THE SPORT OF ROWING “Roy Meldrum’s approach also had a quick beginning but quite definitely extremely well timed, so that the blade in effect slipped in. No backsplash. No frontsplash. Slipped in to a solid [hold] and then you moved the boat past, which is absolutely what is required today with hatchets.”2872 Revolutionary Breakthrough However, it was Meldrum’s innovation on the recovery which is of greater interest to this writer. In contrast to English Orthodoxy, he began his recovery with slow hands, which according to Haig-Thomas and Nicholson was “bound to produce a rush either in the middle or the last part of the swing forward.”2873 This was a truly revolutionary breakthrough in rowing history, but his detractors believed that the rush into the catch would cause a “delay in the recoil and the entry of the blade,”2874 following the English Orthodox assumption that a proper initiation of the stroke could only be achieved from a controlled approach to the entry. Several years later in 1954, a foreign crew from the Soviet Union came to Henley and won the Grand Challenge Cup rowing a recovery which also started slow and accelerated into the entry. There was most certainly no “delay in the recoil.” Haig-Thomas & Nicholson also believed the long Lady Margaret layback would cause “slippage” or washing out at the finish,2875 but despite their concerns, a Lady Margaret Eight lowered the event course record in winning the Ladies’ Plate at Henley in 1949. 2872 Hall-Craggs, personal conversation, 2008 2873 Haig-Thomas & Nicholson, p. 23 2874 Ibid, p. 24 2875 Ibid. They moved up to the Grand in 1950, and in the heats they drew Harvard University. Henley historian Christopher Dodd: “Against Lady Margaret, the Americans experienced what they expected from an English crew – a fast English start to build up a fatal lead, followed by a running-out of gas. “They were interested to see the way that Lady Margaret shortened up their Orthodox stroke when under pressure, leaving out the long reach and the layback. It seemed that body swing was for practice, but sitting up was for racing.2876,2877 Harvard indeed won the race into a strong headwind, but by only half a length.2878 Page: “That year a Goldie eight, based on the Lady Margaret crew, went to Italy for the European Championships. They were well beaten by the Italians and narrowly by the Danes. Goldie’s Bronze Medal was the first to be won by Britain in the European Championships.”2879 However, Lady Margaret came back to win the Grand Challenge Cup in 1951. Dick Kendall was a member of the Pennsylvania Lightweight Crew competing that year in the Thames Cup: “The Lady Margaret boat was the smoothest eight I ever witnessed. They rowed with a long layback that resulted from very rapid hip rotation after the catch. The layback was really a follow-through of the rotation. The timing and balance were impeccable.”2880 Lasting Influence Kendall: “A variation of the Lady Margaret Style was utilized to great effect 2876 just as Hall-Craggs described. See above. 2877 Dodd, Henley, pp. 151-2 2878 Haig-Thomas & Nicholson, p. 120 2879 Page, p. 102 2880 Kendall, personal correspondence, 2006 810
