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GREAT SWIMMING RACE FOR £50:^.On Monday last at noon• thelbhg-talked-of * match between H. Coulter and D. Pamplin was swum over the two miles on tideway between the Doves at Hammersmith to PutneyAqueduct on the ebb tidel There was a little less currentthan usual, owing to the. wind, and the attendance was as limited as anything could possibly be. Swimmers, as a rule, are the class that rise with the lark and go to bed with the un. When they train it is whilst the dew is yet on the gra93, before the sun is well up, or. else in the evening, when the parish Lord Chamberlain allows nudity to have its fling. A fixture, therefore, for a race at mid-day was a sad trial to its usual supporters, and but few of them could waste their dyV1' labour to come to the contest. However, the tide is the important matter, and, as there is no piece of water elsewhere, in the metropolitan district where a race of any length can .be carried out, the Thames was the alternative. It was past efte before the steamer left her moorings at the pier with the twocompetitors on board, and .in ten minutes they were strippedat the bows ready for the signal. Pamplin had the Surrey station, with the turn of the corner at first, and in a'few strokes he had a lead, which he made into a length at the bridge. Here some barges were right in the course, and Coulter, having to alter ; his direction^ fell three lengths astern in* a short time, but Pamplin, getting into the eddy from the bridge, came back to him, and at the Soap WorJts both men were dead level. Pamplin in the first minute was doing 36 lorig strokes per minute,. Coulter 39, both . men alternately doing the breast and side stroke. ;The race was now a neck-and-neck affair for 300 yards, when Pamplin seemed*:to go ahead with ease, but at the Grass Wharf Coulter came, up, passed him, and took his water,. More than half the course had been swum, and the pace of stroke had fallen to Pamplin . 32, Coulter 34 per minute, the latter principally on his breast. At the Point, Pamplin, by a.; beautiful exhibition of side swimming, came up level again and got his own side, and up to the boat-houses it was again a ding-dong race, Coulter doing 3° and Pamplin 28 strokes. The steering of both men, which had hitherto been good, was now wild, and Coulter, slowly forging ahead, took Pamplin’s water and kept it to the finish, winning by five lengths, after another fine , spurt from Pamplin, who considerably reduced the gap in the last 100 yards. Both men were greatly exhausted at. the finish, as . much from the cold water and wind , as from the exertion of the struggle. Pamplin has beaten Coulter over a j,coo yards’ course, and his distance seems, to be about that. Coulter, it may be remembered, was beaten by White in their swim to Greenwich some time ago—-five miles. v The time of this race on a two and a-half hours’ ebb was 33 minutes. Morriss, who has lately retired from the amateur swimming world and taken to the professional, is ready to swim Coulter.- These, with; H. George, !now in America, and- C. Whyte, represent the first professional swimmers in London. :
Newspaper Details
London Man About Town
London, Middlesex, GB
Sat, Aug 27, 1870
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
Sophie P.
GB 29 Jan 2017
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