ROWING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 3750, 8 February 1913, Page 11

ROWING.

NOTES AND TOPICS

(By “Remex.”)

The most important period in connection with the local rowing circles is again drawing very near. The honor of the individual clubs not only depends upon the issue at stake, but also the honor each member asserts

upon himself of knowing that the representatives selected will be capable of doing justice to the trust inferred upon them. There is not the slightest doubt that when a rower is chosen to fill a seat in a representative crew, he will assuredly do his best, but the point is, are the selected rowers always, the most efficient that can be obtained in the respective clubs? Or, are those “bounders’'' who are' always willing, to “oblige” (grease the captain’s or a committeeman’s oars, etc.), or carry out little personal pleasantries, are they given preference over older and more experienced rowers? No doubt looking at it from a personal point of view, it is very nice to have these little attentions paid one, and in return to be placed in a representative scat, but oil the other hand, those concerned must bear in mind that it is not one man, or even two or three who are the club, but the whole complement of members, and it is these you have to “oblige,” not the selection or any other committee. Such weak-minded individuals as we have for officials in at least one of our local clubs, have no doubt been influenced, or shall I say, thought themselves under an obligation to some such party, and afraid of offending their dignity, and not wishing to own up to their misplaced ideals of the past they, sooner than uphold the honor of the club as a whole, hide their unblushing shame liehind an inferior representative crew.

In this one particular club it is <-ommon talk among the members that any one transgressing in any way the “laws’’ of this “select few.” who practically “run the whole show,” can give up all hojje of ever donning the representative colors while that mighty organisation reigns supreme. These sort of individuals not only start what was once a flourishing institution on the retrograde step, but their actions tend to deteriorate the sport of rowing from every other standpoint. Rowing, if not the best, is one of the cleanest and most manly sports one could wish to indulge in, and why should it be allowed to commence running on the downward track because of two or three who wish to have all the working of the club’s affairs solely in their ow,n hands? It is indeed time that these members in question woke up to the fact that no matter how good a man has been, in the past in connection with the ruling of a shed, it does not signify that his ideas are always modern. And it is modern ideas that are wanted nowadays to make any concern go ahead, not one whose policy is always to “keep things in a glass case.” The matter of oars is also a very adverse question at present troubling tlie would-be trainers for the coming double-scull races. Some time ago several sets of new oars were obtained for the Poverty Bay Club, and after lying in what I’ might term “quarantine” for a while, they were brought out when a new doublesculler arrived, and received their first taste of the briny, incidentally propelling the new double-scull on her maiden voyage. One pair of new oars were also allotted for the new single scull, and as new material is invariably not ordered until the old oars are on the verge of falling to pieces, one can guess what was left after the order had been given that the new oars were to be kept exclusively for the new beats, and the new boats in their turn to be used only on the occasion of representative races. With regard to the latter the idea no doubt is a good one: but the committee must see clearly for themselves that oars are not a fraction compared with the cost. of a boat, and any little deficiencies in a boat can a]wavs be overlooked if one has a decent pair of sculls with which .to propel it, not the dilapidated affairs that the committee are enforcing must he used. Why, they are only an apology for the real material. It is interesting also to note that none of the committeemen are competing in the coming events, and no doubt for very good reasons too, known only to themselves. - The boats also are .in sad need of repair, but as I said before, this could he overlooked for the time being, if one could find consolation in knowing that they were exerting themselves with a Avhole oar, and not half a one.