THE ERA OF POLARIZATION it virtually impossible for an oarsman to take advantage of other university programs. Hard work was not a problem, the Americans claimed – they generally thought that they had worked much harder in the States. “The problem was what rowers called the ‘Oxford piddle-around factor.’”7470 No one could dispute that the O.U.B.C. was an oddly-run rowing institution by any non-Oxbridge standard. It was a student-run organization with no paid staff, a cadre of volunteer assistant coaches who rotated in for two-week stints, and the seldom-seen unpaid part-time head coach (who lived quite far away in London) acted only at the invitation of the elected student President. In addition, given the impossible amount of boat traffic on the narrow and winding River Isis near the Oxford campus, the team tended to wander from site to remote site in the countryside along the Thames, moving to suit that fortnight’s guest coach, moving often so as not to wear out their welcome.7471 What this meant was that boats were being trailered hither and thither, sometimes quite long distances, and a certain amount of loading, traveling, rigging, derigging, repairing, piddling and adjusting had to be done before and after almost every practice. Since there was no paid boatman to look after equipment, this time-consuming job fell to the athletes themselves. For decades, Americans had been coming to Britain to row in the Boat Race while they studied. At home they were used to coming down to the boathouse and having equipment properly adjusted and a professional coaching staff waiting for them, so when they got to Oxford the contrast 7470 Kiesling, op. cit, p. 90 7471 The C.U.B.C. has a slightly better set-up, an ancillary boathouse at Ely, 12 miles or 20k north of Cambridge on a near-empty stretch of the River Great Ouze that includes a straight reach of 3 miles or 5k. – de Rond, The Last Amateurs couldn’t have been more stark. In recent years their response had often been to pay little attention to Topolski. Alison Gill: “In the past, many internationals had given up trying to get his blessing for changes in training. Instead, they had just ignored his programmes and carried on their own way without his blessing, refusing to make an issue of it.”7472 Chris Clark had done precisely that the previous year, often rowing separately in a pair with fellow American Oxonian George Livingstone.7473 But the majority of the five Americans in residence in 1986/87 seemed to feel that they had the numbers and clout within the student organization to effect some reasonable and respectful changes. By contrast, from the beginning Clark wanted Topolski removed, but the others merely wanted a few sensible adjustments.7474 Topolski resisted any and all. Huntington: “Topolski didn’t want anything to change because he couldn’t see the need to change. He wasn’t around to see all the training, and he was missing the really bad bits.”7475 Cross: “After the debacle of 1986, Dan [Topolski] was keen to reassert his authority. He wanted to do this by increasing the volume of training significantly. The American contingent were keen on the short, hard sessions they were used to, rather than grinding out thousands of kilometers in distance work.”7476 Kiesling: “The schedule that Topolski distributed for the first week of the fall term listed thirteen workouts and, piddling included, required nearly fifty hours to complete.”7477 7472 Gill, p. 70 7473 Ibid, p. 38 7474 Ibid, p. 23 7475 Ibid, p. 60 7476 Cross, p. 137 7477 Kiesling, op. cit, p. 90 2087
