Rowers Honour a Rugby Legend

by Rob Bristow on 11 Nov 2006 Past and present pupils from New Plymouth Boys High School assembled at their school this weekend. The connection with rowing is none other than the late rugby legend – ‘JJ’ Stewart.

While JJ is well known for his successes with the oval ball game he recognised the contribution that the sport of rowing could make.

In the late fifties JJ was responsible for rugby at NPBHS and as a rowing club developed at the school he saw the benefit of his players keeping fit during the summer. He started to take a great interest in the rwoing club and started to get his charges out to the club during the summer. On many occasions the school bus could be seen making the trip to Waitara after school and at the weekends for the boys to row. The rowing gave the boarders at the school something to fill in the weekend.

Realising that the rowers would need a coach none other than Noel ‘Hoppy’ Lynch was recruited from Auckland.

The school produced some fine crews in the late fifties and through the sixties. Perhaps the best of them was the 1962 eight which won the Under 19 eights, The Maadi Cup, at the Secondary School Championships. The Maadi has been won by a surprisingly few schools. The cities from which those schools originate is even fewer. Auckland, Tauranga, Hamilton, Wanganui, Christchurch and New Plymouth. Since 1947 only 5 schools have won the title once.

In August 2002 a big group of rowers from this period held a reunion at the school to mark the fortieth anniversary of the win and there was no way they were going to go home without a row at Clifton– see http://www.rowinginfo.info/albums/npbhs2002/index.html - Noel got in on the act and coxed the eight while ‘JJ’ stood on the bank making his ‘prescence’ felt.

This weekend the rowers have returned for another occasion, the unveiling of a memorial to their mentor. The momento takes the form of an old NPBHS rowing blade signed by the rowers and it will be displayed in the NPBHS sports trophy pavilion.

While not as many returned this year there was still the keeness to get out on the water and even go for a row with some of today’s novice rowers from the school. An eight and a four was boated and they were able to watch and add some history to the Clifton trophy Races which were held at the same time as the ‘masters’ took to the water.

Once again, at the tender age of 82 Noel took the rudder lines and barked the commands – albeit this time with the use of a cox box to keep them all on their toes. See http://www.rowinginfo.info/albums/npbhs2006/index.html

At the end of the morning young and old joined together for a bar-b-q and a chance to remember those times.