1974

ST. CATHARINES, Ont. (CP) - For the last 13 years, the Henley Regatta points title has been the exclusive property of the St. Catharines Rowing Club.

But after Thursday's opening finals at the 92nd national rowing championships, the defending titlists have company.

It's the Charles River Rowing Club of Boston, a collection of United States college oarsmen who won the junior cox four and junior 155-pound eight finals to vault to the top of the early point race.

Charles River used the firsts to pile up 54 points, eight more than St. Catharines which man- aged only one win, that one coming in the junior cox pair. The Minnesota Boat Club of St. Paul wound up third on 41 points, most of them coming from a decision by Steve Takaichi and Jack Cheesboro in the junior 145-pound double.

Mexico's national rowing team made the other big splash on the program when Edgar Tams took the junior 155-pound single and Hugo Enrique followed with the junior 135-pound single. That moved the Mexicans into fourth place in the race for the Maple Leaf Trophy on 37 points.

In the other sculling final, the junior single, 32-year-old Bill Scollie of the Thunder Bay, Ont., Rowing Club was the winner.

And the Canadian flavor was maintained when an Ottawa Rowing Club crew scored in the point race with 32, one more junior 145-pound four, followed by an entry from the University of Western Ontario, London, Ont., in the junior four.

Western's win moved the London club into fifth place in the then winless Hamilton Leanders. Ottawa is seventh on 26 points.

With an early threat of rain giving way to a stiff head wind, along the Henley Course, Charles River saved the best for the last and came from behind for both victories.

In the junior 155-pound eight, Hamilton Leanders were the early leaders with Belmont Rowing Club. However, the Boston boat began a sprint at the 1000-metre mark to take over the lead and had a quarter length of open water on Long Beach, Calif., Rowing Association at the gun, clocking 6:24 for the distance. Belmont wound up third with Leanders, Buffalo West Sides and the Malta Boat Club of Philadelphia spread out behind.

Kennebecasis Rowing Club of Renforth, N.B., had the early lead in the junior cox four. Then Western took over, but that late Charles River surge caught both.

The Boston boat then held on in the face of a late Western rally and won by half a length clocked in 7:10.9 with Leanders in third. The rest of the field finished as Kennecabasis, Syracuse and Toronto Argonauts.

Tams and Enrique won their singles finals by identical three- length margins.

Tams, an 18-year-old University of Mexico sophomore, jumped into an early lead and never looked back. He was across in 8:17.9 with John Tice of Hamilton Leanders in second. Enrique, also 18 and to enter the same school in the fall, was timed in 7:58 with Pablo Rion of the Club Espana, Mexico City, taking second.