Carlow Rowing Club 1955

Carlow Rowing Club 1955

From the Irish Independent, Monday. July 11, 1955

Carlow Rowing Club’s

Day of Triumph

The Carlow Rowing Club, only recently revived, left the Dublin Metropolitan Regatta at Island-bridge on Saturday in triumph, bearing aloft the Blue Riband of Irish Rowing—the Metropolitan Grand Challenge Cup-which their Senior Fours had captured with a comfortable win over University College Dublin, in the final.

It was a memorable day for the oarsmen as well as for those who had aided in the Club's resurgence, and were present to witness the great achievement.

In particular does this apply to bow Mick, Bolger, Eamonn Stafford and Harry Griffiths, who formed the nucleus of the victorious crew, for this trio had played no small part in Carlow's come-back.

The other members of the Carlow crew are Dubliner Maurice Dowling, the only outsider, and the cox, fourteen-year-old Joe Fenlon.

The latter incidentally had company when he underwent the traditional ducking after the rare. a cunning “blindside” move by the Carlow maiden crew sent the entire Fours team toppling into the river.

Four Dead-Heats

A grand day's rowing was also remarkable for a series of dead-heat, in the closing stages, when the hardworking officials saw their carefully adhered-to schedule go haywire with no fewer than four finishes of this kind.

Indeed, in one event, the Maiden Fours, the attempt at reaching a decision in the ordinary way had to be abandon for R.B.A.I and Queen's University fought out two stirring tussles and ended up level at the-post each time, In the end a coin was tossed and the winners of the spin were R.B.A.I. who took the Civil Challenge Cup for the first six months, after which it will pass to Queen's, A second set of prizes will also be presented.

The only slightly disappointing feature in a memorable regatta was the enforced withdrawal of Portora from the Junior Eights.

In the morning, they had defeated Bann to qualify for the final that everyone was waiting to see against the Guards, their conquerors by a slim margin in the All Ireland Championship at Athlone. And a great race it turned out to be, the two boats finishing over the line so close together that there was only one verdict possible—dead-heat.

Shortly afterwards, however, the Portora Rowing Master, Mr. G. C. Andrews, announced that he had decided to withdraw the crew as he felt that it would be an undue strain for them to row again after two such tough races.

The other tie occurred in the Second Senior Fours, the result of a thrilling race between U.C.D. and Queens and the re-row proved to be equally exciting with the Dublin students just getting in front near the finish to win by three parts of a length.

Finals

First Senior Fours (Metropolitan Grand Challenge Cup - Carlow: M. Bolger, E. Stafford, H. Griffiths. M. Dowling, stk, J. A. Fenlon cox - bt U.C.D. 4 l.

Source: Irish Independent, Monday. July 11, 1935

[ PREVIOUS ] [ Back ]

Please report any images or links which do not open to mjbrennan30@gmail.com

The information contained in these pages is provided solely for the purpose of sharing with others researching their ancestors in Ireland.

© 2001 Ireland Genealogy Projects, IGP ^TMBy Pre-emptive Copyright - All rights reserved

Back to the top