70 years on: A historic win at Marlow Regatta
T he crew consisted of Adrian Smart (Gonville 1949–54), whose obituary appears on page 125; Michael Lau- rence (Pennell 1950–54); Richard Parker (School 1951–55); captain of boats Peter Lewin (Gonville 1949–54) and cox Robert Marzetti (School 1953–57). They were accompanied by master- in-charge Brian Mulvany and coach Tony Champion, whose obituary appears on page 116). Tony Champion described the event in the Eastbournian at the time: ‘As we had expected, our hardest race was against King’s School, Worcester, in the first round, for they were a powerful four and as yet unbeaten. Both crews started at 37, and were running level after the first minute, but Lewin did not allow the rating to drop below 34, and the College gradually drew ahead to a lead of a third of a length. At the half way mark, King’s School put in a strong spurt, and for a while the crews were level again, but forty strokes from the finish, Lewin called for a prearranged final effort, and at once the four regained its lead to win by half a length in 4 min. 40 secs., thus beating by three seconds the thirty-year-old record time for the event. A strong stream was flowing during the race which undoubt - edly helped to ensure a fast time, but the main credit for the result must go to Lewin who stroked a finely judged race with great courage. On Saturday morning, in the second round, the College were half a length ahead of Tonbridge and Hereford Cathedral School after the first minute, and rowing at a comfortable 34, they were able to increase their lead over the last half of the course to win by one length in 4 min. 56 secs. They now met Abingdon and Cheltenham in the final and again, after a fast start, they were gaining appreciably at the first corner. Once in the lead, they had little difficulty in holding off all attempts to catch them and won by one length in 4 min. 49 secs. The fostering of the crew by Mr and Mrs Godden was much appreciated and after the exceedingly hard rowed first race was, indeed, a direct contribution to victory. Success was due to the crew having worked well together throughout their training in a spirit which many a more expert four lacks disastrously. Marzetti coxed over a difficult course with a coolness and sound judgment which must have cut our times considerably.’
2024 marked the 70th anniversary of a historic win for the College rowing team. In June 1954, the team returned to Eastbourne in triumph having won the Public Schools Challenge Cup at the Marlow Regatta.
The 1954 team, seated, left to right: Michael Laurence, Richard Parker, Peter Lewin, Adrian Smart; standing are former coach William Bett, cox Robert Marzetti and Tony Champion. This is from a newspaper clipping in a scrapbook held by the archives; unfortunately, we do not have a copy of the original photo, so please let us know if you have one that we can scan
Following tradition, cox Robert Marzetti is thrown into the river at Marlow after the win
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