in the programme, which was not completed by nightfall. Three events, the champion pairs and doubles and the Marlborough Plate were rowedd off this morning on excellent water. Results are as follow: Champion Fours Two Miles CLIFTON (Fowler, Old, Olsson, Topliss) „ i UNION (Wanganui) 2 STAR (Wellington) 3 Also: Wellington, Wanganui, Petone, Wairau, Picton, Aramoho, Blenheim. Napier and Awarua. Half a length; three lengths. Time, 11.57. Champion Eights Two Miles i UNION. Wanganui (Delves, Healey, Gould, Benge, Tonks, Halkett, Granville, Coxon; Stoddart, eox» i TAURANGA 2 PICTON Also: Petone. Scratched, Auckland. ‘Five lengths. Time, 12.42 2-5. Champion Singles One and a-half Miles AUCKLAND NO. 1 (R. B. Smith) 1 PETONE (P. Abbott) 2 WELLINGTON (T. Hegglun) ... 3 Also: Auckland No. 2, Aramoho. Length; length and a-half. Time, 10.15 2-5. Poverty Bay scratched. Champion Pairs One and a-half Miles UNION, Christchurch (Harris, Cooper) 1 ■ CLIFTON (Fowler, Old) 2 'BLENHEIM (Hadfield, Patchett) . 3 Also: Star, Petone, Avon, Wairau, Union (Wanganui), Tauranga, Auckland, Aramoho. Star iini'-hed second but were disqualified for crossing Blenheim. Three lengths; one length. ■Time, 9.15 2-5.

Champion Double Sculls One and a-half Miles PETONE (Abbott, K. Boswell) 1 AUCKLAND (Smith, Morey) ... 2 i UNION, Christchurch (Cooper, 1 Harris) 3 i Also: Aramoho, Avon, Wellington. Length: length and a-quarter. Time, 8.41 4-5. .Marlborough Plate One and a-half Miles ARAMOHO (Stowers, Jones, I Holmes, Stokes) 1 PETONE 2 AWARUA 3 i Also: Union (Christchurch), Wellington, Blenheim, Star, Tauranga, | Wanganui, Picton, Avon, Wairau, Napier. Three-quarters of a length; two lengths. Time, 9.14 4-5. Lightweight Maiden Fours s One Mile ■Picton (Connolly, Kirwin, Smith, Dawkins) 1 | Union (Wanganui) 2 Star 3 I Seven others started. Four lengths; lone and a-half lengths. Time. 6.22. (Auckland scratched. Maiden Fours (Open) One Mile iWairau (Gale, Adams, Harris, Gill* 1 Canterbury 2 Kawatiri 3 Nine others started. Four lengths each way. Time, 5.51. Welterweight Junior Fours One Mile Star (Bevan, Hawker, Hill, Dau- ’ son) .. 1 I Blenheim No. 1 2 .Union. Wanganui 3 . Four others started. Three-quarters lof a length; length. Time, 5.57. Welilington and Arapawa scratched. Time, Junior Fours (Open) One and a-half Miles Star (Hoskings, Lawson, Shirley, Broad) 1 Avon 2 Tauranga 2.. 3 Five others started. Length each way. Youths’ Fours Wairau No. 1 (Gale, Adams, Harris, ■Gill) 1

Blenheim No. 1 .. 2 Union (Wanganui) 3 Six others started. Three-quarters of a length; length. Wanganui and | West End scratched. Comment on Rowing In the champion fours all the crews went away to a good start. Clifton soon took the lead from Union and Aramoho. A quarter of a mile from home, Clifton strengthened their lead and it became a duel between them and Union, who fought all the way

to be beaten by three-quarters of a length. Star, who lost two lengths by going inshore, had calm water over the last part of the race and came up well to take third place, three lengths behind Union. Rowed as the race was, against a head wind, it took a good crew to win. All three placegetters rowed attractively. The field was the largest, to contest the champion fours for many years, possibly for all time. The standard of Ihe rowing was excellent. Smith (Auckland) won his fifth singles championship in his customary style. He went Io the lead at the gun, but with Abbott (Petone) and Campbell (Aramoho) cracking on the pace, Smith contented himself with third position, eight lengths back. With a third of a mile to go. Smith commenced to make up the leeway. Campbell and Abbott, steering erratically, showed signs of tiring. Continuing in a perfectly straight line, Smith smothered the field at the finish. Hegglun rowed his best race to date for a creditable third. Abbott's performance was impressive and good steering when in the lead might have given him the victory. Wanganui Union retained the eights championship. This was a convincing win from Tauranga by five lengths. After the first quarter of a mile, Union took the lead and from then did not look like being headed. Tauranga rowed well enough to beat Picton by six lengths, but were not in the same class as the winners. Union has won

the eights each time since the race was instituted. Their timing and combination were perfect. New Pairs Champions New champions were found when’ Harris and Cooper (Union, Christchurch) convincingly won the pairs. Avon (Thompson and Stiles) lost ground early when they nearly collided with Star. From the mile the leaders were Star, Union (Christchurch), Blenheim and Clifton. AU four combinations rowed stylishly. There was additional merit in the performance of the Christchurch men, who a little over an hour previously had fought out a game finish in the double sculls. Star, who were second across the finishing line, were disqualified for crossing Blenheim. Abbott and Boswell sculled very cleverly to win the champion doubles. The leaders early were Union (Christchurch) from Petone and Auckland (Smith and Morey). Union led until the last quarter-mile, at which point, both Auckland and Petone sprinted strongly, and the three crews crossed the line without a great deal between them.

A feature of the championships was the very high standard of rowing and sculling throughout. In the Marlborough Plate the big field went away to a good start. Awarua took the lead at half-way and were challenged by Aramoho and Petone. All three made good use of the conditions which had developed since the previous race—a lively sea and a following wind. In a desperate finish Aramoho won from Petone, with Awarua tiring into third place.