New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-06-20
Yale and Harvard Crews
Well Matched for Title
Clash on Friday.
ELI EXPECTS TO
SWEEP THE RIVER
Crimson, with Nicely Balanced
Fights, Hopes to Reverse
Last Years Result.

| in what promises to be one of the hard
est fought races ever waged by the
wearers of the Crimson and the Blue.
For the first time in years champion
ship is dolendent upon the outcome Of
the four-mile race CT the historic course
on the Thames, and TO Yale men there
| is an added interest, for TO them the
race will prove or disprove the work OF
| Guy Nickalls, the old Oxford oar, who
! has been coaching the Blue for the last
/ two years.
Two more evenly matched crews have
apparently never been put through their
PAGES on the Thames than this year s
/ Harvard and Yale Fights, and there IS
no confidence in either Of the training
camps that the race will be other than
a battle from start TO finish, battle in
which each crew will endeavor 10 kill
the other off, and in which endurance
will hold the scales.
| In weight the crews are as evenly bal
anced as two crews could be. In gross,
( there is only eight pounds difference
/ between the two, and in average Yale
/ is only a single pound lighter than its
/ opponents from Cambridge. Harvard
l tips the balance for an average weight
| of l75 pounds and Yale for ia.
Both have gone through their time
| trials, not in record breaking time, 70
| be sure, but in time that indicates that
/ both are capable of breaking the long
| standing record of 20 minutes 10 sec
onds, made by Yale in 1888, if condi-
| tions are right. Time trials, as rule,
! tell little or nothing Of the speed of a
crew unless all conditions Of tide and
wind are noted, and It is manifestly i'm
possible to get an accurate line on the
work Of two crews on such course as
the regatta water on the Thames unless
the crews start less than half an hour
apart. This the coaches have taken
good care not to do.
Yale men who have had the inside
track on what is going on at Gales
Ferry are well settled in their minds
as to just what is going TO happen IN
all three races. Guy Nickalls has
maintained silence, but those who have
been in a position to observe the work
of the two major Fights closely are
convinced that one of the greatest
races in the long history of rowing be-
tween the Crimson and the Blue will
be rowed on Friday. Yale admits that
the Harvard crew of 1915 is a stronger
and better equipped crew than the one
which was beaten by hairs breadth
in the race a year ago, and they know
that Harvard is working nightly to
throw off the disgrace of that defeat.
But, on the other hand, Yale men feel
that their crew has advanced just as
far as Harvard's and that race day will
! find the Blue the stronger Of the two.
Yale expects Harvard to 90 out at
the start, and will be prepared to fol-
low stroke for stroke. 1t will be a
driving race from the gun, with chal-
lenge after challenge, and in this des-
perate duelling Yale expects Harvard
to break under the strain. Where this
break will come Yale is not certain, but
it feels that the beginning of the third
mile will see the Blue in front headed
for victory.
, The Yale eight was not as far along
in its development when it met Cornell
as Harvard was a week later, and the
fact that the margin of victory of both
crews was approximately the same
makes Yale men feel that with the
gradual development they have had un-
der Nickalls's care in the last month
the Blue eight will go into the race on
the edge of its best form. Harvard,
they feel, has been fighting for ten
days to keep in its best condition, and
it is this difference in physical condi-
ton that Yale believes will determine
the victor
/ Although nothing they do or say be-
| speaks overconfdence, these same Yale
men have little doubt as TO the outcome
| Of the freshman and junior varsity
races. The freshman eight, which has
been coached by Gene Gianinni, the old
New York Athletic Club coach, is one
of the best the Blue has had in years,
/ and Yale looks to il to win an easy
1 victory over the Harvard cubs, who
were defeated handily by the Cornell
| freshmen.
In the junior varsity race Yale looks
/ for the same result The material
which Nickalls has had for his varsity
/ boats has been so much above the av-
erage right down the line that the
| junior eight is hardly less speedy than
| the regular varsity combination, and
/ Yale believes it has'the race sewed up
| tight. The Harvard juniors have not
been brought along by the varsity to
the same degree as the Yale second
eight, and it is on a line through the
/ varsity crews that the Blue thinks its
| junior eight will be able to win with
| little difficulty.
] u,
/ not so certain that Yale will make a
sweep Of the river. They know that
| their varsity eight is stronger than the
crew of a year ago, and they have rea-
/ son TO feel that II will row an entirely
different kind of a race from that
which the 1914 crew rowed. The Grim
/ son will row just the race that Yale
! expects il to row for the first three
| miles, and then Harvard will 20 out 10
win. 1t is the added pound per man
( which Harvard believes will turn the
| trick
The preliminary records Of the two
/ crews are almost the same. Yale won
its first race of the year when il ou.
| rowed Pennsylvania in a snowstorni on
| the Schuylkill over the Henley dis
lance. The Blue won in 1856, cred
| liable time for the early season. Six
weeks later the Yale eight journeyed
down 20 Lake Carnegie and defeated
Cornell and Princeton in a triangular
regatta, beating the lthacans by half
c boat length in 9:09 % over a mile
and seven-eighths course.
Harvard rowed Annapolis over the
| Henley distance of a mile and five
| sIXteenths on the Severn on Apdil "a.
winning in 6:52, just a minute faster
/ than Yale's time in the race with Penn
! sylvania. This minute is accounted for
| by the fact that the Crimson eight
rowed on tidewater Against Cornell
On May 22 Harvard rowed to an i'm
I p!essive victory in 10:4l 2-5 over a
/ two mile course. beating the Ithacan.
/ by half a length. On a line through
/ Cornell the two crews seem 10 be even,
and the question narrows down 70 con-
dition and ability TO stay the journey.
Although Yale is rowing under Eng
lish tutors, il has been said that about
/ the only thing that is English about