Test your knowledge of Regatta history

1. Who won the first squirt races for male and female, ages 11 and 12, which were started in 2011?

2. Who won the first six-oared race in the first known Regatta held at Quidi Vidi Lake in 1826?

3. The first Regattas were two-day events with the first day held at Quidi Vidi and the second day on St. John’s Harbour. In what year did the Harbour Regatta cease to be part of the St. John’s Regatta?

4. Which King of England attended the Royal St. John’s Regatta in 1860 while still Prince of Wales and made a sizeable cash gift to the Committee?

5. Regattas of the 19th century included bye-races. What was a bye-race?

6. Who was the first female coxswain in Regatta history?

7. Which crew holds the 19th century record for the fouroared category of races?

8. In 1826, the year of the first known Regatta at Quidi Vidi, how many races were on the official program?

9. Name the first crew from outside Placentia to win the annual Placentia rowing championship? 10. “The motor Engine will do away with rowing in Newfoundland because an oar will be a curiosity to our next generation.” The above statement was made in newspapers in which of the following years? 1. 1914 2. 1920 or 3. 1933.

11. What year did the committee limit the number of boats competing in a race to four?

12. A famous racing shell during the 1920s was The Star of the Sea. Name the crew given the honour to row it when it was launched in 1925?

13. The year 1914 marked Old Home Year and Newfoundlanders returned home from all over North America. Which crew won the championship that year?

14. In what manner was the Greasy Pole attraction changed at the 1899 Regatta?

15. The winning medals presented at the 1895 Regatta were shaped unlike those traditionally presented. What shape were they?

Answers

1. Care Givers, Placentia won the female contest. Time recorded was 253.5. The Male Division was won by Metro General Insurance also of Placentia. Time 243.

2. Tom Brookings crew rowing in Gallishaw’s boat came in first with a time of 15:00 minutes.

3. The harbour races, started in 1826, were discontinued in 1872. In later years, several harbour regattas were organized apart from the St. John’s Regatta by ship’s captains in the 1860s.

4. King Edward VII

5. A bye-race was a highly anticipated fun race held to entertain spectators on Regatta Day, but was not part of the official Regatta Day program.

6. Gert Reardigan, who was also the first female member of the coxswain association. Gert was inducted into the Regatta Hall of Fame. Since that time Patsy Murphy, another outstanding Regatta personality, was recently inducted. Gert Reardigan passed away in 2010.

7. Outer Cove, rowing in the Myrtle in 1893, recorded the time of 9:56. They beat their own record made in 1890, also in the Myrtle, in a time of 10:00 minutes. Unlike the 20th century four-oared boats, these did not have coxswains and were actually six oared boats manned by four rowers.

8. In 1826 there were four races on the program which included one six-oared race and three four-oared competitions.

9. The Warren’s Texaco Crew. Gordon Tilley, cox; John Warren Stroke; Bill Clarke, Bill Murphy, Gerry Warren, Kevin Cromwell and Mick Dwyer. Winston Noftall rowed with the Warren crew during its heyday.

10. 1920. That was also the first year in which a truckers crew won the Fishermen’s Race. Many fans were disappointed by the change.

11. 1922. Prior to that when more than four entered a race, two could be assigned the same buoy, which created a danger for rowers. When five crews registered for the same race a dash race was held to eliminate one. The dash race operated one way and started from the lower end of the pond. Last crew to cross the finish line was out.

12. The Outer Cove crew was invited by the Star Hall Association to be the first crew to row the new shell. The shell was donated by Sir Michael Cashin, and the members of the Star Hall Association carried it on their backs from Bob Sexton’s workshop, at the time on Colonial Street, to pondside. It was wrapped in the old pink, white and green Native flag.

13. The 1914 championship race proved to be the most interesting competition of the day. Logy Bay edged out Torbay by just 18 inches in a see-saw battle from the beginning. The winning time was 9:46. The following day, Britain declared war and voted a billion dollars to finance the war. The Regatta was held on Wednesday, August 5, and Harold Jeans kept the crowds up to date on the rapidly evolving events in Europe leading to the war declaration next day.

14. Unlike the tradition followed up to then of having the pole extending out over the water, in 1899 it was placed upright and had gift certificates attached to the top of it. In the 1850s, there was an attraction called “The Climbing Pole”, which was far more challenging than the Greasy Pole.

15. The medals presented in 1895 were shaped in the form of the Maltese Cross.