Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Desert Island Discs
Presented by Roy Plomley
Olympic silver medalist rower, seven-times Henley Grand Challenge Cup winner, Oxford Blue and President, later coach of Oxford crews.
Eight records
Grand Challenge Cup Stewards' Enclosure (Henley Regatta)
No transcript supplied for first disc; not identifiable.
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
In conversation
Presenter asks
When you came down from Oxford, you kept on rowing. Under whose colours?
First of all, Leander. And then my last year at the Thames Rowing Club.
Presenter asks
How old were you when you decided to turn in active rowing?
It was Crane [a question of being a scull crane after that age]. I don't think it was pressure of work. I used to take my holiday as rowing. I never took time out of the firm, and veins started coming up on my forehead and that sort of thing, and I'd rather lost my will to win, so I thought it was time to pack it in.
Presenter asks
Is rowing a growing sport?
Getting much, much more popular and it has been increasing very much since the war. We are getting, thank goodness, a tremendous lot of help from the provinces, and they are coming down sending real good crews and I have no doubt that they will have a tremendous salutary effect on the whole of English rowing.
The recording
Timestamps play the recording from that turn
Presenter
This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.
Presenter
Gallio
G O Nickalls
Your father was a very famous oarsman before you, wasn't he? Uh yes, he certainly was. He won more races than any one had ever rowed to their day, always liked to do in the future. Hm. As a comparatively small boy, did you mess about in boats a lot? Yes, quite a bit.
G O Nickalls
My father was extraordinarily sensible about it. He never tried to suggest that we should row. I went to see him row as a small boy.
G O Nickalls
And I caught the bug, I suppose. That's really w what it comes to, but he never suggested it at all. He was a very interfering man, normally.
Presenter
Give it a
G O Nickalls
Now you'll
Presenter
Heard at Eton and then he went up to Oxford to Moretton College. He wrote for your college.
G O Nickalls
Yeah.
Presenter
I believe you collected the grand challenge cup at Henley Regatta in your in your first year at Oxford
G O Nickalls
Oxford? Um yes, we had a a crew that seemed to really fall together under the leadership of a a man called Horsfall, who had rode for Oxford before the war.
Presenter
But
G O Nickalls
Cheer.
Presenter
Was it
G O Nickalls
This was the year of the Olympics, wasn't it? That's right, yes. And uh five of us went on uh to row in the Olympics and we were beaten in Brussels by uh four fifths of a second.
G O Nickalls
And I always think that uh perhaps if they had kept it as a college crew, it might have just made up that fourfth of a second that we might have won. It'd have been the only time a college crew would ever, ever have won the Olympics, I think. Nevertheless, you collap
Presenter
collected a silver medal, and the following spring you were in the Oxford boat. How many of your Maudlin colleagues were with you there? Um I think uh there were two or three. You were in the Oxford boat for three years. Three years, yes. And in your last
G O Nickalls
Last year you were President. That's right. How many times did you win? The twenty one and twenty two crews were beaten and we just won by three quarters of the length in nineteen twenty three. Now when you came down from Oxford you you kept on rowing. Under whose colours?
G O Nickalls
First of all, Leander.
G O Nickalls
And then my last year at the Thames Rowing Club. How many times altogether were you in? and a winning Grand Crow.
Presenter
Yeah.
G O Nickalls
Yeah. Uh Uh seven time.
Presenter
Uh
G O Nickalls
And there was one year you won the Grand and the Stewards 4s. And that was the last year I was rowing in 1928. I tried to get people to lug me over so that I could say that I'd been in a winning Steward 4. Everyone who'd tried had been completely unsuccessful. But on this occasion, my last race at Henley, we got home by two foot. And before that, I believe you had done the double of winning the Grand and the Goblets. With Lucas in 20 and 22, yes. Twice.
G O Nickalls
Twice is.
Presenter
Uh
G O Nickalls
Uh
G O Nickalls
Uh
Presenter
How old were you when you decided to turn in active rowing?
G O Nickalls
Twenty nine
G O Nickalls
Yeah.
Presenter
Uh
G O Nickalls
Was that
Presenter
Yeah.
G O Nickalls
It's because you think it's a sc Crane after that age, or was it because of pressure of work? I think it was Crane.
Presenter
Yeah.
G O Nickalls
I don't th think it was pressure at work. I used to take my holiday as rowing. I never took time out of the firm, and uh veins started coming up on my forehead and that sort of thing, and I I'd rather lost my will to win, so I thought it was time to pack it in.
Presenter
But you'll continue to give a great deal of time to rowing, as a coach for example. You catch the Oxford Crill on several occasions.
G O Nickalls
Yes, in the thirty-seven, thirty-eight and thirty-nine. And of course you did a a great deal of regatta work.
Presenter
And umpiring.
Presenter
Yes, that still goes on.
G O Nickalls
Yeah. Uh
Presenter
Yeah.
G O Nickalls
Uh
Presenter
Yeah.
G O Nickalls
Is rowing a growing sport?
G O Nickalls
Getting much, much more popular and it has been increasing very much since the war.
G O Nickalls
We are getting, thank goodness, a tremendous lot of help.
G O Nickalls
From the provinces.
G O Nickalls
and they are coming down sending real good crews and I have no doubt that they will have a tremendous salutary effect.
G O Nickalls
Or on the the whole of English reign.
Presenter
God.
Presenter
Now, the University's boat race. What is the appeal of this race? Last Saturday over the same stretch of the river, there were over three hundred eights racing in the head of the river. A magnificent spectacle, but hardly anybody goes to see that. But this race between two crews attracts attention all
G O Nickalls
All over the world. Why is it? I think it's rarely because people always prefer to see a race that is side by side and one. Which looks like a procession, but which is in fact a time race. Uh
Presenter
And a
G O Nickalls
Of course, there's The tradition of of the Burgess. I think there is a tremendous tradition and because their fathers did it, their grandfathers did it.
Presenter
I think
G O Nickalls
It's been going on for so long, one must see the boat race. It must be one of the toughest races in the world.
G O Nickalls
Uh I think it's extraordinarily tiring. I used to be
G O Nickalls
very tired, almost for a week afterwards. They'd say nowadays
G O Nickalls
Because I wasn't trained well enough to solve
Presenter
Yeah.
G O Nickalls
It's a very
Presenter
Very tricky course. Yes. Occasionally of course one of the crews experiments with a a new shape of boat or a new kind of blade.
G O Nickalls
Yes, there'll be a lot of these um Italian boats now.
G O Nickalls
I think they're jolly good. Uh I I do. And I think these spade blades
G O Nickalls
Uh another improvement. I think spade blades uh make it much easier.
G O Nickalls
to row and you'll get a cleaner finish I think.
Presenter
There are occasions when this kind of experiment can be disastrous. There's the story about you redesigning the boat in which you rode in the Pier or event for the Goblets at Henley.
G O Nickalls
Yeah.
Presenter
Coming unstuck, or rather the boat coming unstuck.
G O Nickalls
Yes, my dear old partner, Lucas, always used to sort of start shaving away bits' hair, and filing bits' hair, and sawing bits' hair. As it happened, he had n nothing to do with this particular accident. The stretcher gave way.
G O Nickalls
and went through the side of the boat and uh green water started coming on. I'd lost my stretcher, which was rather difficult to steer and row, and we just didn't uh finish the course. We sank in the most spectacular fashion, just short of the winning post.
Presenter
New
Presenter asks
The University's boat race. What is the appeal of this race? ... Why is it [that it attracts attention all over the world]?
I think it's rarely because people always prefer to see a race that is side by side and one which looks like a procession, but which is in fact a time race. Of course, there's the tradition of the Burgesses. I think there is a tremendous tradition and because their fathers did it, their grandfathers did it. It's been going on for so long, one must see the boat race. It must be one of the toughest races in the world.
Presenter asks
There are occasions when this kind of experiment [with a new shape of boat or blade] can be disastrous. There's the story about you redesigning the boat in which you rode in the Pairs event for the Goblets at Henley, coming unstuck, or rather the boat coming unstuck.
Yes, my dear old partner, Lucas, always used to sort of start shaving bits here, and filing bits here, and sawing bits here. As it happened, he had nothing to do with this particular accident. The stretcher gave way and went through the side of the boat and green water started coming on. I'd lost my stretcher, which was rather difficult to steer and row, and we just didn't finish the course. We sank in the most spectacular fashion, just short of the winning post.
“I caught the bug, I suppose. That's really what it comes to, but he never suggested it at all. He was a very interfering man, normally.”
“We had a crew that seemed to really fall together under the leadership of a man called Horsfall, who had rowed for Oxford before the war.”
“I always think that perhaps if they had kept it as a college crew, it might have just made up that four-fifths of a second that we might have won. It'd have been the only time a college crew would ever, ever have won the Olympics, I think.”
“I tried to get people to lug me over so that I could say that I'd been in a winning Steward 4. Everyone who'd tried had been completely unsuccessful. But on this occasion, my last race at Henley, we got home by two foot.”