1898 Intercolonial Championships

19 Nov, Bulimba Reach Brisbane River QLD

The starter for the eights championship was Dan McTaggart and the umpire J T Bell MLA.

22nd Men's Intercolonial Eight-Oared Championship

Distance: 2.75 mile
Time: 16.01
Margin: 1/2 length

1st VIC – Bow: J Blackburn, 2: C H Powell, 3: J L Nolan, 4: W Herbert T Davies, 5: H J Hughes, 6: William Potter, 7: J R Strong, Str: Alex B Sloan, Cox, J H Counihan, Cch: Dan Gregory, Average weight 11st 10lb.
2nd QLD – Bow: John A Cullinane, 2: F H Cameron, 3: A Young, 4: O Agar, 5: Noel H Drury, 6: T J Lyons, 7: S B Boland, Str: J B Arthur, Cox: R Burton, Cchs: Mr Collclough and Francis W "Winny" de Little. Average weight 11st 1lb.

The change in date to November was initiated by Queensland and agreed to by Victoria, the only other colony to participate. NSW could not agree to participate under rules other than the 1896 conference terms and again refused to particicpate. Victoria proposed a new clause whereby those who had raced for cash prizes in other sports before 1897 would not be caught by the new rule.

The race was intended to be raced on the Hamilton Reach but was deemed unrowable. Queensland led from the start but was overhauled by Victoria who won by half a length.

Men's Intercolonial Sculling Championship

Distance:2.75 Miles
Time: 22.02.0
Margin: 6 lengths

1st QLD no 1 – Alick Dennis
2nd QLD no 2 – Michael J Slack
3rd VIC - Edward Powell

The change in dates obviously did not suit the scullers with only Queensland and Victorian scullers competing. Dennis led at the start and maintained this until 1/2 mile from the finish when he opened up the lead to 6 lengths. Slack was not satisfied with the result against Dennis and challenged him to a race which he won on 25th March 1899.

Michael J Slack

Sources

The Victorian Oarsman by John Lang, published by Massina & Co 1919
Rowing in Queensland by Jack Pritchard published by Rowing Queensland 1995
Sydney Rows by Alan May published by Sydney Rowing Club 1970
Images from the Guerin collection

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The idea for this history originated from the Olympic Rowing and World Senior Rowing Championship histories written by Andrew Guerin and Margot Foster in 1991, 1992 & 1993 for the Australian team handbooks. Andrew Guerin developed and extended these histories to the current format in 2004 for publication in 2004 and then expanded the site.

Steve Roll has been an invaluable contributor to the website in locating errors and finding Christian names of rowers. His superb work is acknowledged.

© Andrew Guerin – 2004
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