28 May 2018

On 14  May, HTBS ran a quiz by Chris Dodd.

We now have a happy winner, Ralf-Peter Stumme, who will receive a signed copy of Chris’s Brave Bonnie Boat Rowers. Congratulations Ralf-Peter.

1
Which famous writer kept time for Balliol at Henley?

Rudyard Kipling

2
Which oarsman wrote of Magdalen elms and Trinity limes and enjoyed the shortest name in the English language?

Q (Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch)

3
Which club appointed a chaplain in 1843 and has since found the office unnecessary?

Royal Chester Rowing Club appointed the Rev J. Folliott chaplain in 1843

4
‘…At length, after a great deal of changing and fidgeting, consequent on the election of a stroke-oar: the inability of one gentleman to pull on this side, of another to pull on that, and of a third to pull at all, the boat’s crew are seated. “Shove her off!” cries the coxswain, who looks as easy and comfortable as if he were steering in the Bay of Biscay. The order is obeyed; the boat is immediately turned completely round, and proceeds towards Westminster Bridge, amidst such a splashing and struggling as never was seen before…’

Who wrote of such amusements at Searle’s yard on a fine Sunday morning with a Richmond tide awaiting?

Charles Dickens in Sketches by ‘Boz’, 1836

5
Which boat carried sandalwood, cedarwood and sweet white wine?

The Quinquireme of Nineveh in John Masefield’s poem “Cargoes”

6
Who taught waitresses their ABC of sculling on the Thames?

Dr Furnivall, founder of Furnivall Sculling Club

7
Who said:

‘In or out of ‘em, it doesn’t matter… whether you get away, or whether you don’t; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you’re always busy, and you never do anything particular; and when you’ve done it there’s always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you’d much better not…’

Ratty in Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows

8
How many oarsmen (or -women) row a tessarakonteres?

Troopship for 2,850 men rowed by 4,000 rowers and manned by 400 deckhands

9
Who sat in a barge like a burnished throne with a poop of beaten gold and perfumed purple sails?

Cleopatra in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra

10
Who recognised a blatant bumptiousness about a steam launch, and had ways of dealing with them?

Jerome K Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat