Rowing and Rugger
SIR,—Your correspondent, Mr. H. W. Pearson, makes one or two some- what surprising .statements. He doubts, for instanc,.., "whether the' crowds of university men at Putney would outnumber those at Twicken- ham." Of course they don't. Surely he must realise that it is quite impossible to see the Boat Race from start to finish from the towpath, and that one can only glimpse the crews for a small fraction of the race. If serious rowing at Oxford is unpopular as, alas, it appears to be, may this not reflect on Oxford's take rather than on rowing as a sport ? Rowing does not seem to be unpopular at Cambridge, where colleges put on as many as six or seven crews in the "Mays." I have never thought of rowing as a sedentary occupation like chess—in fact many. of us found sitting a somewhat painful process after rowing, at least in the early stages: Finally, Sir, an oarsman has little or no chance of becoming proficient in other sports, for-it is a whole-time recreation and demands all there is of a man's devotion and physical and even mental powers. Rowing is. an -exacting mistress, but offers greater rewards to the persevering than
any other sport, not the least of which is the coveted "blue."—Yours
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