Light Crew Seeks Thames Cup

With an undefeated season under its belt, and the mythical national championship in its pocket. Harvard's varsity lightweight crew will go, after a higher goal--the Thames Cup--when it competes this week in the annual Regatta at Henley-on-Thames, England.

Last July, another unbeaten Crimson eight sought the same goal, with results the present crew will try to avenge. With the cream of the world's crews shooting for Olympic berths last summer, Harvard's lights had figured to dominate Henley. They didn't. A Cornell boat that the Crimson had ripped at the Eastern Sprints dumped them at the American Henley in a warm-up race, then slaughtered them in England a week later.

Cornell suffered through a miserable season this spring and has no plans to return to England, but Harvard will still return to England, but Harvard will still have plenty of competition. The mammoth Penn freshmen heavies, who capped an unbeaten spring with triumphs at the Sprints and the I.R.A., as well as a strong M.I.T. varsity eight will both present stiff challenges, and there are several entries from England and a German crew as well.

Of the many challenge races the Regatta offers, the Thames Cup ranks second only to the Grand Challenge cup in terms of difficulty and prestige. The absence of weight limits, which will throw the lights boats outweighing them by 50 pounds per man, presents the Crimson boat with another problem.

But Harvard must not be underestimated, either. The Crimson roared unchallenged through four races during the regular season, then scattered a bid by a undefeated Penn boat all over the Lake Quansigamond at the Sprints. Its 6:02 clocking against Navy rates as the best effort of any of the Thames Cup entries, and its ability to grab an early lead and hold it has become a formidable Harvard trademark.

"We could very well go in as the favorite," says tow-man Dave Tyler, "just on the basis of faster times. But the Henley distance (1 3/4 miles) is a half-mile longer than the 2,000 meter course we row in America, and the heavier boats might have a stamina advantage over the fiinal stretch."

The narrow Henley course allows only two crews to race at a time, and the loser is eliminated without benefit of a repecharge. Blind draws take the place of seedings, and if Harvard happens to draw Penn early they could be in trouble.

But Harvard has beaten the M.I.T. boat twice this year, and should expect little trouble from the London Rowing Club, which leads a flock of local English entries. A west German eight is also competing and the presence of the Garda Siochana, a boatload of husky Dublin policemen, is not unexpected.

Only three oarsmen, Rob Lolff at seven, Fred Fisher at four, and Joe Bragwell at three, return from last July's unsuccessful boat, and together with four sophomores, a senior up from the JV's, and a new cox, from a distinctly different, smoother rowing crew.

"We're fast," says Bowman Kim Kiley, "and we've been faster than Penn all year. But we'll need endurance to be faster when it counts."