A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



from Sunderland and the Tyne appeared for the 

 first time. Two years later the Tyne Amateur 

 Rowing Club won the Challenge Cup, and a 

 crew from the Durham Amateur Rowing Club 

 was entered for the first time. 



Hitherto there does not seem to have been 

 any organized city club in Durham. In 1854 a 

 crew called the 'St. Oswald's Club' rowed ; but 

 no other city crew appears till 1 86 1. The 

 members of the first Durham crew were. — W. 

 Brignall, P. Forster, C. Rowlandson, Wilson 

 Story (stroke), R. Oswald (cox). Durham 

 Regatta, and north-country rowing generally, 

 has owed much to the Durham Amateur Rowing 

 Club, and the first appearance of this famous 

 club is an important event in the history of north- 

 country rowing. The Tyne and Durham clubs 

 were always among the entries for the next year 

 or two. The D.A.R.C. won in 1 863, the Tyne 

 A.R.C. in the following year. The University 

 and School crews were also regular competitors, 

 and in 1864 a crew of old boys of Durham 

 School was entered. This crew contained C. R. 

 Carr, who had been president of the O.U.B.C. 

 and had rowed in a victorious Oxford crew, and 

 S. R. Coxe, who was a well-known member of 

 the Brasenose eight ; so we may be justified in 

 supposing that the victorious Tyne crew must 

 have been of a good class. In other words, we 

 may say that, by the year 1864, the institution 

 of the Grand Challenge Cup had succeeded in 

 creating an interest other than local in the 

 regatta, and had raised the standard of Durham 

 rowing. 



In 1865 the cup was won for the first time 

 by Durham School, the boys defeating a crew 

 from the Tyne A.R.C, and two crews from the 

 D.A.R.C. 



Since the foundation of the race in 1854 

 Durham School, in weak years and in strong 

 years alike, has sent in a crew. Most clubs have 

 more or less picked their time. They have 

 sent in crews when they have felt strong enough 

 to do so. If they have had material which has 

 not been up to the average they have thrown 

 their strength into one of the minor races, and 

 have not attempted the hard struggle for the 

 greater honours. But the boys have always 

 entered, and have always raced for the Grand 

 Challenge Cup. Sometimes they have plainly 

 been outclassed : more often their keenness and 

 style have carried them into the later stages of 

 the contest, and they have failed to win more 

 from inability to last through a series of races, 

 tlian by reason of inferiority to their victors. 

 They have won six times. Only two clubs 

 have a greater number of wins to their credit ; 

 only two clubs have the same number of wins. 

 Many clubs have striven in vain to win the 

 Grand at Durham ; six well-known clubs have 

 won it a smaller number of times than the 

 school. But the number of wins recorded for 



the school is, comparatively, a trivial matter : 

 what we wish to emphasize as important from 

 the point of view of north-country rowing is 

 that the various north-country clubs have all been 

 strengthened by the material which Durham 

 School has shaped by this steady aim at the 

 highest honours. Let the crews entered at the 

 regatta in any given year be analyzed, and it will 

 generally be found that the best crews of the 

 best clubs contain oarsmen who, having learnt 

 their rowing at Durham School, have taken with 

 them into the clubs of their choice not only 

 their style and their pluck, but also their spirit of 

 sportsmanship and comradeship. 



In 1866 and 1868 the Durham A.R.C. won 

 the Challenge Cup ; in 1867 the school was 

 agam victorious. In 1869 the Tyne A.R.C. 

 won. For the next three years nothing could 

 resist the Tynemouth Club, whose crew was 

 one of the fastest ever seen at Durham. It 

 was not only unusually strong and well to- 

 gether, but also was ahead of the rest of its com- 

 petitors in adopting and mastering the use of 

 sliding seats. It contained that fine sculler, 

 W. Fawcus, who won the Diamonds at Henley 

 and the Wingfield Sculls (the amateur champion- 

 ship of England) in 1 87 1. 



In 1873 and 1874 the cup went to Sunder- 

 land. In 1875 and 1877 the school defeated 

 all comers. In 1876 the Newcastle A.R.C, a 

 club which competed with success at Henley, 

 won for the first and only time. 



In 1878 the Tyne A.R.C. won ; and in the 

 two following years the Durham A.R.C. were 

 the victors. All through the sixties and seventies 

 rowing flourished at Durham. The entries 

 for the Challenge Cup were generally good 

 in number, and in many years they were good in 

 class. During these years rowing was the sport 

 in the north. Regattas flourished at other places 

 besides Durham, and boat races attracted keener 

 crowds than any other sport. The names of 

 prominent oarsmen, amateurs and professionals 

 alike, were as well known as the names of the 

 County XI are known in Yorkshire. But dur- 

 ing the eighties there was a lull in the interest 

 taken in rowing, and there was a general falling 

 off in class. The entries at Durham Regatta 

 were small, and the average of rowing was poor. 

 It was, however, remarkable that during these 

 lean years the crews from the Durham A.R.C. 

 maintained a high standard. This was due 

 partly to the fact that the club had a run of un- 

 usually strong men, but more especially to the 

 hard work and the good coaching of Mr. J. A. 

 Ornsbv, an old Oxford Blue. 



Between 1881 and 1891 the Challenge Cup 

 was won once by Durham University, twice by 

 Durham School. It was won once by South 

 Shields, once by Sunderland, once by Jesus 

 College, Cambridge, and five times by the Dur- 

 ham A.R.C. 



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