The 35th Annual meeting of the club at the Unicorn Hotel had a large attendance of members. Mr. E. Shew the president occupied the chair. It was reported that the season had been one of strenuous effort. The club was represented at four regattas but had been unable to bring home a regatta cup. We were successful however in winning the Novice Premiership of Ballarat with both the selected fours rowing splendidly to secure first and fifth placing and the overall points premiership. This was particularly notable in that there were barely enough rowers from which to select the two crews. The number one crew was W. McPherson, T. Hingston, H. Lynch and J. McPherson and the number two crew C. Ellis, P. Cochrane, F. Gay and P. Williams.
Club racing opened with the trial pairs for trophies presented by Mr. Newton. While those competitions always provided interesting and often very close contests, the trial pairs of this season set somewhat of a record with two of the contesting crews dead heating THREE times. A longer course was chosen for the fourth and final competition. The trophies were won by J. Buchanan and W. McPherson. The runners up were A. Cartledge and T. J. Stevens. Scratch fours were held for the presidents and vice-presidents trophies with that series being won by C. H. Bunce’s crew.
This year St Patrick’s College decided to form a rowing club so the committee offered them one of the club’s old practice fours with which to start their fleet, which they accepted. They also purchased the club’s old practice eight, which had just been replaced.This was the commencement of a long-lasting relationship between the club and St.Patrick’s rowing that would benefit both parties and last another 90 years.
Ballarat City Rowing Club History Blog 