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Rowing Down The Zambezi
“A
grandstand had been erected at a point a mile or so above the Falls
on the north side, where was gathered a motley strange crowd of
whites and blacks – from the Commissioner, Sir William Milton, and
his party to Lewanika, Paramount Chief of Barotseland, and his
followers. He was a fine tall figure in grey flannel suit and hat –
with binoculars hung over his shoulder, and a hunting crop in his
hand.”
The above paragraph was from the diary of Rev. Alan Williams, then
Chaplain to South Africa, on the occasion of the first Zambezi
Regatta in 1905.
For this regatta, and we quote from The Northern Rhodesia Journal, “racing
fours were brought up from distant South African ports and no
expenses was spared to make the meeting a success. North Western
Rhodesia placed three boats on the river : one from the Kafue manned
by a crew selected from Pauling’s railwaymen, one from Kalomo manned
by Civil Servants and one from Livingstone.
The Rhodesia Challenge Cup was competed for by the Rhodesian boats
only, and won by Kafue with Livingstone second. Kalomo was badly
handicapped by having an old and leaky boat which was sarcastically
named “The Broken Heart”. Its crew were heavyweights and totalled no
less than sixty-four stone three pounds. Halfway down the course,
the Broken Heart became waterlogged and fell out.
At
night in the boating camp dinner was served in a large marquee
erected on the river bank and a convivial evening was spent. While
Coryndon was making a speech, a big bull hippo, attracted by the
light, swam to within a few yards of the bank and grunted loudly.”
Saturday 9 October this year will be a different scene, when
members of the
Oxford
and Cambridge University Boat Clubs pit their skills against the
mighty Zambezi with its lurking dangers of roiling rapids and the
odd semi-submerged hippopotamus.
This year
the150th
Oxford
v Cambridge Boat Race was held. Some members of those crews, and a
number of Olympians will be in Zambia to compete in the Sun
International-sponsored Zambezi Centenary Regatta to mark 100 years
of water sport at The Victoria Falls
The Regatta
will be hosted by the Zambezi Boat Club of Livingstone, founded in
1905. The event organisers are the River Club, Livingstone,
represented by Peter Jones, and Primary Sponsorship Ltd, a UK-based
sports marketing company headed by Richard Fishlock, Oxford and
Olympic rower 1960.
The Centenary
Regatta will mark the beginning of a year-long series of festivities
around Livingstone, celebrating a number of landmark events in the
history of the town, including the completion of the bridge over the
Zambezi at the Victoria Falls, the arrival of the railway, the first
rowing regatta, and the World Professional Sculling Championships
held in 1910.
The
Oxford
and Cambridge crews bring to Africa a tradition that puts them at
the forefront of sporting events in the UK and an estimated global
television audience of 400 million.
As part of the
festival the
Oxford and
Cambridge crews, both men and women, will compete against the
leading South African rowing universities. The South Africans will
probably be represented by
Rhodes
University
and the Rand Afrikaans University, subject to their being successful
in the University Boat Races.
All crews will
race in four lanes over the Olympic distance of 2 000 metres, and
500 metre sprints. The crews will then race in rafts against local
Zambian teams, and
Zambezi
river guides. There will also be a local two-man canoe event in
traditional dug-outs, Mokoros.
To commemorate
the World Sculling Regatta, the grandson of Ernest Barry, runner up
in 1910, will row a demonstration race against Paul Connolly, the
famous Zimbabwean sculler now competing as a veteran. An invitation
to join this race will also go to Colin Smith, the young Zimbabwean
stroke-man of this year’s Oxford Boat Race crew. The event will
conclude with the crews competing in a white water raft race on
Sunday October 10th.
Sun
International will accommodate the crews at the Zambezi Sun. Other
sponsors include Nationwide, who has provided greatly reduced
airline tickets, as well as First Quantum Mining and their Zambian
subsiduary, Bwana Mkubwa Mining, who are based in Zambia.
An event not to
be missed. |
October 2004