Page:Boating - Woodgate - 1888.pdf/260

 was rowed out in six minutes. They met a third time on the following January 11, this time on the Tyne, and once more Higgins won, after a foul. He was plainly the better man of the two for any distance beyond a mile.

In the succeeding summer a Durham pitman, one W. Elliott, came out as a Championship candidate. He was short and thick-set, and was decidedly clumsy at his first essay. He met Higgins, and was beaten easily. He improved rapidly and came out again the following September, The proprictors of the ‘Sportsman ’ had established a challenge cup, to be won by three successive victories, under certain conditions. Higgins, Boyd, and Elliott competed for it, and Elliott beat them both. The final heat was on September 17, In the following year, 1879, Elliott and Higgins met on the Tyne, on February 21, and once more Elliott held his own. He remained the repre- sentative of British professional sculling until the arrival of Edward Hanlan in this country.

Hanlan first attracted notice at the Philadelphia regatta of 1876, Mr. R. H. Labat, of the Dublin University, London, and Thames Rowing Clubs, took part in that regatta, and entered into conversation with Hanlan, He, as one of the L.R.C. men, lent Hanlan a pair of sculls for the occasion, and with them Hanlan won the Open Professional Sculling Prize. He beat among others one Luke, who had beaten Higgins ina trial heat. Higgins was at the moment suffering from exertions in a four- oared race earlier in the day, so that his defeat did not occasion much surprise ; but Mr. Labat on his return to England told the writer of this chapter that in his opinion Hanlan was far and away the best sculler he had ever seen, and that even if Higgins had been fresh and fit, Hanlan would have been too good for him. At that date Hanlan had not made his great reputation, but the soundness of Mr. Labat's estimate of his powers was fully verified subsequently.

In 1879 Hanlan, having beaten the best American scullers, came to England to row for the ‘Sportsman’ Challenge Cup. He commenced his career in England by beating a second-rate