Crimson Lightweights Pass 39 Crews To Take Third Straight Henley Title

For the third consecutive year the varsity lightweight crew went in late June to Henley-on-Thames, England, and returned with the Thames Cup, and undisputed symbol of supremacy in Anglo-American rowing.

Only once before in the 92 year history of the event has an eight captured the Cup for three years running. That was the Thames Rowing Club in 1872-73-74.

Matched in the finals with the Detroit Boat Club, coach Laury Coolidge's crew built up a one-length lead in the first 500 yards, dropped to one-half a length at the mile, then upped stroke and swept over the finish line, victory by one and one-half lengths.

Detroit had suffered only two defeats in the past two years, both to the Crimson. The first took place on the Charles in late April.

Despite their favored status, the lightweights had no chance to rest easy during the regatta. At Henley the loss of a single trial heat means elimination. In its first such heat the Crimson drew Isis Boat Club, the second Oxford boat, which experts said would be the boat to beat.

Using avant garde shovel blades called "Jumbo Bats," Isis tralled all the way, challenging only at the mile marker, where it came to within one-quarter length of the sprinting varsity. Crimson stroke Tony Goodman and company finished the mile, 550 yard course in 6:39, a new record for the Henley distance.

Humbling the London Boat Club's second crew two days later, Coolidge's powerhouse met Kent School, of Kent Conn. in the quarter-finals. Though plagued by colds and outweighed by the schoolboys, the varsity reached the dnish one half-length out in front.

Next came the Tideway Scullers, an English group whose members compete in single soulls for positions is the club eight. The race took place on a Saturday morning, with the finals scheduled for that afternoon. Still toting colds, the Crimson oarsmen eliminated the Scullers by one-third of a length and sat back to await the winner of the other semi-final heat.

The Detroiters reached the finals by outdistancing another Harvard crew, Eliot House. Despite inexperience and a borrowed, unfamiliar shell, the Eliot group had passed eights from Queen's University of Belfast and the Kensington Rowing Club.

In conquering the Detroit boat, the varsity listed its thirty-first consecutive win and conquest of the 89 other crews entered in Thames Cup competition.

Six of the eight Crimson oars who brought home the silver will be returning for action next spring. They are bow, Ted Westbrook; 2, Jon French; 4, Bruce Konrad; 5, Boake Christensen; 7, Dave Richards, captain; and stroke, Tony Goodman.

In practice "brushes" before the competition began, the Crimson outrowed the Yale heavies by almost one length, but lost by two to Molesey Boat Club, the eight which went on to win the Grand Challenge Cup.

Two Crimson spare oars, Francis Blake and James Burnes, outrowed Yale to win the Minors Bowl and post another "third consecutive" victory for the varsity.

Three other American crews failed to row into the final heats. They were Washington and Lee High School, Va; St. Paul's School, Concord, N.H.; and Tabor Academy, Marion, Mass.