15 February 2017
This is a reminder that Hadaway Harry, playwright Ed Waugh’s hit play about the professional oarsman Harry ‘Hadaway’ Clasper of Tyneside, played by actor Jamie Brown and directed by Russell Floyd, will be performed at London Rowing Club in Putney on Friday 17 February and Saturday 18 February. This will be the first out-of-town run for Hadaway Harry.
The show starts at 7.30 p.m. on both evenings with a matinee at 2.30 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets, limited to 80 per show, cost only £16 from (0191) 424 7788. For further details please visit: www.hadawayharry.co.uk
Harry Clasper was a regular visitor to Putney. He often lodged in The Feathers pub at the mouth of the River Wandle when preparing for races. Harry Clasper’s son, John Hawks Clasper, was also a successful oarsman and boat builder, went on to live in Putney, at Lower Richmond Road and Stainbridge Road, both within a few hundred yards of the London Rowing Club.
Later in the month, Hadaway Harry will be performed at the 1,200-seat Theatre Royal in Newcastle on Friday 24 February and Saturday 25 February.
However, on Thursday, 23 February, Newcastle City Council will unveil a blue plaque for Harry Clasper on Newcastle’s Quayside at 11 a.m.
It will be on the pillar of the High Level Bridge – near the swing bridge (Newcastle side). Between the Riverside music venue and the Wetherspoon pub The Quayside (35-37 Close, NE1 3RN).
After the plaque has been revealled, ‘we will be going to the Theatre Royal for refreshments and a short talk by David Clasper interspersed with some music of the time, that celebrated the great Tyne rowers. The Blaydon Races was written for Clasper’s testimonial in 1862 at Balmbras music hall,’ Ed Waugh said in a statement.
Hear The Boat Sing 
Well done Newcastle City Council. Any chance of restoring Clasper’s memorial?: http://i2.chroniclelive.co.uk/incoming/article9424105.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/JS65638127.jpg
The only other official Blue Plaque to an oarsman that I know of is the one at 36 St Mary’s Grove, Chiswick, London W4, marking the boyhood home of Jack Beresford Jnr, Britain’s greatest rower of the pre-Redgrave era: https://heartheboatsing.com/2015/03/13/the-berefords-at-balfairs/
West London also boasts an unofficial Blue Plaque to the double Olympian, the late Andy Holmes. It was placed by his old school, Latymer, on their boathouse at 40 Upper Mall, Hammersmith, London, W6: http://www.latymer-upper.org/whats-on/news-and-events/school-news/sir-steve-redgrave-opens-the-latymer-sports-centre
A short walk from the Latymer boathouse sees a slate plaque on the now Auriol Kensington boathouse at 14 Lower Mall, Hammersmith, London, W6. It commemorates WD Kinnear of Kensington RC, the greatest amateur sculler of the 1910 – 1912 period, twice holder of sculling’s ‘Triple Crown’ and winner of the 1912 Olympic Sculls: https://heartheboatsing.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/de95a-wdk2bplaque.jpg