The Evening Times Globe, September 9, 1996.

By Allan Bainbridge

I first discovered Renforth 20 years ago, and on an early visit down to the wharf I read the plaque explaining how the village got its name: The James Renforth came from Gateshead, England, for the great race of 1871 and had died in the attempt.

I nearly fell into the Kennebecasis River, for I was born and bred in Gateshead, England. My son David was born in Gateshead and my daughter Elaine was born in Newcastle. I, therefore, acquired an immediate affinity with Renforth.

It was a must, therefore, that I attend the 125^th anniversary. I personally was celebrating two anniversaries - the great boat race and the 24^th anniversary of our arrival in Canada from Gateshead, England. My loyalties on this day, though, were with the Geordie lads from the Tyne. Gateshead and Newcastle share the river Tyne and are linked by numerous bridges, like Newcastle and Chatham in New Brunswick.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out how Newcastle, N.B. got its name; however, I doubt it Gateshead and Newcastle will be re-name the city of Marimichi!

It seemed like apples and oranges when hearing the qualifications of the two crews. The Renforth crew: silver in Yugoslavia, Croatia or Serbia notwithstanding, they won bronze in the Pan-Am, Olympians to boot. The Tyne crew: "The all attend Kings University and one of them was employee of the month at McDonalds." Not quite the dream team.

The crews rowed their hulls into show prior to the race. The Renforth crew had a state-of-the-art, sleek, glass-fibre hull. Our lads seemed to have been given a wooden replica of the original James Renforth hull. Probably the cast-iron one was out of commission!

The race got under way and apparently it was neck and neck for most of the loops. The crowd were wildly cheering for "Canada," for by now it was Canada versus England. I waved my little Union Jack amid hundreds of Maple Leafs. I stuck out the Newcastle brown-ale logo on my T-shirt, to no avail. The Canada crew won by two boat lengths. They accepted the victory with grace and out lads were dignified in defeat, not mentioning how they had lost the race.

We have a dialect on the Tyne called Geordie and we are called Geordies. This dialect is a language in itself and the Geordie temperament is unique, sort of a distinct society. Hence "Wa nivva knackered, wi divvint coin" freely translated means "We are never exhausted, we don’t turn around."

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dance. I sport at length to the Tyne crew and I can assure you they had a "smashing" time. I sowed the seed of immigration in them and we may yet see one of them coming to the nicest part of the best country in the world.