Over a winding course past the landmarks of Berlin, the oldest racing format in the sport of rowing returns to a global level on Sunday as Olli Zeidler and Simon van Dorp will face off in a simple match race in what has been styled as the World Sculling Finals, a continuation of one of the oldest and grandest prizes in the history of the sport.
In the 19th century, rowing was split into two distinct categories: the amateur divisions with events that are still well-known such as the Wingfield Sculls and Henley Royal Regatta which deliberately excluded the working class. However, on the other side of the divide were the great stars of the day, as their races drew crowds in excess of 100,000 and cash prizes for the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of pounds. And for these oarsmen, the greatest prize of them all was the World Sculling Championship.
Initially founded as the championship of the Thames, it quickly became the top prize in England as a fierce rivalry between the scullers from London and those from the Tyne dominated proceedings as they traded the title up and down the country between 1859 and 1875, with many of the most famous sportsmen of their time coming from this league. The contest truly became international when Ned Trickett, a quarryman from New South Wales, became the first non-Englishman to take the title.
The professional scene retained some of the biggest characters and no one embodied this greater than Ned Hanlan, a Canadian sculler who despite his diminutive stature at just 5’8” and 73kg had become the first person to master a sliding seat stroke that would be recognisable today. In his first title defence, he dominated Trickett to claim the world championship over the championship course. In a rematch eighteen months later, Hanlan furthered the humiliation of the Australian as he would row over the course, turn around, row back to Trickett, and then beat him once again.
With his small stature but ginormous ego, Ned Hanlan’s antics captured the attention of Canada as he defeated competition from across the world, winning handsome sums of money at each turn. After a bout of typhoid that led to rumours of his death, he recovered to defend his title on several more occasions before losing his title to Bill Beach, an Australian sculler who had also adopted Hanlan’s technique but benefited from twenty pounds more bodyweight. Though Hanlan didn’t take the defeat well, he was hailed as the first national Canadian sporting hero and was elected to the Toronto City Council.
The history of this event is littered with more great personalities. Bill Beach himself would retire from the sport of rowing undefeated while it would take until 1912 when Ernest Barry would regain the title for England before being named as the Royal Barge Master to King George VI and a young Queen Elizabeth II.
However, in the mid-twentieth century, professional rowing would enter a decline, the names of champions were no longer globally known and the championship retreated to an all-Australian affair and in 1958 Evans Fischer of Australia retired as the undefeated champion as no professional scullers challenged him, marking the end of this course.
However, this event will be reborn this weekend as two of the biggest names in the sport will compete in the match race format on the Spree. The organisers are deliberate in tying their event to this one from the glory days of the sport as showcasing this unique event between two of the sport’s biggest stars may rebuild rowing as the top tier sport it once was.
Keep your eyes peeled for another JRN article on the Zeidler-Van Dorp showdown this weekend…
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