Broken Oars Podcast: Episode 57: Hayfever, Small Regattas, Proper Henley, and Inventing a Whole New Regatta

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Your genial hosts, Lewin (Southern, posh) and Aaron (Northern, illiterate) returns as warriors of old who have journeyed beyond the circle of firelight to gain the knowledge that men know not wot of and return with it for the general benefit and edification of the tribe ...

 

... and lo, the tribe turned around and said:

 

Where the hell have you two been? You've slid out of doing the washing-up again, we see ... ?

 

But we return with the secret that men ...

 

... and women ...

 

... and women, that men and women know not wot of and we ...

 

That's all very well, but no-one's done the floors, and there's nothing in the fridge for tea ...

 

... but we return with the secret that men ...

 

... and women ...

 

... that men and women know not wot of, and ...

 

Shush. Henley's on.

 

Ah.

 

Yes, we return just in time for Henley's weeks.

 

It's like we've got access to calendars and watches and diaries and the internet and stuff.

 

So, in this episode there is:

 

No poetry!

 

No dead authors!

 

A couple of living ones ...

 

And a brief discussion of killer hayfever; people trying to outfox the strict liability rule, the death of wonder in sports, the joy, absolute joy of small regattas, the wonder of Hexham (where Lewin asks why our Victorian forebears decided to take representative slices of Surrey and the better bits of the Upper Thames Valley and put them as Southern embassies in the North in the case of Durham and Hexham); racing while gypsies wash horses in the river next to you; Appleby; why the correct number of boats, horses and guitars is always 'one more ...'; and why Women's Henley could now be considered as 'proper' Henley now that Henley Royal has become a superslick paean to elite athletes and clubs ...

But because it's us, we don't leave it there, diving into the cyclical nature of success; the art of commentary (and why we both want to do more of it); why stockpiling elite athletes in HP programmes (Hi, OB ...) like America and Russia stockpiled Nazi scientists after WW2 does not lead to global armageddon but does cut down on the pathways to rowing at Uni that many of our best and brightest and stalwartest came through ... before we do something amazing:

 

We invent a whole new regatta.

 

And it's the regatta you've always wanted to do.

 

So, bow, you tell me that you have rhythm? And you also have music? And yet you still dare to ask for anything more ... ?

 

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