———

Drive reaches $15,000 mark

UBC off to Royal Henley
if final $10,000 comes in

The drive for funds to send the University of British Columbia- Vancouver Row-
ing Club crew to the Royal Henley Regatta in England June 29-July 2 has reached the
$15,000 mark, ‘campaign officials reported this week. The Henley Fund committee has
set May 15 as the deadline for its $25,000 objective.

Fund campaigns have been opened in Grand Forks,

Spring Island, Abbotsford and in-
terior cities. Citizens of Prince

George sent in $100 in small con-
tributions before the fund drive
was set up in their city.

Two Japanese-Canadians from
Salmon Arm, supporters of tiny
coxswain Carl Ogawa of that city,
mailed individual cheques for $25
to the Henley Fund. Ogawa, a 118-
pound freshman at the University,
is the only new member of the

|

Salmon Arm, Ganges, Salt

crew which upset England to win
the British Empire Games title in
Vancouver last summer.

Capt. Jack Clark, retiring presi-
dent of the Plimsoll Club of B.C.,
local shipping group, has announc-
ed that $100 proceeds from the
club’s spring smoker will go to
the fund.

The University crew will enter
the Newport Regatta in California
May 29 in a warmup race: The 12

Nashua rates tops

in Kentucky Derby

Nashua, winner by a nose over All races were close.

Summer Tan in a thrilling Wood

Last Saturday’s race saw

Memorial duel lust Saturday, will Nashua win by a scant neck in
likely go to the post as favorite’ the mile and a auarter classic.
in the Kentucky Derby on May 7 He just beat his rival in the last

at Churchill Downs.
For 80 years horse owners have

few strides.
On paper, Nashua and Summer

been taking their best three-year-'Tan should finish in that order—

olds to Louisville at this time of but upsets are common in the

year. Winner’s share in the first Kentucky Derby. Swaps, Jean’s
running back in 1875 was $2,850. | Joe, Blue Lem, Prince Noor, Sara-
This year the winner is guaran-'toga and Trentonian are all horses

teed $100,000. :
Plenty of experts believe that

to watch.
Swaps, the pride of the West

Summer Tan might outrun Nashua! Coast, was bred in California and
to cop the big one. Nashua beat! hasn’t raced in the east. He'll
Summer Tan in the Futurity and have plenty of backing»from fans
Juvenile last year; Summer Tan who waiched him win the Santa

defeated Nashua in the Cowdin.| Anita Derby.

Take that, you nasty Villoia!

crewmen, with Coach Frank Read
and Vancouver Rowing Club man-
ager Nelles Stacey, will have less
than a week back in Vancouver
before catching a plane for Eng-
land and Henley on-Thames, June
8.

Before the boys leave, they must
be sure their expensive, light-
weight shell is packed in a spec-
ial crate ready for the air flight

to England. The crate will meas-

ure 63 feet in length and requires
expert packaging

Meanwhile, the Special Events
committee for the Henley Fund
campaign has arranged for a cycle
race at the British Empire Games
track at Empire Stadium in Van-
couver on May 3.

The Thunderbird Quarterback
Club in Vancouver has obtained a
tape recording ~f comments on
the annual Henley Regatta made
by top UBC sports commentator
John Snagge. In the recording
Snagge describes British methods
of coaching top crews and gives
Vancouver a welcome to the 1955
edition of the Henley Regatta.

Snagge reports that training of
crews in Britain is quite different
from that in Canada. Quite often
the English coach rides a bicycle
along the bank of the river while
shouting instructions to his crew,
and, just as often falls in head
first.

Professional wrestling may not be sport, but it’s good entertainment. Ex-heavyweight weight-
lifting champion Doug Hepburn has now joined the ranks of the paid grunt and groaners, and is
seen delivering an elbow smash to the jaw of Mike Paidousis in a recent match in Toronto. Doug

won the match. Natch

Big Bert was pulled out (see Sportlight)

Gert Whyte's

- SPORTLIGHT

“Darest thou, Cassius, now
Leap in with me into this angry
flood,
And swim to yonder point?”
Upon the word
Accoutred as | was, | plunged in
And bade him follow.
q Julius Caesar,
Act 1, Sc. 2, Line 102

Help me, Cassius, or. I sink!

Ibid, Line 111

Some of the beefy splashers
attempting to conquer Straits of
Juan de Fuca might ponder these
lines of Shakespeare ere they
dunk their torsos into the briny.
One-time U.S. marine Bert
Thomas completed only seven
miles of the 183 mile swim mara-
thon recently before he had to
be pulled out of the water, suf-
fering from a stomach cramp.
Bellowing his grief, big Bert

announced that he’d be back for

another crack’ later in the year.
‘T’m still strong as a buill,’ he
told reporters. |
x x *
Word from Toronto is that
Marilyn Bell is committed to an
attempt to swim ‘the English

Channel this summer.

Florence Chadwick, who was
pulled out of Lake Ontario the
day Marilyn conquered that chil-
ly chunk of water, has indicated
that she intends to tackle the
English Channel, too. (She has
already swum it both ways.)

And Margaret Sweeney from
Auckland, New Zealand, whom
I wrote about in this column last
week, also hopes to challenge
the English Channel this sum-
mer,

So we may see the top three
female marathon swimmers in a
thrilling endurance contest soon.

Their chances? Let’s hope
they all make it.

os * *

Swimming the English Chan-
nel is no longer the novelty it
was in prewar years. On August
22, 1950, a mass assault by a
bevy of swimmers resulted in
nine successes, and a year later,
August 16, 1951, a high of 18
crossings ‘were recorded in an-
other group assault.

But the English Channel, for
all that, remains a treacherous
stretch of water, with its tides,
swift currents and icy chill.

First conqueror of the chan-
nel was Capt. Matthew Webb,
who breast-stroked his way from
Dover to Cape Griz Nez, about

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — APRIL 29, 1955 —

wastes
19 miles, in 21 hours 45 ™™ 6t6
That was on August 2449
x * x pat
First woman to swim the

United States. As it haphad
in 1926, she returned to 4 B on
way mammoth welcome, ch wes
plete with ticker tape (WI - it
running wild in that. er
is today). itch
The following year I
hiked from Kingston to
to watch Gertrude compe
the first 21-mile Wrigley
thon in Lake Ontario. B
failed to finish that one ihe
Florence Chadwick sW verb!
English Channel on S®P rd
11, 1951, from England to My,
and later made it the othe? pil

She also conquered the 2
Catalina channel in 199% ing
made many other “ti Fr tout

marks while on a WO k
Last year she had bad wee he
ing in «attempts to SW? quae?
Straits of Juan de Fuca 4
Ontario.

FLO AND MARILYN 0
pace a