Ian Hall has been reading the posts about the years leading up to the Head years (such as fhbc-in-the-mid-60s and before-the-headship) and welcomes bringing the lead up years into the celebration of the headship of 1969. He writes:
The advance of the first boat in the Mays started in 1960, and thenceforward day one in 1968 was the only occasion the crew was bumped until 1972. 47 days bumping or rowing over with only one day going down. The chart shows the progress through the decade, and though the years 1960 to 1964 were in the second division it must be remembered that the fastest crews can only go up four places in a year.
When I went up in 1964 the winning culture was already firmly established. The Captains over the previous years – Robin Mackness, David Knowles and Peter Little – had both created a fighting spirit and put together teams of coaches the equal of, if not better than, most other colleges. It was fascinating reading Rupert Ward’s report of the Fairbairn Cup crew of 1964 – this is the first time I’ve seen it. First I note that he was disappointed to come in 5th, at the time when we were 14th in the Mays, which gives an indication of the Club expectations. He speculates that this might be because two freshmen were rowing at stroke and 7. As the stroke in question I well remember the coaches looking for length and rhythm and the crew getting frustrated with the rating at 32 and that they weren’t being allowed to race. Eventually Denham Bayly-Jones said to us in the back of the boat, “OK, show them you can put the rating up.” That outing we were asked to row a four minute piece. Raymond Butt, at 7, used to count the strokes on every piece of work he ever rowed – his biggest disappointment was that he had lost count at the lock when winning the Boston Marathon with Edinburgh University. Anyway, at the conclusion our four minutes Raymond told me that we had rowed 164 strokes. Thereafter the frustrations seemed to dissipate.
It would also be worth adding a little to the report on the events of summer 1965. On the first day of the Mays Christs bumped Selwyn in front of us and we caught Magdalene. However, they had been impeded by bumps in front of them, and successfully appealed for a rerow. We therefore had to go down to the start again and start with six and a half lengths of clear water between us. We eventually bumped them as they were passing the finish post. The following day we duly bumped Downing, but on the Friday we had a bad row and failed to bump Trinity Hall, to remain 10th on the river. In the evening we had a crew meeting. I was the only member of the crew not leaving at the end of term, and someone pointed out that the miss meant that I would no longer be able to go Head during my three years. Peter Little said no, we would be going Head in centenary year, 1969. Here is the 1965 Mays programme which David Knowles passed to me a couple of years ago.
At Henley in 1965 we rented a house on Rod Eyot, upstream of the bridge and accessed by dinghy from Wargrave Road. The races in the 1960’s were being recorded for BBC television until 1969 when the cameras were diverted to cover the Investiture of the Prince of Wales, never to return. Commentaries came from a team on the umpires launch and were beamed up the course to a receiver at the finish. As Rod Eyot was in line with the course, Tom Boswell, an electronics and hifi enthusiast, was able to set up a receiver and record our race commentaries for us to listen to on our return from the course.
In the Ladies Plate we were drawn against St. Catharine’s to race before 9.00am on Wednesday morning. Desmond Hill, the Daily Telegraph Correspondent, wrote that the first few races would not be worth the missing of your bacon and eggs. In fact we had one of the closest races of the day and pushed Cats to within a second of the record in the fastest time recorded for the event. However, there was no commentary as the BBC presumably took Desmond Hill’s advice.
However we picked up commentaries for all of our Visitors’ races. We first rowed Jesus and then St. Catharine’s, with the majority of their crews being Blues or Goldie. We may have passed the winning post first, but we didn’t actually win the races according to the BBC, Jesus and St. Catharine’s lost them. “They’ve let them (Fitzwilliam) get away” was the oft repeated phrase. A fantastic motivator for the following day! In the final we were up against a powerful St. Edmund Hall (10kg pp heavier) crew who helped us off the start with poor steering, but rowed us down just short of the mile on the way to breaking the Visitors’ record. Here is a picture of our semi-final win.
Below are photos of the 1966 Lent Crew and the 1967 May Crew. At this time we were helped by going down to Kingston where Bill Clark, who was a Billygoat, was the Club captain and we could borrow a boat and train with Kingston crews. This experience on the Thames contributed to our results in the Reading HOR where we were 7th = with Leander I and London I, and 17th in the Tideway Head (where Leander were 15th and London 19th).
Not recorded photographically as far as I know was our test of nerves on day 2 of the 1967 Lents, though brief details are given in the records. As we turned for the start we hit an underwater stake and holed the bottom of the boat under the stern canvas. We had to land and take the boat out of the water to empty it, and my recollection is that George (boatman) was still trying to stick gaffer tape over the hole when the one minute gun went. We managed to boat and push off in time for the start, but the stern was gradually sinking. Passing the Plough the canvas was reported as under water with only the rudder cross-tree showing, and Emmanuel closed to a canvas. However they were then bumped by Christ’s, and we survived to row over and then bump Jesus and LMBC on the last two days.