THE ERA OF POLARIZATION bowside was pretty clear (as I had beaten Hugh), and not sure what they were going to do about Chris and Donald on strokeside.”7548 Gill: “Later, [Guardian correspondent Chris] Dodd told me that it was ‘almost impossible to work out whether the seat race was fixed or not.’ [Hugh] Matheson7549 obviously believed that the race was rigged by Clark’s American friends.”7550 Penny: “I don’t like to accuse anyone of cheating, but I wouldn’t argue with anyone who said that the seat race was blatantly unfair.”7551 It is safe to conclude that all the seat race results on that particular day were unreliable and potentially misleading. Any conclusions drawn from them, on either side of the controversy, should be treated with healthy skepticism. The Plot Thickens Topolski: “Immediately after the racing, I told Chris that the race against Donald had provided the proof I needed to show he was returning to competitive strength [but] that we still needed him on bowside and that I was intending to put him into the ‘A’ crew at 3. He replied, ‘That’s fine with me. I’ll go for that.’”7552 According to Gill, by contrast, Clark “could not voice his thoughts and left with a shrug of his shoulders.”7553 According to Topolski, at his request Macdonald then called Tony Ward, “telling him that for the next three weeks Chris Clark was being tried in the 3-seat and that we 7548 Ward, op. cit. 7549 1976 Olympian (Chapter 117), one of the Oxford volunteer coaches. 7550 Gill, p. 141 7551 Qtd. by Kiesling, op. cit, p. 93 7552 Topolski, p. 132 7553 Gill, p. 91 would like Tony to row with Isis.7554 [my emphasis]”7555 According to Gill’s alternate version, backed by Ward himself, “he told Ward that the day’s results indicated that he wasn’t good enough to row in the Blue Boat, and that he would be rowing in Isis.”7556 Ironically, even tragically, this would have been the second consecutive year that Ward experienced a last-minute demotion from the Blue Boat in favor of an out-of- shape international. Ward: “A not inconsiderable sense of shock ensued when we heard that the plan was to try Chris Clark yet again on bowside. “That was the flashpoint. “If there had been a situation where Donald was in the boat on strokeside and Clark still trialling against him to get a slot, potentially there would have been no mutiny, no real reaction. If there had been a situation where I (or potentially Hugh) were in the boat on bowside and Chris was still trialling against us, I don’t think there would have been a fuss, because we’d have trialled and beaten him. “I think the fact that he was then given the spot on bowside [thereby, in the crew’s mind, protecting and preserving Macdonald’s seat on strokeside] was something that nobody in the squad could quite believe was happening. All I heard from the U.S. rowers and from people in the Blue Boat and the Isis boat was that this can’t be right. I am not sure there was a single person in the squad outside Dan and Donald who thought that Clark on bowside was a good idea! At that point, it was across the board. “Richard Hull and Dan Lyons were chosen by the group to speak to Donald to tell him we were going ahead without him. “To be fair to them, I think there has 7554 the Oxford second eight. 7555 Topolski, p. 134 7556 Gill, p. 93 2097
