New-York tribune., 1910-05-23
LESSONS Of EARLY RACES
Annapolis Has Proved Good Irla|
Horse for F0ur-MiIe Crews.
HARVARD-CORNELL NEXT
Contest at Cambridge Likely to
Give Good Line on Prospects
for Big Regattas.

The preliminary boat races this year, the
two-mile affairs that annually cause SO
much heartburning and confusion. promise
to give a good deal better line than usual
on the important regattas at New London
and Poughkeepsie. The most important or
all these early races, that between Har-
ward and Cornell, is still to be rowed, or
course. and the critics are bound to reserve
opinions until after the meeting of the two
universities that stood at the head of Amer
lean rowing last year. The race takes place
this year at Cambridge, usual, on Me-
mortal Day.
The Navy takes part in no intercollegiate
regatta this year, the hoped for permission
to go to Poughkeepsie not having been op-
tanned. But the Annapolis crew, a rattnng
good one gave Harvard, early in the sea-
sen. a close race, and, becoming seasoheo
in that trial. beat Columbia. The victory
over Columbia. which was won without
much difficulty. was followed up on Satur-
day by a gruelIing struggle with SYRACUSE
victory resting with the middies by the mar
rowest of margins.
Syracuse was third at Poughkeepsie last
year, well beaten by Columbia, which ere"
gave Cornell a pretty hard fight Ior hlSt
honors. Columbia and Syracuse ootn nave
good crews this year, excellent coiiioiia-
tions for speed and well fitted to row two
mile races early in the season.
Therefore. If Harvard, rowing on the
Severn, could beat a crew that disposed OF
Columbia and Syracuse it Is reasonably
safe TO assume that the Cambridge eight is
formidable in the extreme 1t ought 10 De-
as a matter of fact 1t ought to be ere"
even better than the superb one that ro"ed
the heart out of Yale at New London last
year.
But 1t will not do to assume that Harvard
Is going to beat Cornell easily 1t would be
unwise to bet on Harvard to beat Corneli
at all to any large amount, and 1t would
be equally unwise to bet much on Cornell
Courtney had two great crews on the Hud-
son last year-his varsity and his fresh
man eight. He ought, barring troubles OF
the kind that wrecked his crews In 1908,
none of which have developed as yet, to
have a better crew this year. And, with
each crew better than a year ago, the race
on the Charles ought to be well worth
watching. Local conditions favor Har-
ward, but Wray has only one object-to
beat Yale-and has stopped developing two
mile crews for races on May 80
The Harvard crew now is on its way to
the race with Yale, the ultimate test 1t is
being trained to row four miles. Now, last
years crew went after the big race from
the gun, shot into the lead, kept up
heart-breaking pace for three miles, and
had to do little more than paddle IN the
last mile. "A crew trained to row that way
is better in a two-rlile race than one thar
is content Just to keep on even terms for
the first two and a half miles and trust to
a squirt toward the end. Columbia has been
trained in just the opposite way In the
last three years the Columbia crews at
Poughkeepsie have rowed absolutely to a
time schedule for the first three miles, pay
ing no attention at all to any other boat.
and squirting only in the last mile Each
of those crews in 1907, 1908 and 1909 has
been beaten by less than boats length by
the crew that had made its bid Just a tr11e
earlier and had the power and the stamina
to stand off the rush of strong crew row.
ing from behind
Thus Harvard, since the advent Of the
new system, has been able to do good work
in two-mile races, while Columbia has
failed to make a particularly good showing
before the Poughkeepsie race. Last year.
for instance, Harvard fairly rowed away
from Columbia on the Charles, and was. in
turn, DedIeiI ny SoiH@h- ihoii NOioiii
largely despised, turned around and, at
Poughkeepsie. gave Cornell a remarkably
Stiff fight.
Harvard's race with Cornell ought to
crystalline the situation pretty well. Yale
is an unknown factor, more or less, but
Yale will have TO have much better crew
than last year to have a chance to beat
Harvard At Poughkeepsie, Pennsylvania
and Wisconsin have failed to reveal any
indications OF their form as yet