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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