THE SPORT OF ROWING in Isis. The cutters were to start from Count’s Corner, and row through Elvet Bridge and back. “On the firing of the pistol for the start, a very exciting scene took place. It appears several competitors entertained a bad feeling towards Clasper because they considered that he, being one of the best rowers of the day, should not have entered to deprive an amateur of the prize; therefore they determined at any cost to deprive him of it. On the boats starting, Robinson endeavoured to pull right into Clasper’s boat, but missing it, the oars became entangled, when the former jumped out of his boat and tried to pull the latter out of his. Clasper, seeing that all chance of winning the race was gone, and that his boat was likely to be capsized in the struggle, hit Robinson on the head with his fist, and was just on the point of striking him with his oar when he found that his boat was fast filling with water and going down bow foremost, and to save himself, he had to jump out and swim to shore. “On arriving at Bow Corner, Bone placed his boat across the river for the purpose of fouling Newby. Succeeding in his object, both boats became entangled and immediately afterwards Newby’s boat was upset and, in tumbling out, its occupant seized hold of Bone’s boat and upset it. Both parties, after a good ducking, succeeded in reaching shore. “The race was ultimately won by Craggs.”257 “That same day, the fours race was also stopped due to stoning of a boat of professionals by the crowd, so this was not a gentleman/professional dispute but a case of the professionals overplaying their hand.”258 Nearly a century and a half has now passed since that Durham Regatta, but the 19th Century mindset and the passion endure in the person of John Hall-Craggs: “Dare I say it? ‘Americans’ will never understand! They have a fetish concerning 257 Macfarlane-Grieve, pp. 35-6. The quote is a contemporary account in the Durham Advertiser. 258 Hall-Craggs, personal correspondence, 2008 the old amateur/professional class situation.”259 Watermen made a living at rowing. They rowed because they were paid to. Gentlemen believed that sports should be done for the love (“amare” in Latin) of the activity, and so the concept of “amateur” was specifically created by and for the sport of rowing, and all competition with “professional” oarsmen was soon banned. Michael Poliakoff, author of Combat Sport in the Ancient World, has described the great injustices suffered by athletes like 1912 Olympic Decathlon Champion Jim Thorpe, “all of it done in the name of some kind of fantasy about a world of amateur athletes which really was the sinister working of a group of elites who did not like the idea of tradesmen and people of lower economic status mixing into their world of sport.”260 American Olympic rowing coach and historian Richard Glendon:261 “In England, rowing is purely a gentleman’s game, and the blooded crews are not allowed to compete against laborers, as such classes, by making a business of muscular toil, have an advantage for muscular development over gentlemen amateurs, whose more sedentary vocations give them less opportunity for developing muscle.”262 David W. Zang, head of the Sports Studies Program at Towson University in the U.S.: “Rowing was, in fact, the first sport that upper crust Brits singled out for testing amateurism’s exclusionary principle, whereby gents shunned any competitor who made his living with his hands. Eventually the claims of amateurism grew to include the grander assertion that participation in 259 Ibid 260 Qtd. by The Real Olympics, Anthony Thomas Director, Carlton Television, 2004 261 See Chapter 51. 262 Glendon, p. 27 76
