THE SPORT OF ROWING furlongs twenty poles”279 turned out to be long enough to discourage the kind of mad sprinting seen in the Bumps and short enough to encourage relatively spirited racing from start to finish. Today the crews race north to south against the current from the east side of Temple Island toward the town bridge. The port lane is identified as 1, the Berks Station, on the eastern or Berkshire side, and the starboard lane as 2, the Bucks Station, on the western or Buckinghamshire side. (Just to keep things simple, the town of Henley is actually in Oxfordshire.) According to four-time Olympic Champion Matthew Pinsent,280 a member of Leander Club, situated just past the finish line at Henley, “the course is divided by landmarks and waypoints that are traditional rather than metric. punctuated by ‘the Hole in the Wall’283 and ‘the Progress Boards.’284 The only logic is that it has always been like this, and is all the better for it.”285 One additional landmark must be noted. ‘The Barrier’281 is about a third of the distance. There is no half-way mark, just a point called ‘Fawley,’282 and the final charge is 279 Maclaren, p. 164 (a mile and five-sixteenths, 6,930 feet or 2,112 meters.) 280 See Chapter 136. 281 a sheep gate on the tow path along the Berks shore at the northern boundary of Remenham Farm, where the first official intermediate time is taken. It is 2,089 feet or 637 meters from the start and 4,841 feet or 1,475 meters from the finish. 282 named after Fawley Court, a red-brick country home designed by Sir Christopher Wren and set back from the river on the Bucks side. Until the early 20th Century, the Fawley Court Boathouse was a prominent riverbank landmark. Today this point on the course is identified only by a white canvas booth where the second official intermediate time is taken. It is 3,435 Today, Poplar Point is just past the finish line where the river bends to the left and passes the boat tents and Leander Club and under Henley Bridge. This is easily seen in the overhead photo earlier in the chapter and on the map on the following page. Until 1885, the old course made the dog leg at Poplar Point and continued approximately 1,800 feet or 550 meters to the finish in front of the Red Lion Hotel just short of the bridge. feet or 1,047 meters from the start and 3,495 feet or 1,065 meters from the finish. 283 a break in the shoreline retaining wall on the Bucks side at the north end of the grounds of Phyllis Court and spanned by an arched wooden footbridge. It is approximately 890 feet or 271 meters from the finish. 284 in front of the reserved-seat grandstand within the Stewards’ Enclosure. Intermediate results are posted there. It is approximately 400 feet or 122 meters from the finish. 285 Pinsent, pp. 207-8 Author Crews passing by the Progress Boards 122 meters to go 80
