CHAPTER V.
COMBINED OARSMANSHIP IN EIGHTS (continued).
Now that the novice has been safely launched in his racing-ship, we may hark back for a space and consider some important points connected with the organization and management of an eight-oared crew. And first as to its selection and arrangement.
As a general rule, it may be laid down that two middle-weights (men ranging from 11 st. 5 lbs. to 11 st. 10 lbs. or even to 12 st.) will be best at stroke and No. 7; three heavy-weights (12 st. 4 lbs. and upwards) will suit for No. 6, No. 5, and No. 4; then with two more middle-weights at No. 3 and No. 2, and a light-weight (10 st. to 11 st. 3 lbs. or so) at bow, your crew will be complete. This sounds easy enough, but in practice the matter is complicated by a hundred difficulties, such as (a) a superfluity or (b) a total absence of good
heavy-weights; (c) the absence of any good middle-weights possessing the peculiar qualities necessary for stroke and No. 7; and (d) the inability of good oars to row on one side or the other of the boat, for you may find that of six valuable oars whom you may want to include in a crew, every one will tell you that he can only row on the stroke side or the bow side, as the case may be. In theory, of course, every man ought to be able to row equally well on both sides. In practice it will be found that most men, apart from any conscious preference on their own part, do better work on one side than on the other, while some are absolutely useless if shifted from the side they prefer. This last class is, however, not nearly so numerous as it used to be; and if, for instance, you consult the list of victorious Oxford crews from 1890 up to the present year, and compare it further with lists of Leander crews and Oxford College crews, you will see that a very large number of men have rowed and won races on both sides of the boat. I may mention specially Mr. Guy Nickalls, Mr. C. W. Kent, Mr. W. A. L. Fletcher, Mr. R. P. P. Rowe, Mr. W. F. C. Holland, Mr. H. B. Cotton, Mr. M. C.
Pilkington, Mr. C. D. Burnell, Mr. T. H. E. Stretch, Mr. C. K. Philips, Mr. C. M. Pitman, and Mr. H. G. Gold. On the other hand, I cannot remember—to take only two instances of excellent heavies—that Mr. E. G. Tew or Mr. W. Burton Stewart ever rowed except on the bow side.
All such difficulties the captain and coach of a crew must overcome as best they can. In any case they will find it advisable to put their lighter men in the stern and the bows, dumping down their heavies in the waist of the boat, where they will have more room, and where it will be easier to correct the clumsiness which is often associated with great weight.
Stroke.
For stroke I like a man of not more than twelve stone. A few good strokes, e.g. the late Mr. J. H. D. Goldie, have topped this weight by a few pounds. But a real heavy-weight is almost invariably slow and lacking in initiative when placed at stroke, although, in the middle of the boat, with another man acting as fugleman for him, he may be able to row perfectly well at any rate of stroke that may be set to him. A long-backed, supple-
jointed man is of course best, for the short-backed, long-legged man invariably has trouble in clearing his knees, and consequently develops faults of style which it is hard to eradicate or even to reduce when he has no model in front of him. These faults will therefore exercise a very deleterious influence on the rest of the crew. As to temperament, I should select a good fighter, a man, that is, who would rather die than abandon the struggle, and whose fiery determined nature does not exclude perfect coolness and mastery over himself when a crisis calls for resource. Let me cite some examples.
I may begin my list with Mr. H. P. Marriott and Mr. C. D. Shafto, the Oxford and Cambridge strokes of 1877, the dead-heat year. It is rare indeed to find two such splendid performers matched against one another. Mr. L. R. West, the Oxford stroke of 1880, 1881, and 1883, was as good a stroke as ever came to the University from Eton. He only weighed eleven stone, but his style was simply perfect. The finest demonstration of his racing judgment was given when he took his crew off at the start in 1883, and left Cambridge, on whom odds of three to one had been laid, struggling