Riverview Gold Cup

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The Riverview Gold Cup Regatta is a rowing regatta with limited club events and mainly school crew events, held annually by Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is an official Rowing NSW event within the New South Wales club season. The Riverview Gold Cup is the trophy contested by the men's open senior eight - the blue riband event of the day.

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Founded by Father Joseph Dalton, S.J., the founding Rector of Saint Ignatius' College, it is one of the oldest rowing events in Australia and the oldest New South Wales schoolboy regatta. [1] It is held annually, typically in March and raced over 1,400 metres on Sydney's Lane Cove River. As of 2018 it comprises 24 school crew events, six senior open club events, two masters events and two invitational sculling events. [2]

History

The "Riverview Rowing Club" was founded late in 1882 under the guiding hand of Father Thomas Gartlan, S.J. The Rowing Club held its first regatta on Sunday 20 June 1885. It was recorded in many of the daily newspapers of the time and hailed as "the first College Regatta in the Colony"

In the 1890 Regatta, a race was instituted called "The Lane Cove Challenge Eights", which grew into the "Riverview Gold Cup Regatta", from which comes the name of the modern day Regatta. In 1892, the Regatta Committee invited the residents of Lane Cove, and others interested in rowing to subscribe to a fund to acquire a suitable Gold Cup, as a trophy for this race. The result is the Riverview Gold Cup, as we have it today. In 1893, the St. Ignatius' Regatta, featured its valuable Gold Cup for the first time. In this year, nine crews fought out the maiden fours, with North Shore winning by two lengths from Sydney, Glebe third, and East Sydney and Mercantile behind. The regatta itself was said to be a great success: "such cheering and enthusiasm has seldom, if ever before, been noticed at an amateur meeting." [3] The winners were also each awarded gold medals and later gold oars, as individual trophies for this event. At the time of its inception, the Gold Cup was looked upon as an outstanding trophy for rowing.

A second regatta was held in November of that year to honour Catholic Bishops, assembled in Sydney for the first Plenary Council. The programme provided for six events, mainly of College crews and their supporters. From this modest beginning, the Annual Riverview Regatta has grown into thirty four events today with one thousand competitors and ten thousand spectators through the day.

The Gold Cup

The Gold Cup, c.1893 Riverview-Gold-Cup.jpg
The Gold Cup, c.1893

The Gold Cup Trophy took about three months to complete and was put on show in April 1893. At the time it was said to be the only gold cup for rowing in the world. According to The Town & Country Journal (1 May 1893), apart from its intrinsic value (29 oz. of gold), it was one of the finest specimen of anything of its kind yet manufactured in Australia.

The Cup features the characteristic flora and fauna of Australia. The handles of the trophy come out of the upper portion of the body of the kangaroo, while the garlands and wreaths that ornament it are the leaves and flowers of the waratah. The front of the trophy is engraved with eight-oared boats, in full swing. The figure of an oarsman holding the College flag surmounts the lid.

The Course

At 1400m the five lane course is much shorter than the 2000m raced by senior club crews and school eights. Otherwise the shortest schoolboy courses raced in the Sydney season are of 1500m length. [4] Unusually, the regatta course includes a dog-leg to stroke side around a pylon at the 1100m mark. [5] There is a second pylon at the finish line. Consequently the majority of the events of the day - excepting the four club sculling classes - are contested in coxed boats. Pylon incidents and oar clashes are common; steering a tight corner is a race strategy and many school coxswains come away from the Gold Cup course wiser for the experience.

Regatta winners (since 1999)

Men's Open VIII for the Riverview Gold Cup

Year1st2nd3rd
1999 Sydney RC Drummoyne/Mosman SUBC/Drummoyne
2000 Drummoyne Sydney RC SUBC
2001 King's Grammar Sydney RC
2002 UTS Haberfield St Ignatius' Drummoyne
2003 SUBC/Drummoyne St Ignatius' Shore
2004 Shore SUBC Drummoyne
2005 SUBC King's Sydney Boys High
2006 SUBC/Mosman/UTS Shore Grammar
2007 SUBC King's Shore
2008 [6] Sydney RC Shore St Joseph's
2009 SUBC Shore St Joseph's
2010
2011 [7] SUBC Sydney RC King's
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016 [8] Sydney RC SUBC UTS Haberfield
2017Sydney Rowing ClubSydney University Boat ClubUTS Rowing Club
2018 SUBC Sydney RC scratched

Schoolboy VIII

Year1st2nd3rd
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018 Shore St Joseph's Scots

Schoolgirl VIII for the Centenary Cup

Year1st2nd3rd
1999 Pymble Loreto Normanhurst Wenona
2000 Pymble MLC Redlands
2001 Pymble Loreto Normanhurst Ascham
2002 Pymble Loreto Normanhurst Sydney Girls
2003 Pymble Loreto Kirribilli Loreto Normanhurst
2004 Pymble Loreto Kirribilli MLC
2005 Pymble Roseville Ascham
2006 Pymble Queenwood Roseville
2007 Pymble Roseville Loreto Normanhurst
2008 [6] Pymble Queenwood Loreto Kirribilli
2009 Pymble Loreto Kirribilli Loreto Normanhurst
2010
2011>> Not Contested <<
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018>> Not Contested <<

Schoolboy 1st IV for the Sydney University Cup

Year1st2nd3rd
1999 Redlands Shore Cranbrook
2000 King's Shore Grammar
2001 St Ignatius' King's Newington
2002 King's Grammar St Ignatius'
2003 King's St Ignatius' Redlands
2004 Shore St Ignatius' St Joseph's
2005 Shore St Ignatius' King's
2006 King's St Joseph's Redlands
2007 Shore Redlands Newington
2008 [6] Shore St Ignatius' King's
2009 Shore Redlands St Ignatius'
2010 King's Scots St Ignatius'
2011 [9] King's St Ignatius' St Augustine's
2012 King's St Ignatius' St Joseph's
2013 St Augustine's Shore St Ignatius'
2014 St Augustine's St Joseph's Newington
2015 St Augustine's King's St Ignatius
2016
2017
2018 King's Shore Newington

Media attention

A video of the St Ignatius 1st VIII crashing into a wooden pole in the last stretch of the race circulated on the internet. It shows the umpire yelling for St Ignatius to "check your course" and "stop rowing", concluding with the boat hitting the pylon and six seat being thrown out.

See also

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References

  1. May, A.L (1970). "3. Summary of the Head of the River for the Fairbairn Cup". Sydney Rows. Guerin-Foster History of Australian Rowing. Archived from the original on 2008-07-21. Retrieved 2011-06-20.
  2. Gold Cup in the 2018 Rowing NSW Calendar
  3. May, A.L (1970). "4. The Amateur Question: 1890-1900". Sydney Rows. Guerin-Foster History of Australian Rowing. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
  4. Regatta Detail Rowing NSW
  5. Riverview Gold Cup course
  6. 1 2 3 "Riverview Gold Cup - Saturday, 15 March 2008 - Results". Riverview Gold Cup Regatta. NSW Rowing Association Inc. 2008-03-15. Retrieved 2008-03-15.
  7. Rowing NSW results 2011
  8. Gold Cup Results
  9. RowingNSW Gold Cup Results