3 May 2019

By Göran R Buckhorn

This Friday, let professional champion sculler Bert Barry take you out on the River Thames.

On 5 September 1927, Bert Barry went up against Major Goodsell, Australia, for the World Professional Sculling Championship title on the Burrand Inlet in Vancouver – a title Goodsell had had since March 1925. The Australian managed to beat Barry, but lost the title to him three months later on the same waterway.

Barry kept the world title until 31 May 1930, when he lost it to Ted Phelps on the Championships Course on the Thames, London. Later that year, on 11 October, Barry tried to retake the title from Phelps on the Thames, but he lost the race.