1984

By: Ana Watts

Mark Fawcett in his coxswain position.

He looks like a miniature New Wave rock star, only neater, does "cox", 12 year-old Mark Fawcett of the Kennebecasis Rowing Club in Renforth.

He’s the coxswain for the eight man crew of the club at present competing in Montreal and the Royal Henley Regatta in St. Catharines, Ontario.

At home in Renforth, practicing with the crew, he’s the little fellow. At about five feet high, the tall, sturdy, well developed rowers tower over him as they follow him from the new Jeux Canada Games boat house down to the club wharf on the Kennebecasis.

The rowers carry the 58 foot long 220 pound, eight-oared shell on their broad and brawny shoulders. They’re dressed in shorts and T-shirts, their sport socks pulled up high.

The little cox walks in front of them, barking orders in his surprisingly loud voice. His fair hair is cut fairly short and swept back. He wears big dark glasses attached to a purple string around his neck. Also around his neck is a microphone contraption attached to a small amplifier; so with his sweat pants, wind breaker, and electronic gear he looks like he’s really tuned in.

Once at the dock he barks more orders to the rowers. Someone brings some weights wrapped in a scruffy blanket to put on the deck of the shell at the stern where the cox sits. They’re necessary because the minimum weight requirement for a coxswain in competition is 120 pounds.

The rower that brings the weights to the shell grumbles about cox eating more. ‘Cox’ takes his place at the stern and checks his microphone to see if the speakers located at points along the shell are working and that all the rowers can hear. The 58-foot shell means a lot of space between ‘cox’ and rowers, and they must hear him because he shouts the orders.

So cox sits in the stern, looking more like a pop star than ever, issues the orders for rowers to take their places and shove off, and away they go. Cox is the only one who can see what’s ahead as the rowers pull on the oars with strong arms, and their strong legs push them back in the shell, only to be pulled forward again by those strong arms aided by the strong backs.

They’re out on the Kennebecasis now with their coach Keith Ratcliffe accompanied by his Irish setter, in a small motor boat.

The description of the coxswain may sound frivolous, but the club is a very serious club. Started in 1971 by Dr. C. H. Bonnycastle of Rothesay, it has enjoyed an excellent reputation in competitive circles. Club members attribute the success of the club to coach Keith Ratcliffe.

Ratcliffe has spent his life rowing, he started so long ago he doesn’t remember ever not rowing. He started with the best of rowers, on the Thames in England. His home was Hertfordshire, outside London. He rowed with many of the clubs in the area until he was 30. Then he moved to Canada, where his wife (who is from Fredericton) was sure there was no rowing.

She was wrong. There was the Kennebecasis Rowing Club at Renforth, not far from their home in Quispamsis.

"I came down here one day just to help our," says Ratcliffe. "They told me their coach was leaving, going back to Ontario, so here I am. That was 1975."

In 1977 the club won two national championships, one for a crew of four, the other for a pair. The Flood brothers, Henry and Brian, won the pairs at the nationals in 1982 and 1983.

In 1980 a crew of four was invited to Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England, where the historic crew came from that raced in Renforth in 1871. They were invited over to celebrate the 900^th anniversary of the city.

"It was a little early in our season when we got there," recalls Ratcliffe. "We came second in two events in Newcastle. But we went on to a couple of other regattas, and by the end of it, at Reading, we won handily!"

This year a crew of four is coming to Renforth from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to help with the 200^th anniversary celebrations in this province. They will row against four of the young rowers from the Kennebecasis Club who are at present in national competition.

It’s been an excellent season already for the Kennebecasis Rowing Club, with international gold medals from Brian Flood and Rick Cassidy in single competition, and a sweep at the Dartmouth regatta recently.

The Kennebecasis club would like to compete more, but, unlike Ratcliffe’s English home on the Thames where clubs abound and competition is continuous, there are few clubs in this region.

"The problem here is geography," says Ratcliffe. "The nearest club is Fredericton, and they’re not quite up to us yet, although they’re coming along fast. Then there are three clubs in Dartmouth, but in the last three years we have won all the point totals there."

Geography is the only problem, though. The club has the talent, the ability and the facilities to row to the top. Next year it’s Renforth’s turn to be at home to the finest rowers in the country, with the Jeux Canada Games competition on their own Kennebecasis River.