THE INTERNATIONAL REGATTA.
EXCEPT for the utter absence of the important items of audience and applause, everything connected with the late rowing on the Parisian course of St. Cloud was complete success. Entries were full, prizes munificent, racing and performances first- class, and the course itself equal to the best in England, competi- tion close, and general arrangements of the executive satisfactory. Rowing men, real critics, were there in plenty, but the complete apathy of the Parisian populace at the whole proceeding surprised the promoters and performers themselves ; not one tithe of the usual concourse of spectators that watch an afternoon's practice of Oxford or Cambridge at Putney came to the banks or grand stand at St. Cloud during the whole week ; hardly a tingle foot passenger paused for a second on the terraces or bridge to watch the eights and fours as they shot by ; reports of rockets told the beginning and end of each race, all else was silence, and cheering a dead letter, except when in passing the tribune the ejacula- tions of some 200 widely scattered English rowing men told that a race was going on. True, if the whole Parisian populace had mustered on the shores, not one in a thousand could have told an oar from a broomstick, or " shallop " from at. "sculling boat ;" scientific spec tators were as plentiful as is wont at Henley, but they composed the whole house. " Gods" from the gallery are by no means ilite or refined in their tastes and knowledge, yet their approbation or disapproval go further than anything to make or mar the hopes of an author. However, competitors, if willing to forego encouragement from an indis- criminating populace were gainers by freedom from the crush of roughs and watermen's wherries that so hamper a Putney regatta. The credit to be gained with real judges of rowing was as great and greater than elsewhere, and the committee only could claim to feel disappointment that the vulgar had so tardily offered them- selves as spectators.
A Parisian regatta on a smaller scale took place on the Sunday and Monday. In this, for amateurs only, the English element was by no means successful. The fours fell to the New Brunswick crew, who rowed without a coxswain, steered by the bow man. Of seven boats abreast the Etonian had the worst station, out- side and in rough water, and the Canadians and London Club the best, in shelter. All who have rowed well know there is more discrepancy caused in speed by wind and weather than by an extra. bulk or weight of boats, and a gig eight may any day row faster from Putney to Hammersmith on fair water than a racing craft in a. foul wind. Added to this, the fact that the English crews had but. just landed from a Channel journey and sleepless night may welt plead an excuse, without undue national bias, for the American triumph that ensued, and, it must be allowed, a decisive one. The fact that London here beat Oxford, who at Henley and on the succeeding Thursday decisively beat them, shows that the rowing for the nonce was not "true." The sculls were won by an Anglo- Parisian, Mr. Gesling, defeating Stout, of the London Club, who. led for half the way, but was easily defeated at the end, Ge.sling showing good lasting powers. This was all of note till Tuesday, when the outskirts of the English programme were shown in an amateur race for "heavy" fours, which was won by the Parisian Club,—no crack English club competing. The course was set down as a mile and a quarter, but the time of the eight-oared race shown that it was more like a mile and three-quarters. The committee had taken the wise precaution of completing the racing for each prize before the commencement of another, so that competitoas engaged in more than one event met their rivals upon fair terms, without extra fatigue.
In the sculling races entries were so large that the final heat was of necessity confined to the winners of trial heats. Hence it might so happen that the second best man was beaten in his trial, and had no further chance of the second prize ; but this was in- evitable. In the pair oars the first two in each heat rowed in the finish. Kelley, the champion, won the watermen's sculls in his
trial heat J. Sadler, an ex-pupil of his, had beaten him, Kelley steering a very bad course, but nearly catching Sadler at the end. Sadler, however, was unfortunately disqualified, for having re- ceived aid from a pilot four during the race he could take no prize. Cooper and Percy, who had each won their heath—the latter to the discomfiture of Chambers, the ex-champion—took second and third prizes. The amateur pairs fell to Corrie and Brown, who had won the silver goblets at Henley ; and the final heat was one of the best of the whole regatta. Four boats started, and were in a cluster to the end. Willis and Stout, of London, led at first, Woodgate and Finch neck and neck with Hall and Bowman ; and the winners a yard or two behind. The Londoners soon crossed and washed the others, but began to tire at the grand stand, where Brown bored out upon Woodgate, and the latter stopped and gave way, to save a foul. These two gradually caught the London pair, and a quarter of a mile from home Brown and Corns drew slowly away, and won by a length ; London last, and the other two nearly abreast till Hall and Bow- man, hugging the inside shore towards home, struck a gig, and were beaten a length for second place. The amateur sculls next day produced no close racing. Willan would probably have beaten Stout in the first heat, where he was rapidly making up lost ground, if he had not fouled some bushes. Ryan had a rather easy race against a weak selection in the second heat, and Woodgate beat Lindsay and Ges- ling (the winner on Sunday) by a long distance in the next heat. In the final, Stout and Woodgate fouled after going a few hundred yards ; the latter was adjudged hors de combat for first or second prizes, and the other two recalled to the post to decide the issue among themselves. In this Stout took the lead, and won the whole way. Meantime, Woodgate, who had been left to walk over for the unclaimed third prize, and was dis- allowed from so doing in company with the renewed race, started on his errand some seventy or eighty yards in the rear of Ryan and Stout, yet reached the winning post first by a similar distance, showing what would have been the probable result but for the foul. The watermen's pairs were finally won by Kelley and Cook, a Durham pair second, and Sadler and Hammerton, winners on the Thames last year, and favourites for this race, third only. The trial heats for the amateur fours produced only one race, for Worcester College walked over for their heats. The Etonians and London rowed a race the reflex of Henley, vindicating for the former the ill luck of station that had spoilt their chance on the Sunday. London held a lead for half a mile, and made a race for two-thirds of the way, but could not stay the pace, and left the Etonians to win rather easily at the last.
The final day was the bonne-bouche of the meeting, and the Champion 1Vatermen's fours opened the ball, three crews only coming to the post, and only two in the race, Biffen's crew rowing to qualify themselves for the third prize. Chambers' Newcastle crew went off at an awful pace, and instead of steering straight for the point by the grand stand set deliberately to work to cross and wash Elammerton's crew, the same that won the 100/. last year on the Thames. They succeeded in bothering them to their satisfaction, but nearly ruined their own chances by so doing ; more than once fouls were imminent, and the leaders wandered, for the sake of annoyance, more out of their course than did the pursuers for shelter. The race resembled much that of Hammer- ton's with Matfm's crew at Putney last year, with the important exception that the Newcastle men were never quite caught, and won by half a length ; the third crew almost out of sight. Then came the Amateur eights. Henley regatta had opened the eyes of many entries in many races, and the Leander and Radleian Clubs did not appear in either eights or fours. However, for this race four goodly crews abreast made a goodly show at the last, the Etonians, London, Worcester, and Corpus Colleges ranking in this order from the Parisian shore. London had been fast starters at Henley, but they were nothing here compared to the Corpus, who led by half a length in less than a dozen strokes, Worcester apparently standing still alongside of the others. The other two, Eton and London, slowly closed up with Corpus, and, as they passed the stand, London in the centre just led, Corpus on the outside was just last, and for the time the curve of the station was against them, and they lost still more. When all reached some straight water under the Bois de Boulogne the pace became hotter than ever ; slowly the Etonians got away, London began to crack under the severity of the stroke, Corpus, wide out- side, began to pass and pursue the leaders, and Worcester toiled On honestly, far in the rear. Half a mile from home the two Oxonian crews drew clear of London, and the latter quickly tailed off. Inch by inch Corpus gained, to the wonder of all, and collared Eton ; a race worthy to be the spectacle of a metropolis instead of two small far distanced steamers. Ad lib. was the number of strokes in each boat ; still Corpus forged in front, and at 200 yards from the end led by a very few feet. But their coxswain had not taken the advantage of the now vacant Londoners' water so soon as he might ; at the finish, a sharp right-hand course, somewhat similar to though hardly so abrupt as the down-stream approach to Hammersmith Bridge, was all in favour of the Etonians ; their time of oars was more perfect under the high pressure of the last spurt, and aided somewhat by the inside steerage, they landed winners by half a length. Time, 8 min. 35 sec., by a Benson's chronograph. Much might be said in praise of either crew, as well as otherwise ; rather short they were, each of them, but the pace was undeniable, and the umpire's boats could only steam far off and behold.
The Etonians had nearly a stone a man the pull in strength, and the prestige of five University oars. Of the latter distinctions the College crew could boast not one, though it was the fault of " schools " rather than himself that their stroke had not ere this attained a "broad blue." If ever the infinite excellence of "catch at the beginning" was tried and proved it was by this light- weight crew, and none can gainsay the infinite superiority of the stroke of Bridges of Corpus, when with material behind him which, without unfair detraction from members of the crew, could not individually be compared to tile component parts of the Etonians, he could make such a race, and from, perhaps, the inferior station. A little more attention to form might have well been studied by some of the Corpus men, but their work, with light frames, was excellent, all together, at the right time, and in the right place. Their defeat may rank with the proudest annals of their College.
The Etonians, too, have done right well for their school and University, for as a finale to this and all their Henley successes, they an hour or two later cantered in before the Worcester crew, and thus secured the second great objet d'art given for four oars. The American crew, with due discretion, held aloof, though entered on the card for this race, so that the ill-starred defeat of the former four-oared race was still unavenged. With this victory the Parisian regatta came to an end, for no need here to add insult to injury by detailing the indignity and profanation of a canoe chase, with which the Friday's sports were interlarded. Proh pudor ! why not have a duck and pig hunt also?
For competitors arrangements, and it is to be hoped results, were all that could be desired ; for real rowing men there was an ample fund of sport ; for absent spectators a loss, " sua si bona norint." For those friends who from a distance read this sketch, the absence or presence of the public will not affect the interest of the racing. One thing seems plain ; regattas, like charity, should begin at home, and in the end they will be better appreciated. We have cast our pearls before swine this summer ; our "Thames National Regatta" has faded away, exhausted from want of sinews ; we have now no national joint gathering for amateurs and watermen, such as we threw away, so far as a spectacle, last week. Will not the all-liberal scions of royalty, nobility, and gentle blood, who pro- vided this wondrous bill of fare of late, join next year in re-estab- lishing a similar gathering for Father Thames? Expense there needs must be, but that of transit and transport, no mean item with the Committee of this year, would in future be spared.
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