THE SPORT OF ROWING Hooray Henley, TSL Productions, BBC Thames Rowing Club Double, in practice in 1939 1936 Olympic Champion, Langer See Stroke L.F. Southwood 188lb, 85kg, Bow Jack Beresford 163lb. 74kg 0°, +30° to -35°, 0-9, 0-10, 4-10 Classical Technique Concurrent Schubschlag Late arm draw, strong emphasis on back swing and send. “In the last month before Berlin, they were coached by Eric Phelps [who was then working for a German club]. For the last three months of training, they ran a mile before breakfast, and in the final preparation ran to the top of Remenham Hill [above the rowing course at Henley]. Throughout the whole ten months, they also did thirty-five minutes ground exercises daily. Their one aim was the Gold Medal.”1106 The Guardian: “In Berlin, they were too old, their boat was out of date, and the Germans were threatening to carry all before them. “Beresford and Southwood had one trump card. Germany had relied heavily on English coaches, and one of these, Eric 1106 Keith Osbourne, op.cit., pp. 256-7 Phelps, warned the British that unless they found a lighter, more slender boat they would have no chance. Within a week, the boat was built. Within another it was tested, shipped off to Germany, and lost. A mere couple of days before the Games, it was traced to a railway siding between Hamburg and Berlin.”1107 1107 Nick Mason, op.cit. “Mason was the deputy sports editor at the paper, and I remember helping him with this pre-Sydney epic. I’m pretty sure that the source for the Berlin ‘36 stories, e.g. Beresford’s boat being lost on the railway and the accounts of British coaches at work in Germany, are from The Story of World Rowing, Chapter 13 – Hitler’s Games. My sources were Eric Phelps (Maurice von Opel’s chauffeur and coach) and Dick Southwood.” – 292
