Read Online Fearless on Everest: The Quest for Sandy Irvine by Julie Summers - Free Book Online

5/- piece & twice as thick).  The best of the lot is that we get our oars with the VIII & its victories printed on it.
     
‘We got home at 5.30 this morning (Sunday) & found every body up & at the station & got a terrible reception.  (The school bell was broken in the effort) it was nearly as bad as Armistice Day.
     
    Shrewsbury School First Eight 1919 (Sandy first row, far right)
     
    This was Sandy’s first taste of victory and he loved it.  For him sport was all about winning and this time he and the other eight men had done it spectacularly.  He concludes the letter in a typically tongue-in-cheek way, ‘I’ve not had a wink of sleep since Friday night except a few minutes during the Sermon today, so I feel like bed.’ Sleeping during Chapel was considered a punishable offence and Lilian would have been aware of that as well as being shocked herself that he could have admitted to such a thing.  But Sandy challenged her views and beliefs constantly and really she could not criticise her son in the light of his achievements.
    For the school it was a triumph of the first order.  The Elsenham Cup was proudly displayed at the school for the next forty-five years, until it was placed on permanent loan to the National Schools Regatta in 1964.  Kitch was privately delighted and was showered with compliments for his coaching brilliance.  The crew was loudly commended, both in the press, and by the staff and boys.  W. Bridgeman, Chairman of the Governing Body of Shrewsbury School, wrote Kitch a letter on House of Commons notepaper in which he congratulated the Boat Club on ‘their conspicuous success at Henley’ and Kitch on his ‘admirable skill’ with which he ‘showed them the way to Victory’.  Barely unable to conceal his intense satisfaction Bridgeman went on: ‘I beg you will convey our high sense of pride in the boys’ triumph to the members of the Boat Club and our satisfaction at the laudatory comments which were so freely poured upon the style and spirit of the crew.’
    The success of 1919 led Kitch to believe that the Ladies Plate, the most coveted Cup at Henley for the public schools and colleges, was within their grasp.  In the summer of 1920 he put together an even stronger crew than in 1919 which, once again, included Sandy who now rowed at 6.  The promotion from 4 to 6 was a natural one, for as a rower becomes more experienced he generally moves towards the stern of the boat.  In 1921 he was at 7 and so on bow side.  Unsurprisingly Sandy got on well with Kitch.  He had absolute faith in his coaching and his dearest wish was to help him fulfil his ambitions for the First VIII.  The respect was mutual and Kitch later described Sandy as a ‘pillar of strength . . . cheerful, resourceful and indefatigable’.  Kitch’s great talent was that he could bring out the best in a rower and Sandy responded to that.  He knew, from his own experience, what it felt like to get it right: and he had the ability to convey this to his crews.  He and Sandy had similar physiques and were both notably fair-haired, but they also shared the understanding of the difference between rowing hard and rowing flat out.  Sandy had the confidence to do the latter, giving 110 per cent of himself in the full knowledge that he would not crack up.  Such a boy is a great asset to a rowing crew.
    Sandy rowing at number six for Shrewsbury (far boat) against Chris t’s College, Cambridge, 1920. Chris t’s won by half a length.
     
    Henley 1920 was disappointing for Sandy after the success of 1919.  Winning was the only acceptable outcome of a race for him.
We were a better boat slightly than last year but to be put up against a heavy crew of men, fresh, when we had rowed a race 5 hours before against a wind that you couldn’t bicycle against, to draw the worst station (supposed to be 1 to 1 ½ lengths slower) & then lead to half way & row a losing race the last half way, & row them to ½ length in the best time of