CLASSIC GUIDE TO ROWING

"Huge bulk, a city scarce so large, with Dardan rowers in triple bank, the tiers ascending rank o'er rank" wrote Gyas, the captain and coach of the Chimaera. Justly indignant at the ineptitude and cowardice of his coxswain, he hurled him from the vessel. Rowing can certainly be traced back as early as 1430BC with oarsmen mentioned in Egyptian funeral inscriptions and Virgil including rowing as a funeral game in the Aeneid. Rowing as a sport can be traced back to the early 18th century where teams competed against each other on the River Thames. The famous Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race began in 1829 and has been held annually ever since. Author R. C. Lehmann was an English writer and Liberal Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1906-1910. Perhaps better placed to coach and write about rowing than compete in it, he finished last in every heat he entered in the Henley Royal Regatta from 1877-1888. He later found success in coaching both Oxford and Cambridge rowing teams. His classic guide gives a glimpse into the rowing techniques still used today and how they first originated. He gives lessons on fixed and sliding seats, combined oarsmanship in Eights, of training and diet, aquatic axioms, of swivel rowlocks, sculling, steering and rowing at Eton College and in Australia and America and even the rules for the university trial Eight race. There are five photographs of a male rower's torso to show different types of athlete and other archive photos interspersed such as the Lent Races in the Plough Reach. A marvellous piece of history. 192pp.