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1905 NSW AAGPS Head of the River:

Saturday, 6 May

Three crews competed in the 1905 Regatta on the Parramatta River:

-  St. Ignatius College

-  Sydney Church of England Grammar School (Shore)

-  Sydney Grammar School

The weather was extermely wet and consequently the crowd was lower than previous years. The tide was also going against the direction of the racing. St. Ignatius got away ahead of the other boats and contnually moved away throughout the race to win by an impressive 5 lengths. This ended Grammar’s 3-year streak of winning the Major Rennie trophy.

The Sydney Morning Herald wrote the following of St. Ignatius’ breakthrough win in 1905:

“St Ignaitius got away at a fast but lengthy stroke and with a good lifting swing. Church of England rowed nicely and held onto the leaders, but Sydney Grammar was very slugish. At Gladesville, St. Ignatius was a half-length in front, and with another minnute’s rowing had drawn clear. At Tennyson St. Ignatius was two lengths in front of Church of England, and three lengths of Sydney grammar. The leaders were rowing well, and seemed as vigorous as ever, but Church of England was getting tired and slow, and soon droppd a long way behind Sydney Grammar, which seemed to improve over the last half-mile. The judge’s decision was St. Ignatius by five lengths, and three lengths between the other two crews. The time was 9m 15s, which is slow, but the tide was against the boats.”

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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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Disclaimer: Whilst extensive efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the information supplied, the editors take no responsibility for any loss or damage whatsoever arising from inaccuracies contained in this work.