Varsity Lightweight Crew to Race For Thames Cup at Henley in July

The varsity lightweight crew is definitely going to travel to Henley this summer for the annual regatta. The Friends of Harvard Rowing made the trip possible by deciding at a meeting on May 21 to finance part of the trip.

Last Friday's CRIMSON indicated that there was still some doubt whether the team would make the trip, but in fact, the decision by the Friends two days earlier had made the trip certain. The lightweights decided after their victory at the Eastern Sprints that they would go as long as they could get some financial assistance.

Realizing that the Friends have been supplying substantial funds during the last few successful crew seasons, the lightweights contributed almost half of the required sum themselves. They supplied $3200 of the anticipated $7800 bill, and the Friends of Harvard Rowing gave the rest.

This will be the third time in four years that the lights have made the trip to Henley. In 1966, they won the Thames Cup, but last year the Crimson was eliminated in the first race of the five-day regatta by a good Cornell boat. Harvard was unfortunate enough to be in a lane where the current was not at all favorable, but Joe Bracewell, stroke of the Crimson boat said, "We might have lost anyway."

Tenacious Engineers

The only other about from the United States in this year's Henley competition will be M.I.T.'s lightweights. Harvard edged the tenacious Engineers by four seconds in this April's Biglin Bowl race. In the Sprints, M.I.T. was second to the Crimson, but a rather distant second. There is a possibility that Trinity's heavyweights might go to Henley, too, but their entry does not pose a major problem. The quality of the foreign competition this year is unknown.