Aug 4, 2015HTBS

The Last Post

Pic A. The Boat Race finish post outside Tideway Scullers, just downstream of Chiswick Bridge, pictured last year. Legend has it that the colour of the last winning crew goes at the top but, if this was ever true, it has not happened recently.
The Boat Race finish post outside Tideway Scullers, just downstream of Chiswick Bridge, pictured last year. Legend has it that the colour of the last winning crew goes at the top but, if this was ever true, it has not happened recently.

Tim Koch writes:

My piece The Art of Rowing on Saturday showed the Boat Race finish at Putney in 1867 and 2013. The later race would have ended at the finish post, installed following the ‘dead heat’ debacle of 1877  and a feature of the river at Mortlake ever since. That is, it was until the morning of Sunday, 26 July, when the post broke off near its base.

Pic B. The finish post now.
The finish post now.

Unfortunately, the Port of London Authority has taken the remains of the post away. It would have made a splendid (if bulky) addition to my collection of rowing memorabilia.

Pic C. This screen shot from my 2014 video on the 1877 ‘Dead Heat’ Boat Race https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thjoLomNXnE shows that the post was in a poor state more than a year ago. Who would have thought that wood and water do not go well together?
This screen shot from my 2014 video on the 1877 ‘Dead Heat’ Boat Race shows that the post was in a poor state more than a year ago. Who would have thought that wood and water do not go well together?

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