What's this, an Irishman getting the better of Englishmen! No chance I hear you scream! Well, yes it can happen. It may not be that often, but when it does happen it can have outstanding consequences.
Picture it; Home Pierrepont, Nottingham. British Schoolboy Championships, 1992. We are the only Irish crew to be competing in this event. We are the fastest qualifiers for the final of the Child Beale Cup for School First Eights. We know its going to be tough, Kingston Grammar are fast, as are all the crews in the final. We need more than just the luck of the Irish if we want to win this race. I get my thinking cap on. How are we going to get the better of these crews?
I come up with the most ridiculous, but plausible idea. I call a meeting with the crew and especially the Cox. I explain in great detail the running order of the start. I give a running commentary of what the umpire will say and the actions; he/she takes to get the crews under starting orders. I take special care in describing how the umpire will start the race when his/her flag enters the air, whether the crews are ready or not. Under no circumstances will he/she stop. I then went onto my plan on how to get the best of these British crews.
We row off to the start of the race of our lives. This could be our moment. We could be the only Irish crew to medal at this regatta. On foreign waters we rowed, confident but realising a battle was to ensue of, strength, technique, and power, but also of wits.
We get to the start and we position ourselves in lane 4, right next to Kingston Grammar School, the other very fast eight. The umpire reads out the list of crews from lane 1 to lane 6. We get into position; my eyes are transfixed on the umpires flag, ready to signal to my Cox. Are you ready, the flag goes up. No turning back now for either the crews or the umpire. Now I bellow, NOT READY, shouts our Cox in the loudest, and most high pitched, bogger Irish accent you ever heard. Go shouts the umpire and the flag drops, we go and all the other crews are left looking around to wonder what on earth that awful sound was. Before they realised that the race was underway we had gone. Kingston were the only crew not to react to our Coxs bellows and raced off with us. It proved decisive as it was a ding-dong battle between Kingston Grammar and us. The others just werent in it.
We eventually took the silver medal behind Kingston but had rowed the race of our lives, and had gotten the better of four other British crews in their Championships.
So there you have it, cheeky you might say to yourselves but we didnt break any rules, we just bent them slightly, and got the better, for once, of the English!
Gordon Reay BSc (Gap year rowing coach, 2001/2002)
Note by the Editor:
Gordon did not realise when he wrote this article that Monkton came 3rd behind his crew from St Joseph's, Galway, gaining the first ever medal for a Monkton 1st VIII at the National Schools Regatta. According to the Bluefriars Newsletter of 1992, the first four crews finished within half a length of each other. The record of the photo-finish is printed on page 17 of the 1992 edition.