OUR ANCESTORS Putney soon after London Rowing Club es- tablished itself as the first rowing club there in 1856.”181 In 1897, Leander opened a summer an- nex far from London in the village of Hen- ley-on-Thames,182 22 miles 35 km upstream from Eton, and the club moved there perma- nently after World War II. Jumbo Edwards,183 legendary British rower and coach, relates a particularly tell- ing story concerning Bossy Phelps, perhaps the most famous member of a famous family of watermen, who was employed as the Le- ander boatman in 1936: “When Leander represented Great Brit- ain in the Olympic eights, the Australian crew were here to train, and in an endeavour to exhibit oneupmanship, asked Bossie why the Leander crew sported such an effeminate colour as pink. “Bossie replied, ‘Half a moment, Sir, let’s get this straight; it is not pink; it is ce- rise.’ “‘Well, why do they wear cerise? Why do they wear those silly cerise socks?’ “‘Well, Sir, they are very proud of their ankles.’ “‘Proud of their ankles? What do you mean?’ “‘Well, Sir, they have no chain marks on their ankles.’”184 Leander adopted a “cerise” hippopota- mus as its official insignia, and wags have suggested the reason was because the hippo “was the only aquatic animal apart from members of Leander which kept its nose permanently in the air.”185 Rowing at the Universities At the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge during the second and third decades of the 19th Century, crews were be- ing formed at the various individual colleges which make up the two Universities. A sys- tem of rowing soon evolved that rivaled that of Eton in both its complexity and tradition. Each year there were two tiers of races between eights186 representing the various individual colleges. For the less experi- enced, there were the Torpids at Oxford and the Lents at Cambridge, both rowed in boats with fixed seats, both held prior to the yearly Easter break. Later in the post-Easter term187, there were the Eights at Oxford and the Mays at Cambridge for more experi- enced crews, rowed using boats with sliding seats after their invention in the 1870s.188 In the fall of his freshman year, the nov- ice rower would go down to the boathouse of his college, there to be instructed by an experienced rower in a tub-pair for several days. C.M. Pitman (describing Oxford): “About the end of the second week of the [Michaelmas] term, the freshmen are picked up into fours. These crews, which row in heavy tub-boats, practise for about three weeks for a race, which is rowed during the fifth or sixth week of the term. After a day or two of rest, the best men from these fours are taken out in eights. 186 There were also competitions in singles, cox- 181 Dodd, personal correspondence, 2011 182 See Chapter 5. 183 See Chapter 78. 184 Edwards, pp. 185-6 185 Ivry, p. 123 less-pairs and coxless-fours. 187 The Oxford academic year is divided into three terms, the Michaelmas term from October to December, the Hilary term from January to March and the Trinity term from April to June. At Cambridge, the terms are called Michaelmas, Lent and Easter. All names refer to Christian holidays. The April-to-June term is sometimes referred to as the summer term. 188 See Chapter 8. 59
