1986 NSW AAGPS Head of the River

A switch in time brings off another Shore thing. (Sydney Moring Herald, 22 Mar 1986)

Coach Gary Uebergang played a trump card with a late positional crew change to give Shore their second consecutive GPS Head Of The River win at Penrith yesterday. Shore held off a fast finishing Newington crew to cross the line 1.85 seconds in front with St. Josephs seven seconds further back in third position.

The winning crew covered the one-and-a-half mile course in 8min 06.97sec to record their 27^th win in the race since 1893. It was sweet revenge for Shore who were defeated by Newington two weeks back for the Riverview Gold Cup over a shorted course of one mile.

It was then that the 1976 Montreal Olympian Uebergang, 35, began researching the reasons behind the defeat. “After some deep thinking I came up with the fact that the crew needed more length and better rhythm in their work,” Uebergang said.

“I finally settled on switching Rodney Burgess from number six to stroke, Ian Shilling from two to six and Denis Bull from stroke to two.”

Burgess, who broke his leg during a skiing accident last August, was also stoke in the 1985 winning combination. Cox Harvey Smith was the only other surviving member from last year. Describing the race, Smith told how a break 400 metres after the start proved a lucky omen.

“At that time I was lucky to strike an opening and the break put us about one-third of a length in front of Newington,” he said. “Newington kept coming at us all the time but my crew always had that little bit in reserve to maintain the lead.”

Uebergang said Shore increased their steady 35 stroke rating to 38 in the late stages. “The B.H. Travers is our lucky boat,” he said. “Two starts for as many wins is a great effort.”

Kings won the second eights from Newington and St. Ignatius’. Shore capped a great day with win in the first, third and fourth Fours while Scots College took out the second Fours.