Telegraph Journal August 11^th, 1984

Three main events are to unfold next Saturday, Aug. 18, at the Greater Saint John Bicentennial Regatta.

The highlight will be when the Great Race of 1871 between the famous Paris rowing crew of Saint John and the Renforth crew from Tyneside, England, will be re-created on the Kennebecasis River.

The 1985 Canada Summer Games boathouse next to the Renforth Community club is to undergo its ribbon cutting, making it the first of Saint John’s summer games facilities to be officially opened.

And the Kennebecasis Rowing Club Inc. is to pay tribute to Dr. C.H. Bonnycastle, the man who they say has brought rowing back to the Kennebecasis after an absence of nearly half a century.

The ceremony will include unveiling of a plaque honoring Dr. Bonnycastle as founder of the rowing club, of which he has been president since its inception 13 years ago. The plaque will eventually hang in the boathouse which is to be turned over to the rowing club following the 1985 summer games.

Four oarsmen from Newcastle-on-Tyne are coming to Renforth to represent their predecessors of 113 years ago in the Great Bicentennial Challenge Race.

Their opponent will be a four-lad crew that will be picked nextweek from the Kennebecasis Rowing Club's nine-member team now attending the Royal Canadian Henley meets in St. Catharines, Ont.

The two teams are expected to be very closely matched, says Kennebecasis Rowing Club spokesman Joan Flood. "It's going to be a real race."

The original race ended with, the fatal heart attack of James Renforth, the stroke for the English team. The village was named in his honor.

The coxless four-man shell that will be rowed by the British team will be displayed at Market Square on Thursday, Aug. 16, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and members of both the English and Kennebecasis crews will be on hand to answer questions. Regatta programs will also be on sale.

A total of four races will be featured in the regatta. A 1,000-balloon release and a parade by Delancey's Brigade will start the races at Renforth Wharf at approximately 3 p.m.

The meet will also see the Moosehead Challenge Race for straight fours, with crews competing for $2,000 in prize money donated by the brewery. Invitations for this race have been sent to all eastern Canadian and New England rowing clubs.

Whaler and kayak races are also scheduled.

Delancey's Brigade and St. Mary's Band will play for spectators from a steamer float, and the Saint John Y's Men will hold a chicken barbecue.

"Without Dr. Bonnycastle, I don't think the club would be there, basically," said regatta committee chairman Dr. Harry Flood. "He has built the club to its present shape and brought rowing in Saint John into a modern era.

The club was formed in 1971 when interest in rowing was heightened by the centenary of the Great Race and a rowing crew came from Newcastle, England, to take on a modern successor to the Paris crew. At that time, a team had to be brought from the North Star Rowing Club of Dartmouth, N.S.

Since 19731, under the training of Olympic coach Keith Ratcliffe, men's teams have placed in Royal, Canadian Henley regattas and Canadian Championships. Since they were added to the program in1975, women's teams have also made the nationals and the Henley.

The club now has approximately 30 active oarsmen and another 20 to 30 in training, as young as 10 or 11.

Last year Dr. Bonnycastle's efforts in building the club put him into the honor roll of the New Brunswick Hall of Fame.