Rowing Against the Tide - A career in sport and politics (13 page)

Those half dozen years of the Nottingham International Regatta, were initially sponsored by Guinness as the major funder plus the two local authorities, Barclays Bank and Selincourt Ltd. The Guinness initiative was the brainchild of Dudley Bendall who became the Regatta Chairman in those early years. Those first three years brought teams from the USSR, East German, Hungary, Poland, Rumania, Bulgaria, Argentina, Australia, Japan, the United States and Canada, and many other Western European countries, in an event never before seen by the vast majority of our sport, outside the few who travelled to Championships abroad. However because the cost of funding the overseas crews could not be sustained, the last couple of years meant the overseas entry was effectively confined to the USA, Canada and Ireland who still welcomed the double event of NIR and the Royal. For whatever reason, the then team manager of the British team would not bring them to the International which further undermined the event, which would have at least created a four Nation Challenge. The International was then persuaded to change its date, and Bill Clark from the Association was deputed to run it as a more domestic event, accepting that we would lose the attendance of our few overseas friends unless we could find sponsorship to finance them. Inevitably this failed and the regattas coffers were decimated leaving us unlikely to be able to continue. The qualifying races for the Royal took the vacated pre-Henley weekend so there was no possibility of a return to that date, and effectively ended the Nottingham International. Fortunately entries at Henley Royal happily held up and in fact increased, indicating how short sighted those officers were, in seeking to avoid the creation of a British multilane course.

The International had its moments, on and off the water. When the Egyptians came, they rowed a borrowed eight to the start, and crashed bow on into the stages. Their sculler was disqualified for two false starts, and when he went down to Henley the following week, he was again disqualified as being late on the start !

If that first visit had been less than successful, they came a second time with a good friend of mine, Fayaz Yakkan, and were accompanied by one of their Ministers and his wife. I agreed to play host, and my wife, so that there would be no misunderstanding duly wore a beautiful gold Star of David,. Fayaz, who had become the International Governing Body’s (FISA) the African Representative on the International Council, assured him of our hospitality and the minister duly came to our home in Barton in Fabis with his wife. They won one of the eights events, and being the first time they had ever won something abroad, the Ambassador invited the committee to the embassy in London. Being the diplomat that I am (!), I rang the embassy and wished to make it clear to the Ambassador’s aid-de-camp, that my wife and I were Jewish, and we had no wish to cause him any embarrassment. To our surprise, the ambassador himself came to the telephone and insisted we came, which was even more surprising since he was the Brigadier Shazley, who in the 1971 war between Israel and Egypt, was reputed to have instructed his troops to take no prisoners. He was charming and hospitable, and when Sally and I were shown his great dinning room, and remarked that surely the beautiful ceiling frieze wasn’t the original, and where was it kept, he smiled and said you only want to know where to plant your bomb.

The Eastern European countries were only able to come because of the funding we provided in those first few years, and came without any hard currency of their own. A Romanian crew were accompanied by a coach who spoke French, and with my schoolboy French I managed to look after their needs. We dug into our pot and gave each five pounds to spend in Nottingham, and they were staggered by the two shopping malls in the town centre, having nothing like it back home. They all bought women’s tights, and when I expressed my surprise, the coach assured me that the tights would be worth a fortune back home. The Hungarian coach was a cheerful fellow, but his sole English was “yes, no, and gin and tonic!”

There was one sad incident with the Soviet team, who were accompanied by a very good looking lady called Valentina, from I assume, the KGB, at least she was politically in charge. She and Sally got on well, but when Sally remarked that surely what she was wearing had not been bought in Russia, she replied that she was a very privileged person, and that nothing, absolutely nothing, she was wearing was bought in Russia ! We had a small reception on the sectioned off area in the first floor dining room, and when we left, Sally realised she had left her umbrella behind the bar. When we returned, two of the Soviet crew and their Cox were putting bottles of booze from the bar into their kit bags. As politely as we could we indicated they should be put back, which they did, and we thought little more it. However we felt we should tell Valentina and indicating that no harm was done, and we considered the matter closed, but thought she should know so that no such incident would reoccur. We met up again at Henley, and expressed our hope that what had happened had not caused any problems. She replied that all was well, but the three crew members were already back in Moscow, and would not be allowed abroad again. It clearly was a different world to ours. On another occasion the Soviet coach had seen the display of fishing tackle on the far side of the course, and asked if we would be good enough to buy the lure and weight that was displayed in a small pack. Sally did so for the princely sum of about eighty pence. On delivery, he asked if she preferred Vodka or caviar as payment, and duly a half bottle of the real stuff was placed next to her at the hospitality table.

Finished at last!

Holme Pierrepont hosted the 1975 World Championships, under the chairmanship of that same John Garton, with an excellent executive secretary in John Smith. The County Council were major sponsors, and we owed a great deal to the late Cllr Michael Cowan, who was not only the then Chairman of Finance, but carried enough clout to kick butt, ( mostly Officer Dibbles’ ) and ensure the site and its facilities could cope with the numbers of athletes and public who had never been seen before in our sport in the UK. When I found that the Chairman had not granted Michael Cowan full access to the course, I altered his badge with the necessary code letter, and was perhaps rightly called over the coals by the Chairman. I was unrepentant, for he knew the contribution Michael had made, and as I pointed out, I had to live with the consequences of his prejudices, whilst he could retire back to Henley. It was just one more notch on the stick of my clashes with Garton, but it was the unrelenting, and unreasoned objection to anything I tried to do, that was actually why I ended up in Parliament. I had attended a National Executive meeting one evening at Hammersmith, chaired by Garton and serviced by our recently appointed Executive Secretary David Lunn-Rockliffe. Without reason, I was subjected to a tirade of abuse from John Garton, who railed against this ignorant no-body from the Midlands. I left and as I arrived home two hours later I was clearly still angry. Sally said “You’ve had another row haven’t you. Why don’t you chuck it in and go back to local government where you’re wanted and respected for what you do”. David Lunn-Rockliffe phoned the following morning expressing his anger at what had happened, for there had been no reason or justification for John Garton’s outburst. Against his plea that I should stay on the executive, I said I had had enough and he should accept my resignation with immediate effect. Within a couple of months a by-election was called for a City of Nottingham local council seat, and I was duly selected and elected in 1976.

The World Championships of 1986, followed the Commonwealth Games at Strathclyde three weeks earlier, and like the first, racing conditions were pretty good. However there was one big slip up when Thomi Keller, the FISA President, took a weather forecast far too seriously, and with little warning brought racing forward that day, such that racing was over by the time the TV and public had arrived. Thomi also made the fatal mistake of declaring that after a couple of false starts in the coxless fours, there would be no further false starts called. Unsurprisingly the German crew promptly jumped the start and led GB by about a half length, and held it to deny Dan Topolski’s crew the Gold Medal.

There were, and are, many criticisms of the course, but subsequent developments at Docklands and Dorney Lake, have made most understand that we are an outside, open air sport, and it is almost impossible to provide an artificial course, particularly in Northern Europe, that will not from time to time, be less than fair, and sometimes un-rowable. The late Thomi Keller insisted all the trees were removed, and you know how tricky that can be with the environmental lobby. But in a clash of policy between Thomi and the environmental lobby, the outcome was inevitable, the trees went ! However it did mean that since the wind was either straight up, or straight down the course, it was usually fair to all, though of course there are times when there is a side wind, but it’s not very often. This point has been underscored with the problems at the 2000meter course at Docklands, and even the splendid modern track at Dorney, with its now required separate access to the start, has problems with side wind, which sadly meant that the first International event, the 2006 World Cup Event, had to be seeded one to six based on the outcome of the semi-final times.

Still the three World Championships at Holme Pierrepont, one Junior and two Senior, raced in good conditions in late summer. It is a pity that so many of our regattas are held in the spring and early summer, when conditions are to say the least problematical. But even in the spring, for whatever reason, comes five or half past five each day, the weather usually calms, as if the course is saying, “why don’t you race until eight or nine in the evening, and I’ll be good, and you can complete your racing programme”.

When Desmond Hill reluctantly brought the National Schools Regatta to Holme Pierrepont, he did not feel it would succeed there. However he was the first to acknowledge that it worked very well indeed, and it has grown to be the largest three day event in the Rowing Calendar. With plentiful affordable accommodation all around, plus on site accommodation for officials and others, it remains the venue of choice for the schools, particularly for those upcountry and Scottish Schools who would have to think very carefully at the cost of staying overnight at Docklands or Dorney. Sadly of all the regattas over the last forty years, the Schools have been the hardest hit by bad weather, but over those years of its existence we have not lost that many days racing. There was however one Saturday when racing was called off shortly after midday, only to find that as ever by five thirty, it was flat calm and racing could have continued until eight or eight thirty. It was said however that the schoolmasters would have wanted the little ones to be in bed by then! Those regattas enjoyed either the open travelling grandstands set up by Pym Berry of Burton and Tom Fisher of Trent Rowing Club on the back of his flat back lorries, or the double decker buses now enjoyed at the National Schools. The open stands, by far the greater fun, ran foul of the early days of “elf an safety”!

Following the grossly unfair GB selection process of 1968, proper trials were held at Holme Pierrepont from 1972 to 1976 under the Chairmanship of Michael Sweeney, who had been a victim of that flawed 1968 system that had denied his crew, and that of a coxed four from Poplar and Blackwell of their rightful place in the Games in Mexico City.

Likewise the National Championships, the University Championships and many other events, still come to Holme Pierrepont, and it is to be hoped that this National Centre that has served the sport so well, will continue to be supported for many years to come. Sadly it no longer meets the current Olympic specification, and whilst it could still stage Junior, University or Masters Championships, the biggest events, such as the World Cup Races, Senior and Olympic events will inevitably be bid for, and staged, at the fabulous Dorney Lake course, the site of the 2012 Olympic Regatta.

**********

Chapter 7

A CAVERSHAM STORY.

Whilst I made no great shakes on the water, I did feel I could contribute best to the sport I loved, by seeing through yet another project like Holme Pierrepont, and help to establish a centre for the British Team at Caversham. Whilst Holme Pierrepont was used for trials and a fair amount of squad training, it was increasingly obvious that the demands of the British squad would never be adequately met until they had a dedicated facility of their own, and not subject to trying to fit in with the needs of the centre which had commercial bookings for most weekends during the year, and others wanting use that was incompatible with the squad’s programme. Top athletes like Steve and Matthew, trained on the Henley Reach, as did most of the squad out of Leander.