Fearless on Everest: The Quest for Sandy Irvine by Julie Summers Page A
Authors: Julie Summers
Tags: General, Biography & Autobiography, Nature, Great Britain, Adventurers & Explorers, Mountains, Mountaineers, Mountaineering, Ecosystems & Habitats, Mount (China and Nepal), Description and Travel, Andrew, Irvine, Everest
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divided between the two sports of rowing and cricket. To qualify for membership of the Boat Club Sandy had to swim four lengths of the baths in rowing kit. Those who elected to try their hand at rowing and had passed the swimming test, as Sandy did, would then be put into a tub with a boy of roughly matching size. A tub pair is a sort of aristocratic rowing boat, but with two single oars only, one for each boy seated one behind the other, and a seat at the stern with elaborate curly metalwork and, sometimes, a cushion, on which would be seated an older boy who would steer, coach and assess the potential and merits of the new recruits. As Sandy looked to have good potential, he was quickly picked up by the Captain of Boats and his rowing career was underway. As well as tubbing Sandy was soon rowing in a single seat sculling boat, a narrow racing boat with a pair of sculls (oars) and a balance problem. Soon he was rowing two hours a day five days a week. On Thursday afternoons there was Officer Training Corps activity which interfered with his rowing schedule and on Sunday the Lord’s Day was strictly observed with two services at Chapel and a Divinity lesson in the afternoon.
From the tub Sandy rapidly graduated to the house IV, a rowing boat with four fixed seats and four single oars. The main event for the house IV was the Bumpers or Bumps as it is now more commonly known. This was a fiercely contested inter-house event which was rowed towards the end of the summer term. By the summer of 1918 Sandy had come to Kitch’s attention and he was rowing in the school’s Second VIII. In February 1919 he once again took part in the Challenge Oars, the main house race run on a knock-out basis. It was rowed over a distance of 1 mile and 50 yards from Greyfriars Bridge to the Priory Wall on the River Severn below the school. The event gave Kitch a key opportunity to have a good look at the boys’ performance and from that he could work out a rough cut for the First VIII. Sandy impressed him and he was selected amongst the other probable candidates for the First VIII. The training for the eights began in March and continued in earnest after the Easter holidays. It needed to, for at Henley they were up against fierce competition, not only from other schools but also from the Oxford and Cambridge Colleges. The school boys were rowing against men at least two and a half years their senior and considerably heavier and stronger.
Henley Royal Regatta was established in 1839 after the town fathers observed that races had been held on the river attracting a lively interest. They felt that an annual regatta ‘under judicious and respectable management’ would be of wide appeal. It is still held annually at the beginning of July and forms an essential part of the British summer calendar alongside Ascot and Wimbledon. By the early twentieth century the character of the Regatta was well established. Henley’s atmosphere is undoubtedly unique and an early twentieth century description of ‘blue skies, pink champagne, the razzle-dazzle of the parasol’ is as accurate today as it was in Edwardian England. There were bands playing, oarsmen young and old in their brightly coloured blazers displaying their club loyalty, laughing, talking, debating, and reminiscing. Henley is a veritable pageant but for a provincial school whose only experience of competitive rowing was on the upper Severn in front of other boys and a few proud parents, it must have seemed extraordinarily exotic and daunting in equal measure.
The regatta had been cancelled during the First World War and in 1919 it was decided that the first post-war regatta should be dedicated to those who lost their lives in the fighting. It was thus known as the Peace Regatta and marked a new and optimistic beginning in the history of Henley.
The Shrewsbury First VIII was entered for the Elsenham Cup, that year’s equivalent of the Ladies’ Plate
From the tub Sandy rapidly graduated to the house IV, a rowing boat with four fixed seats and four single oars. The main event for the house IV was the Bumpers or Bumps as it is now more commonly known. This was a fiercely contested inter-house event which was rowed towards the end of the summer term. By the summer of 1918 Sandy had come to Kitch’s attention and he was rowing in the school’s Second VIII. In February 1919 he once again took part in the Challenge Oars, the main house race run on a knock-out basis. It was rowed over a distance of 1 mile and 50 yards from Greyfriars Bridge to the Priory Wall on the River Severn below the school. The event gave Kitch a key opportunity to have a good look at the boys’ performance and from that he could work out a rough cut for the First VIII. Sandy impressed him and he was selected amongst the other probable candidates for the First VIII. The training for the eights began in March and continued in earnest after the Easter holidays. It needed to, for at Henley they were up against fierce competition, not only from other schools but also from the Oxford and Cambridge Colleges. The school boys were rowing against men at least two and a half years their senior and considerably heavier and stronger.
Henley Royal Regatta was established in 1839 after the town fathers observed that races had been held on the river attracting a lively interest. They felt that an annual regatta ‘under judicious and respectable management’ would be of wide appeal. It is still held annually at the beginning of July and forms an essential part of the British summer calendar alongside Ascot and Wimbledon. By the early twentieth century the character of the Regatta was well established. Henley’s atmosphere is undoubtedly unique and an early twentieth century description of ‘blue skies, pink champagne, the razzle-dazzle of the parasol’ is as accurate today as it was in Edwardian England. There were bands playing, oarsmen young and old in their brightly coloured blazers displaying their club loyalty, laughing, talking, debating, and reminiscing. Henley is a veritable pageant but for a provincial school whose only experience of competitive rowing was on the upper Severn in front of other boys and a few proud parents, it must have seemed extraordinarily exotic and daunting in equal measure.
The regatta had been cancelled during the First World War and in 1919 it was decided that the first post-war regatta should be dedicated to those who lost their lives in the fighting. It was thus known as the Peace Regatta and marked a new and optimistic beginning in the history of Henley.
The Shrewsbury First VIII was entered for the Elsenham Cup, that year’s equivalent of the Ladies’ Plate
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