American crews have won the Olympic Games rowing cham pionships in the past four Olympiads. The United States Naval Academy won this event in Belgium in 1920, Yale University at Paris in 1924, and the University of California winning at Amster dam in 1928 repeated this performance at Los Angeles in 1932.
The annual Poughkeepsie regatta is regarded as the unofficial championship long distance race in America. With few exceptions this race has been rowed over a four mile distance since its in auguration in 1895. Syracuse and Cornell predominated as the winners until the entrance of Western crews in 1922. SinCe then California has won four times, Washington four, Navy three times, Columbia twice, Cornell once. California holds two Olym pic and four Poughkeepsie championships, while Washington, with an Olympic sprint record, made a clean sweep of the Poughkeep sie races in 1936 and 1937, in the latter year in record time.
Yale and Harvard engage in their annual four mile classic on the Thames River and owing to conflicting dates cannot compete in the Poughkeepsie Regatta. In the last twelve years the score is even ; Harvard six, Yale six. Over the long period of years since 1852, however, Yale has won 39 of the races and Harvard has won 36.
The popularity of college rowing has received considerable sup port in recent years by the introduction of the light-weight class, wherein all crews are limited to an average weight of one hundred and fifty pounds per man. Nearly all eastern rowing colleges main tain active participation in this new branch of rowing. Further indication of increasing activity in college rowing in America is evidenced by the establishment of this sport at Rutgers, Manhattan and Marietta colleges in very recent years. (E. 0. LE.) SCULLING A scull is a lever of the same nature as the oar, but smaller in all dimensions, enabling the user to hold one in each hand and so apply his power on both sides of the boat at one and the same time. "Sculling" is, therefore, the propulsion of a boat by one per son with a par of sculls.
In the early days of the 19th century sculling was a popular form of racing. In 183o the Wingfield Sculls were founded. They carry the title of Amateur Champion of the Thames and are open to any amateur sculler of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. They have their own constitution and are managed by a committee of past winners of the race. The first winner was J. H. Bayford, over the original course from Westminster to Put ney. From 1849 to 1861 the course was from Putney to Kew, since when the race has been rowed on the Championship course from Putney to Mortlake.
The first professional championship was rowed in 1831 from Westminster to Hammersmith, C. Campbell defeating J. Wil liams. The Championship left England in 1876 when E. Trickett, of New South Wales, beat J. H. Sadler, and did not return until R. Amst of New Zealand, in order to get a match, consented to race Ernest Barry on the Thames in 1912 and was beaten by him. Barry lost in 1919 to A. Felton, the Australian, but defeated him on the Parramatta river in 192o, and then resigned his title, since when it has been held by scullers from the Antipodes. In R. H. Pearce defeated W. Miller.
The Diamond Sculls, instituted at Henley regatta in 1844, are the chief prize open to amateurs, and were first won by T. B. Bumpsted. Since 1872 many foreign aspirants have entered and England has lost them on seven occasions. In 1892, J. J. K. Ooms, of Amsterdam, won them, at his first and only attempt, with considerable ease. In 1897 Ten Eyck, of Worcester, U.S.A. won them, but in the following year his entry was refused owing to the fact that he had lost his amateur status. In 1904, L. F. Scholes of Toronto won them, beating, among others, F. S. Kelly, an Australian by birth, the greatest sculler who has yet been seen on the Henley course. Kelly was, however, also rowing in the Leander crew which won the Grand Challenge Cup and it was doubtless owing to this fact that he was beaten. In 1905, confining himself to sculling, he made the record for the course of 8min. iosec., which still stands. In 1913 and '14, 1921 and '22, the trophy was won by C. McVilly, of Tasmania, G. Sinigaglia, of Italy, F. E. Eyken, of Delft university and W. M. Hoover, of the U.S.A. respectively. In 1927 the Diamond Sculls nearly fell to J. Wright, a young Canadian of the Argonaut Club of Toronto, who was leading R. T. Lee of Worcester College, Oxford, a few lengths from the finish when he hit the booms and was overtaken. Wright won in 1928. Winners of this race thereafter were: L. H. F. Gunther (Holland) 1929; Jack Guest (Toronto) 193o, B. Pearce (Ontario) 1931; H. Buhtz, '34; T. G. Askwith, See the volumes on Rowing in the Badminton and Isthmian libraries; W. E. Sherwood, Oxford Rowing (igoo) ; W. B. Woodgate, Oars and Sculls (1889) ; H. T. Steward, Henley Royal Regatta (1903) ; Sir Theodore Cook, Racing at Henley (1911) ; G. C. Bourne, A Textbook on Oarsmanship (1925 ; S. Fairbairn, Notes on Rowing 11926). (G. C. D.)