Finally, our first race was upon us.  If you were able to decipher the “draw” in my previous letter, you will have seen that we were pitted against University College, Dublin.

Here is a scan of the cover of the Regatta booklet for July 4, 1962, followed by the page that announced our race.  I think it was Winston Churchill who said that England and America are two countries "separated by a common language." Nowhere is that more apparent than on these two pages. Note the spelling of Programme and Colours. Also, note that our weights are measured in Stones and Pounds. (One Stone = 14 Pounds.) Now, forty-five years later, England has converted to the metric system to a far greater extent than has the United States. It will be interesting at our reunion to see if the tradition-bound HRR continues to use stones and pounds.

We would row in the Bucks lane, the lane next to the County of Buckinghamshire. Dublin would row in the Berks lane (pronounced “barks”), along the Berkshire County side of the Thames.

One other note about the nomenclature in the Programme. Times for each race are marked for the Barrier and Fawley, as well as for the Finish. Barrier and Fawley are two traditional landmarks along the course—approximately 1/3 and 3/4 miles from the Start—to which the times have been recorded, going back over a hundred years. My guess is that these designations are still used today because, historically, all Henley course records have been measured at these markers.

It was difficult if not impossible to scout the competition at Henley, so we knew very little about the crew from University College, Dublin, except that according to the Programme they outweighed us by five pounds per man. Gary's assessment was that although they were more hefty, it was unlikely that they were as well conditioned as we. Perhaps that was Gary's way of saying, "Don't be surprised if they lead early in the race; just be ready to 'do your thing' in the second half." His words turned out to be prophetic.

Frankly, we did not row our best race that day. The possibility that we had come all the way across the Atlantic only to lose on the first day was probably working on our nerves. Speaking personally, I have never felt as tense before a race as I felt that day.

Dublin got off to a fast start and we fell behind by as much as 3/4 of a length. However, if my memory serves me correctly—a very big if—we had drawn almost even by Fawley, and a couple of “power tens” later we moved into the lead.  Dublin began to falter as we entered the last half mile, and they were no match for our finishing sprint. We finished the race with a respectable time of 6:55, 1 1/4 length ahead. More than anything else, I think we were relieved to have this first test behind us.

Here we are as we approached the Finish against University College, Dublin:

Here is another perspective, a photograph taken by the official Henley photographer:

Even before our first race there were reports circulating about an English crew that was clocking phenomenal times during practice, a crew sponsored by the National Provincial Bank. These reports were substantiated in a very big way the afternoon of July 4 when NPB—the Bank as we called them—broke the Thames Cup records for both Barrier and Fawley in their first race, missing the record for the full course by only one second. They were a superbly conditioned crew and, according to the Programme, averaged 171 pounds per man.

In the most unfortunate sense of the phrase, "The Luck of the Draw," we would meet up with the Bank in the second round.