Boat Club

MILE RACES RESULTS Senior Mile: 1. J. A. Bygate (Q.); 2. R. R. Baldwin (R.); 3. T. Chilman (Q.); 4. J. B. Mathews (R.). Time : 5 min. 3.4 sec. Intermediate Mile: 1. W. Mitchell (Q.); 2. J. W. S. Gale (R.); 3. W. E. Jones (G.); 4. M. G. Staveley (T.). Time: 5 min. 3.8 sec. School Record.

Preliminary heats were held and the stage was set for the grand finale-Sports Day. Alas ! the weather intervened once again and hopes were dashed. Not even a postponement helped matters. The only remaining possibility, the jumping events, were held, and not without a good measure of reward. D. G. Macpherson jumped magnificently to add no less than 18 inches onto the Senior Long Jump record, previously held by J. D. C. Wall in 1950. Both the first two Intermediate high-jumpers failed at a height which would have created a new record, and both R. R. Baldwin and T. E. Giddings did well in winning their events. All this, too, on an afternoon yet colder and damper than ever.

FINAL JUMPING RESULTS Senior Long Jump: 1. D. G. Macpherson (S.H.); 2. P. J. Dronfield (R.); 3. R. M. Wheeler (G.); 4. R. Baxter (S.H.). Distance: 21 ft. 51 in. School Record. Senior High Jump: 1. R. R. Baldwin (R.); 2. P. B. Burbidge (G.); 3. T. Chilman (Q.); 4 equal. M. Precious (T.) and J. J. Rhodes (S.H.). Height : 5 ft. 3+ in. Intermediate Long Jump : 1. J. C. G. Wheeler (G.); 2. M. F. Grainger (T.); 3. P. M. B. Smith (S.H.); 4. R. A. Martin (T.). Distance: 17 ft. 7 in. Intermediate High Jump: 1. C. Hermiston (G.); 2. M. J. Bond (S.H.); 3. R. A. Hodgson (S.H.); 4. J. C. G. Wheeler (G.). Height: 5 ft. in. Junior Long Jump : 1. R. A. Spencer (Q.); 2 equal. R. G. Armstrong (M.) and T. P. Brown (G.); 4. J. M. Pattinson (R.). Distance: 15 ft. 7 in. Junior High Jump: 1. T. E. Giddings (Q.); 2. R. G. Armstrong (M.); 3. P. Stuttard (Q.); 4. R. H. Parker (R.). Height : 4 ft. 91 in. Thus the Rise won the Athletic Shield on Standards alone, with the Grove as runners-up.

Amidst the many disappointments and frustrations, our sympathies particularly must go to J. A. Bygate, Captain of School Athletics. • He, fortunately, will have a further year with us.

THE BOAT CLUB

The most notable piece of news about the Boat Club must certainly be the new Boat House, but as reference is made to this in a separate note after this report, it is only necessary to say here what a pleasure it is to have a single building with room for boats, oars, work-bench, as well as changing room and washing facilities. The bad weather this term, which included the worst floods since 1947 and at least three doses of snow, made the completion of the Boat House very difficult, but it was possible to use it from the very 55

beginning of the term and we owe a lot to Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Coates for the way in which they worked to allow us to get our activities started.

Boating itself was severely curtailed on several occasions and as a result all Houses were short of practice. Senior crews managed to reach a reasonable standard but Junior crews and others were not able to have as much exercise as they should have had. This is particularly disappointing from the point of view of the beginners, who should all have been in Fours before the Summer Term. However, such things have happened before and we can only face the Summer Term in the expectation of better weather and keen interest.

Because of the difficulty of starting Athletics at the right time it was possible to have one or two outings in the Eights, but once Standards started everything was set aside for them and two hours or so on the field meant that the ardent athletes were too exhausted to be able to get any benefit from an outing on the river. So, at the time of writing it is not possible to form any definite opinion about the composition of next term's School crews.

The House races were held on approximately the right days but the preliminary round of the Senior races could not be held until Wednesday, 5th March, because of flooding. On 5th March the preliminaries of both Senior and Junior races took place and the plan was to have the semi-finals and finals of both divisions on the following Saturday. This went very well until the second Senior semi-final when there was a dead-heat between Manor and Grove. And so, instead of having the whole event finished on 8th March, the re-row was held on that day and the Senior final took place on Wednesday, 12th March. This rare occurrence of a dead-heat is the boaters' nightmare and also a headache for the organisers of regattas, as a disruption of the time-table is bound to occur, and time-table variations are the boating fraternity's sensitive point.

We were glad to have Mr. B. Oatley, of King's College, Cambridge, as a Student for this term and he spent a lot of his time coaching, for which we were very grateful. Mr. Mair also had a very full life on the river with his usual enthusiasm. The whole Boat Club will wish him great happiness in his married life and will also be perturbed if he thinks that his change of civil status will justify the reduction of his activity in the Boat Club. No-one who knows Mr. Mair will feel that there is the slightest risk of this happening.

RESULTS OF THE HOUSE RACES SENIOR. 1st Round: Manor beat Rise in 4 min. 5 sec.; Grove beat School House in 4 min. 8 sec.

Semi-finals: Temple beat Queen's in 4 min. 32 sec.; Manor beat Grove after a re-row in 4 min. 21.5 sec.

Final: Manor beat Temple by a canvas in 4 min. 37.5 sec. JUNIOR. 1st Round: Rise beat School House; Temple beat Manor.

Semi-finals: Grove beat Queen's; Rise beat Temple.

Final: Rise beat Grove.