This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1911 Excerpt: ...however, it is no usual thing for the crew to make a bump before they are even in training for the races. Then, too, some coxes have a strong liking for steering an S-shape all along the river, or for zigzagging violently from bank to bank. On these occasions he is usually quietly addressed through a megaphone from the ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1911 Excerpt: ...however, it is no usual thing for the crew to make a bump before they are even in training for the races. Then, too, some coxes have a strong liking for steering an S-shape all along the river, or for zigzagging violently from bank to bank. On these occasions he is usually quietly addressed through a megaphone from the bank, and Stroke also whispers sweet nothings in his ear. There is the cox who suffers from lack of voice, and who is always bellowing at individual members of the crew. Another sort of the genus cox is the one who never knows what to say when you are rowing a course, and who remembers parrot cries at the wrong time. And again, there is the man who, for want of something better to say, imitates the London 'bus driver, and calls out the various stations and landmarks as you go by. Then, of course, in the Race Week there are the keen supporters who run with you, and shoot pistols at crucial moments, who enable you to get bumps, and without whom the crew would be nowhere. These have a curious habit of calling on one personally from the bank by number. "Well rowed, Four!" for instance, or Two, or whichever it is that their lodger or pal rows. I have always believed that they do it in a spirit of friendship, but nothing is more irritating than to hear this while you are rowing. It has one good effect, however. It makes you realise that you must be rowing pretty rottenly, or else they would not call out to you particularly to encourage you. In Eights Week the keen joy of the racing is very much counter-balanced by the needle before the start, and the terrors of needle are only outweighted by a bump. And, undoubtedly, the best moment of the whole week is after your final race on Wednesday night, and you have a breaktraining tea, and light ...
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