Penny-pinching Skulduggery From Corporations

THE Paddling Puppies, Lay Down Sallys, Skinny Scullers and Lawful Foursome were among 18 teams of novice rowers from businesses around the Hunter who put their oars in the water yesterday to compete in a corporate rowing regatta at Berry Park, near Morpeth.

A Mother's Final Journey

There is little comfort for those facing death, but personal tragedies can tell a bigger story, writes LAUREN MARTIN. Rowing Without Oars By Ulla-Carin Lindquist John Murray, 196pp, $21.95

Right, Put Your Oars In

Water dragons ... crews take to the oars during a practice for this weekend's dragon boat races at Darling Harbour as part of the Chinese New Year festivities.

Limping To The Backwater, A Deep-seated Disappointment Sinks In

They rowed slowly and silently, their heads down, their oars barely touching the water. They rowed past the jetty where the medallists were already telling their battle stories to the waiting media. They rowed into a little backwater at the end of the course and toward a bridge, where a fan dressed in green and gold leaned down and yelled: "Come on, Aussie!"

Boat Race Or No, For Sheer Guts This Horse Still Takes The Biscuit

Unlike with Seabiscuit, the gentle swish of oars or flapping spinnaker of the boat race was never heard in relation to Phar Lap. To avoid confusion, the turf dictionary of racing slang describes a boat race as ``an event to which the result was said to be prearranged".

After 50 Years, Knees Are Still Ridiculous

FIFTY years on, The Goon Show's anarchy and wordplay has been so absorbed into our culture that it is hard to remember the impact it once had. I was won over at the age of 11 by a single line on the radio. Neddy Seagoon, the show's dim hero, was relating how there were no oars in his lifeboat, ``but luckily we found two outboard motors and we rowed with them".

Sting That Ricocheted From Randwick To Happy Ending

To all apparent purposes the Sydney event the last race of the day had a deafening swish of oars with the whiff of stew. The winner had been backed as if unbeatable, and scored as the confidence indicated.

Oarsome Herald Crew Row For Gold

A FEW employees of The Newcastle Herald are considering a career change after they swapped their pens for oars on Saturday in what proved to be a master stroke.

Stroke Of Bad Luck As Water Rats Lift Oars

Wanted: two thieves in the vicinity of the Yarra River, carrying a pair of high-tech, Olympic-standard oars. Yes, you are still reading the Herald sport section. We post this message on behalf of Olympic rowers James Tomkins and Drew Ginn, who, after six months of injuries and challenges to thei

Gosper's Name Loses Lustre Among Old Boys

REMIS Velisque ? With Oars and Sails ? was the motto of Newcastle Boys High School in its halcyon days. Every week, from the school's opening at Waratah in 1934 when my father Alan was school captain, until it changed to Waratah High in 1976, the select high school boys sang those words `loud and

Sharks Attack Rowers

Two school rowing crews were involved in shark attacks on a suburban river in as many days, police said. On Thursday afternoon, a shark snapped at the oars of a school boat on Parramatta River, near Gladesville, in Sydney's north, a police spokesman said. And on Friday, a shark almost overt

Hurry, Or You'll Miss The Boat

IF you turn an ear to the oncoming breeze the gentle swishing of the oars can be heard distinctly above the clatter of hooves. Old heads grin conspiratorially. "That had all the earmarks of a boatie," you hear them say. A boat race. One goer. Even when Oxford row against Cambri

An Oarsome Skill

Corrimal-based PeterTaylor is the fourth generation of a boat-building family. Until four years ago, he specialised in surfboats - but today he spends most of his working time making and repairing carbon fibre and timber oars used by surfboat crews. His great-grandfather started the boat-build

New-wavemonohull

THERE is no more stirring sight than an Aussie surfboat crashing through a cresting shore break, four bronzed lifesavers slaving at the oars. They are a marvel of seaworthiness as they tackle the seas head-on before riding the foam back to the beach with the ease of a dolphin, bow high, sweep st

Oarsome Discovery

If the Australian rowing team used rigid oars at the Sydney Olympics they could blitz the field and win a swag of gold medals, researchers claim. Professors Maurice Brearley and Neville de Mestre told a conference, on Mathematics and Computers in Sport at Bond University on the Gold Coast, that i

It's An Oarsome Slow Row But They're In The Flow

Rowing will be one of the high-profile disciplines at Sydney 2000. JENNIE CURTIN assesses the sport's position after last week's national titles. NOTHING happens fast in rowing. Well, apart from the rac ing itself, which is a frenetic and exhausting blend of splashing oars, the cries of the

We Are Not Worthy

RICHARD JINMAN surveys Sydney musicians about the Uber Muso who can sing with a cross Texan-Budapest accent, Jackie Orszaczky (that's oars-az-keee to you sunshine). Tim Finn calls him the "coolest man in Sydney". A gravel-voiced Hungarian with a jaw-dropping syncopated bass style, Jack

The Great Survivors: Bloodnok, Bluebottle And Henry Crun

THE GOONS The Story By Spike Milligan, Sir Harry Secombe and Eric Sykes (edited by Norma Farnes) Virgin, 192pp, $29.99 ISBN 1 85227 679 7 I WAS 11 when the Goons won me over with a single line of pure, distilled humour. Neddy Seagoon related that there were no oars in his lifeboat, "bu

Too-timid Egan Rests On His Oars

Because almost 40 per cent of the State's revenue comes from the Commonwealth, it makes no sense for the State Budget to be delivered three months before the Federal Budget - particularly since we know the States' grants are on the chopping block. But that's the point of jumping the gun. Mr Egan

The Rare Pleasure Of An Early Row

THE ONLY sounds are pipping bird calls; the dominant movement, oars slicing the mirrored water surface. This is Brogo Dam, north of Bega, on the far south coast of NSW. An early morning row across the dam is a rare pleasure. A gentle layer of mist lingers on the glassy surface, the surrounding W